Word: craigavon
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Died. Viscount Craigavon, 69, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since the Ulster Government's establishment in 1920, implacable foe of Irish independence for more than 30 years; at his country house near Belfast. Famed alike for his bluntly uttered opinions and his fierce disregard of metaphorical discipline, once he roared: "The naked sword is drawn for the fight, and, gentlemen, never again will the black smoke of Nationalist tar barrels drift on the Home Rule wind to darken the hearts of Englishmen...
...Lord Craigavon, plain-spoken Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, announced that he and Prime Minister Eamon de Valera of independent Eire had been unable to agree on a united defense program for Britain's western back door. Mr. de Valera feared touching off a civil war if, before the Germans came, he let in British soldiers or let the Royal Navy reoccupy its old bases at Berehaven, Lough Swilly and Cobh. The British Army massed troops to rush across the Irish Sea when the hour struck, and R. N. calmly announced new minefields from Scotland to Iceland to Greenland...
While the British Navy acted last week to repair a serious breach in the British Empire defense, Viscount Craigavon, His Majesty's Prime Minister in Northern Ireland, scurried to London for an urgent conference with Warlord Winston Churchill on an equally serious problem: "Irish back door...
...Prime Minister Eamon de Valera stubbornly refused to compromise. "In order to prevent misapprehension," he declared last week, "I desire to repeat that the Government has no intention of departing from the policy of neutrality adopted last September. ..." Representing land-owning Londonderrys and other Conservatives in Northern Ireland, Viscount Craigavon was equally adamant. "Mr. de Valera is once again blackmailing the British Government to end partition," he accused...
...with the French Legion organized by General Charles de Gaulle, to Northern Ireland to await developments. But last week, as military experts emphasized the urgent necessity of closing the "Irish back door," the popular demand grew in England for a final settlement of the Irish question through sacrificing Lord Craigavon and the six Northern counties in return for a unified defense of the British Isles...