James Molyneaux
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James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, KBE, PC (born August 27, 1920) is a Northern Irish Unionist politician and was leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1979 to 1995.
Born in Killead, County Antrim, Molyneaux was educated at nearby Aldergrove School before serving in the Royal Air Force between 1941 and 1946. During the 1960s and 1970s, he served on Antrim County Council as well as a number of committees concerning local healthcare, and in 1970 was elected Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for South Antrim. He eventually became member for the new seat Lagan Valley in 1983 after boundary changes heavily divided South Antrim. In 1985, he resigned his seat along with his Unionist colleagues in the House of Commons in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, and was re-elected in the subsequent by-election.
In October 1974, Molyneaux became leader of the Ulster Unionists in the House of Commons, and between 1982 and 1986 he sat as an Ulster Unionist member for South Antrim in the failed Northern Ireland Assembly. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1982, and on retiring as Ulster Unionist leader he was knighted as a KBE in 1996. The following year, after standing down as an MP at the 1997 General Election, he was created a life peer as Baron Molyneaux of Killead. In the 2004 elections for the European Parliament, Molyneaux endorsed the United Kingdom Independence Party.
When the IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994, Molyneaux was heard to utter "This (the ceasefire) is the worst thing that has ever happened to us.)
| Preceded by: Harry West | Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party 1979–1995 | Succeeded by: David Trimble |