Brookeborough, Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount

Brookeborough, Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount

(bro͝ok`bərə), 1888–1973, Northern Irish politician. After serving in the cavalry in World War I he was elected to the Senate of the first Northern Ireland Parliament (1921). He resigned the following year to lead the Ulster special constabulary against the Irish Republican Army's border raids in Fermanagh. Reelected (1929) as a Unionist member of Stormont, he served as minister of agriculture (1933–41), minister of commerce (1941–45), and prime minister (1943–63). A staunch advocate of Protestant dominance in Ulster, he remained opposed to any reconciliation with the Republic of Ireland. Created Viscount Brookeborough in 1952, he continued to sit at Stormont until 1968.