Here's my list of NI Prime Ministers from 'Where the World Will Lead':
List of Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland
1921-1940: James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon (Ulster Unionist)
1921: Eamon de Valera (Sinn Fein), Joe Devlin (Nationalist)
1925: Joe Devlin (Nationalist), N/A (Independent Unionist), N/A (Labour), Eamon de Valera (Sinn Fein)
1929: Joe Devlin (Nationalist), Sam Kyle (Labour)
1933: Joe Devlin (Nationalist), Jack Beattie (Labour), Seán Lemass (Fianna Fáil)
1938: Thomas J. Campbell (Nationalist), Harry Midgley (Labour), William McConnell Wilton (Ind. Unionist Association), William Stewart (Progressive Unionist)
1940-1943: J. M. Andrews (Ulster Unionist)
1943-1952: Harry Midgley (Ulster Unionist) [1]
1945: Thomas J. Campbell (Nationalist), Paddy Agnew (Labour), Harry Diamond (Socialist Republican) [2]
1949: James McSparran (Nationalist), William James Smyth (Labour), Harry Diamond (Socialist Republican) [3]
1952: None (Labour), James McSparran (Nationalist), Harry Diamond (Sinn Fein) [4]
1952-1960: W. F. McCoy (Ulster Unionist) [5]
1955: Jack Beattie (Labour), James McSparran (Nationalist), Albert McElroy (Ulster Liberal), Harry Diamond (Sinn Fein) [6]
1958: Joe Stewart (Nationalist), Jack Beattie (Labour), Albert McElroy (Ulster Liberal), Harry Diamond (Sinn Fein) [7]
1960-1965: Norman Stronge (Ulster Unionist) [8]
1963: Tom Boyd (Labour), Joe Stewart (Nationalist), Sheelagh Murnaghan (Ulster Liberal) [8]
1965-1975: Maynard Sinclair (Ulster Unionist) [9]
1967: Eddie McAteer (Nationalist), Tom Boyd (Labour), Sheelagh Murnaghan (Ulster Liberal), Bernadette Devlin (People's Unity) [9]
1971: Eddie McAteer (Nationalist), David Bleakley (Labour), John McQuade (Anti-Sinclarite 'McCoyite' Ulster First Unionist), Bernadette McAliskey (People's Unity) [10]
1975 (Minority): Eddie McAteer (Nationalist), John McQuade (Anti-Sinclarite 'McCoyite' Ulster First Unionist), David Bleakley (Labour), Bernadette McAliskey (People's Unity) [11]
1975-????: John Brooke (Ulster Unionist) [12]
[1]: After backbench dissent forced Prime Minister J. M. Andrews from office in 1943; the Ulster Unionist Council selected former Labour Party leader and now Government Minister, Harry Midgley (his case was argued by Council member, Westminster MP and personal friend, James Moynihan) as the new Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Andrews would remain Unionist Party leader until 1947, however.) Midgley was the first Ulster Unionist leader not to come from either a landed gentry, aristocracy or the middle class business background; rather he came from a career in the textile industry and was later in the Royal Engineers during the First Great War.
[2]: The 1945 General Election was as ever a foregone conclusion with the Ulster Unionists getting over half of the votes and well above the number of seats required for an overall majority. Labour lost all but one of it's seats due to it's former leader cutting into the labour working class Loyalist vote that they relied upon. The Nationalists kept their second place in number of seats, despite Labour gaining over twice the amount of votes that they won. The Socialist Republican Party, led by Harry Diamond won a seat in West Belfast and began to worryingly cut into the Nationalist vote within the capital city.
[3]: Midgley's pro-reformist policies and rather close relations with Stafford Cripps led to some unease within the party. He however led the party to another, greater, landslide victory taking nearly 63% of the vote and forty seats. His former party, Labour, were wiped out from parliament; while the Nationalists consolidated their position on five seats; despite Labour gaining marginally more votes than them. The Socialist Republican leader, Harry Diamond won his West Belfast seat over the Nationalists by a landslide.
[4]: The 1952 General Election finally saw the Nationalist Party decline in numbers of seats; Sinn Fein (an amalgamation of northern Fianna Fail, the old Sinn Fein and the Socialist Republican parties) won a handful of seats along the borders; coupled with a Labour resurgence in Belfast; saw the party pipped by the leaderless Labour Party by two seats. Midgley, despite being the usual anti-Irish nationalist Unionist was considered a moderate on the issue - at least compared to hardliners such as Basil Brooke (Minister of Commerce and Production) and W. F. McCoy (Minister of Home Affairs.) His position became more unstable with a series of by-election losses to Independent Unionists and to Labour.
[5]: Midgley's position became untenable when W. F. McCoy resigned his position, in a clearly provocative move. Within the month Midgley was out and McCoy was the new party leader as backed by the UUC. McCoy was a hardline Unionist who had been attracted to the ideals of Ulster Nationalism (an ideal to make Northern Ireland an Imperial dominion similar to Canada or Australia) after the Maxton Premiership of the 1930's. He was however treated with suspicion by several within the party's traditionalist wing and on the liberal wing. The liberal wing had a handful of defections to the newly formed Ulster Liberal Party (no connection, like the Labour Party, to their namesakes on the mainland.)
[6] McCoy called a General Election in 1955 on the question of maintaining the "Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist system at Stormont." The result was however rather interesting. The Unionists held their majority, but it was cut from the supermajority before the election down to a more conventional majority. The party also dipped below 50% for the first time since 1933. The Labour Party recorded a vote of around 25% and gained seven seats. The Nationalists seemed to stem their decline in votes, but fell down a seat, lost to the Ulster Unionists in Southern Armagh. The Liberals held most of the defection gains, they further gained two of the four seats held by Queen's University Belfast. Sinn Fein won two seats, but their vote halved, owing to the swing towards Labour (led by pseudo-nationalist Jack Beattie) and the recovering Nationalist Party.
[7] McCoy would prove to be a liability over the course of the parliament, coming out with statements that would alienate many moderate unionists. This was reflected in the result of the 1958 general election when the Unionist vote decline once again, though it would lose no seats. The Nationalist Party flexed its 'muscles' and was able to reclaim the official opposition spot from the Labour Party, who saw their Unionist/Loyalist support whittle away due to the pseudo-nationalist Jack Beattie leading the party. Sinn Fein would be harmed by the reinvigorated NPNI, under its new leader Joe Stewart. Sinn Fein would see its number of seats halve down to 1, with Diamond holding on by the skin of his teeth against a Labour opponent.
[8] McCoy would alienate too many moderates in the party, and by 1960 they were baying for his blood. After a leadership review in front of the party's executive council - the UUC, McCoy was defeated and was sent to the backbenches, licking his wounds but vowing revenge. In his place would be appointed a supposed 'caretaker' in the form of the Speaker of the Parliament, Norman Stronge. Stronge was a conservative, yet rather timid old-school Unionist who was respected by the Nationalist opposition. It was understood that he would be a temporary holder of the post, though this would change with the perception that he would be a safe pair of hands. Stronge never really wanted the position, but opted to make the most of his time in the post, engaging in efforts to try and repair the party's relationship with moderate and moderate-liberal Unionists. In this regarded he did with his more conciliatory approach to office, compared to McCoy. This was reflected in the result of the 1963 general election when the party gained votes from the Ulster Liberal Party and from Labour. The decline in the NPNI's vote due to the lack of SF to use as a metaphoric punching bag, saw Labour regain the official opposition position. Stronge had succeeded in his task and would remain in office while ensuring that affairs were well sorted for his eventual successor.
[9] The successor would be moderate Unionist Maynard Sinclair, a party apparatchik since the early 1950s. Sinclair was usually the solitary moderate in McCoy's cabinet, and was seen as being instrumental in trying (usually unsuccessful) to convince McCoy to moderate his tone. He was one of the leading officials to back McCoy's ousting from office in 1960, and was seen as the power behind the throne as Stronge's Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the Minister for Home Affairs. He was of a different cloth and was far more moderate than any of his predecessors, bar perhaps Midgley (who was very much on the left of the party.) Sinclair would engage in reforms to housing and economics in an effort to ensure that Catholics would begin to see NI as a permanent entity and a home. In this regard he had some success. The result of the 1967 general election, despite some suggestions of a right wing revolt, was very successful for the Unionist Party, who returned their best result in decades. The advent of the left-wing student dominated People's Unity group, led by student Bernadette Devlin caused many Unionists who would nominally have stayed at home, to vote for the Unionist Party, out of fear of a radical leftist party gaining representation in some seats. The PUs would win representation in Queen's University - where Devlin would be victorious. On the other hand, the Liberals would placate this lose with a victory in North Down. The Labour Party would continue its rotation with the Nationalists, bequeathing the official opposition to the new NPNI leader, Eddie McAteer.
[10] Sinclair's liberalisation was not everyone's cup of tea - especially those adherents of McCoy's Ulster Nationalist beliefs. In early 1969 the Ulster First Unionist Party was launched by John McQuade, a Belfast Unionist MP - with the support of other hardline Unionists such as the Rev. Ian Paisley, William Beattie, and the young George Seawright. The party was seen as the embodiment of the former Premier's beliefs and values, arguing against rapprochement with Catholics and against the reforms of the Sinclair era. McCoy gave his blessing to the party, which began to gain the odd by-election from the Unionist Party. Sensing an opening, the Labour Party elected East Belfast MP David Bleakley as their leader, hoping to make the most of a Unionist split in the area. In the end the hype over a Unionist split was talked up. The OUP (Official Unionist Party) was returned with a slender majority, Labour were in third place behind a somewhat buoyed NPNI (who had gained some nominal Unionist seats due to a split in the Unionist vote. The UFUP gained seven seats, mainly due to defections of serving OUP MPs. The PU was suggested to be with a threat of losing votes due to its leader's unmarried pregnancy, she was reluctantly married to her boyfriend, thus saving the party's support among some Catholics after the child was born in early 1971. She would hold her seat, albeit by a smaller majority than before.
[11] Sinclair's luck seemed to run out around 1974, when the party was hit by a scandal over water treatment rights. The scandal saw the business of a leading cabinet member benefit due to supposed 'insider trading' Sinclair swore that he did not have any knowledge over the dealing (he didn't) and urged the minister to resign. The Minister claimed he had been singled out and proceeded to inform the Belfast Telegraph of a variety of dealings and underhanded proposals - he would then defect to the UFUP who met him with open arms. This set the scene for the 1975 general election. Sinclair, by now nearly 80 was exhausted, and was attacked from all angles. It was reflected in the result, where the party fell below the majority threshold by two seats. The UFUP leapfrogged the Labour Party into third place, while the Nationalists gained the odd seat due to a split Unionist vote. After several days of wrangling, Sinclair was returned to power with the support of several pro-Sinclair Independent Unionists.
[12] It didn't last, and the exhausted Sinclair would collapse one day. He was informed that for the good of his health he would need to stand down as soon as possible. He did so, and informed the UUC of the need for a leadership election. With most leading candidates seemingly tainting by the whiff of a scandal from the general election campaign, the UUC unanimously backed Fermanagh MP and Agriculture Minister John Brooke for the top job - something he would ultimately rise to not long after.
