Cecil Harvey (Northern Ireland politician)

Cecil Harvey
Cecil Harvey
Member of Down District Council
	In office; 20 May 1981 – 15 May 1985
Preceded by	William Finlay
Succeeded by	District abolished
Constituency	Down Area A
Member of the Constitutional Convention ; for South Down
	In office; 1975–1976
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly ; for South Down
	In office; 1973–1974
Personal details
Born	Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland
Died	1985
Political party	DUP (from 1983) ; United Ulster Unionist Party (1975 - 1983)
Other political; affiliations	Vanguard (1973 - 1975) ; Ulster Unionist (before 1973)

Cecil Harvey (died 1985^[1]) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and Church elder.

Background

Harvey was a founding elder of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, in 1951. The following year, he suggested the congregation's move from Crossgar to Whiteabbey.^[2] He was also active in the Orange Order^[3] and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected as a councillor.^[4] He became disillusioned with the UUP as it came to support the idea of power-sharing, and joined the rival Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party.^[4] Under this banner, he was elected from South Down to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973, where he was the party's chief whip,^[5] then the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention.^[6]

In 1974, Harvey argued for the Orange Order to pay compensation to loyalists interned around the Ulster Workers' Council strike.^[3] By 1975, Harvey was calling for the Order to found an entirely new united unionist party; this was moved by Robert Overend but was defeated.^[7] Undeterred, Harvey became a founder member of the United Ulster Unionist Party, becoming the party chairman,^[8] and remaining loyal until its collapse in 1984. He then joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),^[4] for which he stood unsuccessfully in South Down at the 1983 general election.^[9]

Cecil's son, Harry, later became a DUP politician.^[10]

^ Paisley, Ian (May 1985). "Councillor Cecil Harvey - a tribute". The Revivalist. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
^ Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.35
^ ^a ^b Henry Patterson and Eric P. Kaufmann, Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945, p.204
^ ^a ^b ^c Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.179
^ Ted Nealon, Ireland: a parliamentary directory, 1973–1974
^ South Down 1973–85, Northern Ireland Elections
^ Eric P. Kaufmann, The Orange Order: a contemporary Northern Irish history, p.99
^ "Austere surroundings for first UUUP conference^{[permanent dead link]}", Belfast News Letter, 30 December 2009 [first published 1979]
^ South Down, 1983–1992
^ "DUP announce Harry Harvey as MLA replacing Simon Hamilton". Belfast Telegraph. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.

Northern Ireland Assembly (1973)
New assembly	Assembly Member for South Down 1973–1974	Assembly abolished
Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention
New convention	Member for South Down 1975–1976	Convention dissolved