Patricia McLaughlin
OBE
Member of Parliament
for Belfast West
In office
26 May 1955 – 25 September 1964
Prime MinisterAnthony Eden
Preceded byJack Beattie
Succeeded byJames Kilfedder
Personal details
Born
Florence Patricia Alice Aldwell

(1916-06-23)23 June 1916
Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland
Died7 January 1997(1997-01-07) (aged 80)
Political partyUlster Unionist

Florence Patricia Alice McLaughlin OBE (née Aldwell; 23 June 1916 – 7 January 1997) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland and one of the earliest female Members of Parliament (MPs) from the region.[1]

Early life

McLaughlin was educated at Ashleigh House and Trinity College, Dublin before going on to join the Ulster Unionist Party.[1]

Career

Chosen to represent the party in the West Belfast constituency for the 1955 general election, she captured the seat from incumbent Jack Beattie and went on to successfully defend it at the 1959 election before retiring from politics.[1] She made a surprise comeback in the 1970 general election as the Conservative Party candidate in Wandsworth Central, although she failed to win the seat.[1] She was also a founding member of the Westminster women's Orange Lodge.

On 13 January 1958 she visited Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast where Irish Republican Army (IRA) inmate Eamonn Boyce noted in Irish in his diary entry from that date that she was inside 'looking at the animals!'.[2]

Awards

She was awarded the OBE in 1965.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Bradford, Roy (24 January 1997). "Obituary: Patricia McLaughlin". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  2. ↑ Bryson, Anna (2007). "3". The Insider: The Belfast Prison Diaries of Eamonn Boyce 1956-1962. Dublin: The Lilliput Press. pp. 141–2. ISBN 9781843511298.


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