John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney

John David Taylor, Baron Kilclooney, PC (NI) (b. 24 December 1937) is a former Ulster Unionist Party MP and now a life peer. He was deputy leader of the UUP from 1995 to 2001, and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Career & family

Taylor was educated at The Royal School, Armagh and the Queens University of Belfast (B.Sc). He married Mary Todd in 1970 and has six children. Lord Kilclooney owns Alpha Newspapers which operates local newspaper titles in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Member of the Farmers Club, London and the County Club, Armagh City.

Lord Kilclooney's political career began as MP for South Tyrone in the Northern Ireland House of Commons between 1965 and 1972 and served in the government as Minister of State at the Ministry of Home Affairs. He resigned from office in 1971, in protest against the security measures of the then Prime Minister, James Chichester-Clark.

In February 1972, he survived an assassination attempt by the Official Irish Republican Army. Two men, including Joe McCann (who was himself shot dead some months afterwards whilst evading arrest) raked his car with bullets, hitting Taylor five times in the head. Taylor survived, but needed extensive reconstructive surgery on his jaw. Despite this, Taylor soon re-entered politics. He represented Fermanagh & South Tyrone in the short-lived Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 1973 and dissolved in 1974, following the collapse of the power-sharing Executive.

He became a Member of the European Parliament for Northern Ireland in 1979, remaining an MEP until 1989. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for North Down. He then became MP for Strangford in 1983, until 2001. He was also a member of Castlereagh Borough Council from 1993-1997. He appears on the list of speakers at the Annual Conference of the Conservative Monday Club's Young Members' Group, at the United Oxford & Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, on 18 November 1989, when he spoke on "The Union and Northern Ireland".

Following the 2001 General Election he was created a life peer as Baron Kilclooney, of Armagh in the County of Armagh.

He sat on the Northern Ireland Policing Board between 1998 and 2006.

He continued to sit as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly until his retirement prior to the elections in March 2007.

He remains the only active politician to have participated in all levels of government in Northern Ireland, from local counil, the old Stormont Parliament, Westminster, Europe, all previous failed Assemblies and Conventions and the current incarnation of the Assembly.

ee also

* List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

External links

* [http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html Stormont Biography]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1144830.stm BBC Profile]
* [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/people/biography/tpeople.htm Cain Biography]
* [http://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/our%20people/kilclooney.htm Northern Ireland Policing Board]