Basil Kelly

{{short description|Northern Irish barrister, judge and politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix = Sir

| name = Basil Kelly

| honorific_suffix = PC, PC (NI), QC

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| office1 = Member of Parliament for Mid Down

| term1 = 1964–1973

| office2 = Attorney General for Northern Ireland

| term2 = 1968–1972

| party = Ulster Unionist

| birth_name = John William Basil Kelly

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|05|10|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Clones, Ireland

| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|12|05|1920|05|10|df=yes}}

| death_place = Berkshire, England

| education = Trinity College, Dublin

| spouse =

| children =

}}

Sir John William Basil Kelly, PC, PC (NI), QC (10 May 1920 – 5 December 2008), usually known as Sir Basil Kelly, was a Northern Irish barrister, judge and politician.

Life

Kelly was born into an Ulster Protestant family in Clones, County Monaghan, on 10 May 1920 as one of the two children, and the only son, of Thomas William Kelly and Emily Frances Kelly (née Donaldson).{{Cite web |title=Kelly, (John William) Basil {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/kelly-john-william-basil-a9644 |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=www.dib.ie |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Judge in some of North's most high-profile trials |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/judge-in-some-of-north-s-most-high-profile-trials-1.1275885 |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=The Irish Times |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Doyle |first=Jim |date=2021-05-10 |title=Birth of Basil Kelly, Northern Irish Barrister, Judge & Politician |url=https://seamusdubhghaill.com/2021/05/10/birth-of-basil-kelly-northern-irish-barrister-judge-politician/ |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=seamus dubhghaill |language=en}} His parents were small farmers in West Monaghan, who had their house 'burnt out' during the revolutionary period in Ireland in the early 1920s. Shortly after this, the family moved, around 1925, north-east to Belfast, settling in a working-class area of East Belfast, where Basil and his sister were raised. Here he attended Mersey Street Primary School, where he later won a scholarship to the prestigious Methodist College, Belfast, later receiving his university education at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD).{{cite web|title=Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons|url=http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html|website=United Kingdom Election Results|accessdate=29 July 2016|archive-date=26 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226144802/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html|url-status=dead}} He was called to the Northern Irish Bar in 1944 and took silk in 1958. He served as senior Crown Counsel in counties Tyrone, Fermanagh and Armagh from 1958 to 1968.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Later career

In 1964, he was elected to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland as Ulster Unionist member for Mid Down. He was appointed as Attorney General for Northern Ireland in 1968. He was appointed to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1969, entitling him to the style The Right Honourable.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In March 1972, the entire Government of Northern Ireland resigned, and the Parliament of Northern Ireland was prorogued. As a result, Kelly ceased to be Attorney General. The office of Attorney General for Northern Ireland was transferred to the Attorney General for England and Wales, and Kelly was the last person to serve as Stormont's Attorney General until the re-establishment of the position in its own right in April 2010. In 1973, he was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland, and then as a Lord Justice of Appeal of Northern Ireland in 1984, when he was also knighted and appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Death

Lord Justice Sir Basil Kelly died at his home in Berkshire on 5 December 2008 after a short illness. He was 88 years old.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7768345.stm|title=Judge in 'supergrass' trial dies|date=5 December 2008|work=BBC News|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=2008-12-05}}

References

Sources

Flackes, W.D. and Elliott, S. (1989), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory (3rd ed.). Belfast: Blackstaff Press Ltd

External links

[http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html election.demon.co.uk Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226144802/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html |date=26 February 2019 }}

{{s-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Mid Down

| years = 1964–1973

}}

{{succession box

| title = Attorney General for Northern Ireland

| before = Edward Warburton Jones

| after = Sir Peter Rawlinson

| years = 1968–1972

}}

Category:1920 births

Category:2008 deaths