NI: UUP leader calls for Edgar Graham Chair of Unionism at QUB
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Queen’s University Belfast should set up an endowed chair for the study of unionism and name it after the late law lecturer Edgar Graham, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has proposed.
Mr Graham graduated from QUB in 1976, began working on a PhD at Oxford University and was called to The Bar of Northern Ireland before ultimately returning to Belfast to join the law faculty at QUB in 1979.
A long-standing UUP activist, he was elected in 1982 as a UUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Belfast. He was shot dead by IRA gunmen a year later.
Speaking in Stormont yesterday, UUP leader Dr Steve Aiken asked Economy Minister Diane Dodds to back his proposal, which would form “part of the celebrations that will be undertaken next year for our 100th anniversary”.
Dr Aiken said the “endowed chair for the study of unionism and its contribution to Northern Ireland” could form part of the university’s “badly needed outreach to the unionist community”.
Ms Dodds told MLAs: “I do indeed think that that is a very laudable suggestion, and it is one that I would be very happy to support in my Department.”
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