https://pdst.ie/sites/default/files/The%20Coleraine%20University%20Controversy.pdf
Why was the choice of Coleraine as the site for Northern Ireland’s second university controversial?
P1: The decision to locate a new, second university for Northern Ireland in Coleraine proved very controversial for many reasons. Firstly, there was a strong expectation in Derry that the city would be chosen as the location for the new university.It seemed the obvious choice.Even before the Lockwood Committee was appointed the Londonderry corporation set out it’s claims: It stated that in Magee University College it has the nucleus of a second university, where upwards of 300 students are now able to complete the major part of their university studies in Magee before going on to Trinity College, Dublin, or Queen’s, to graduate.It had a well-qualified staff. Derry met the accommodation and recreational facility needs of a college and it “is well situated geographically to support a university” and help “restore the equilibrium of NI educationally, economically and culturally.”The Council was even willing to make “an annual contribution…towards the finances of the University for a period of 10 years”.Even before the government decision was announced on 10 February, the University for Derry Committee, which was made up of both Protestants and Catholics such as Protestant Mayor Anderson and Nationalist party leader Eddie McAteer, had been campaigning to try to ensure that the new university was located in Derry.Yet despite these reasons Coleraine was controversially chosen instead.
P2 The Decision of Coleraine was seen as controversial by many in Derry and elsewhere as there was a growing conviction in Derry and the western counties of Northern Ireland generally that the area was being neglected at the expense of the more prosperous east. While both nationalists and unionists were amongst those who held this view, many nationalists believed that the west got inferior treatment because Catholics were in a majority there. This was known as the isolation of the West of the Bann policy. “In quick succession there were decisions on the new city of Craigavon, just 25 miles from Belfast, new motorways in the Belfast area, closure of one of the two Belfast-Derry rail links and the severing of Derry’s shipping link with Glasgow. The last straw was the rumoured spurning of the north-waest as a base for Ulster’s second university and when the rival Protestant town of Coleraine, thirty miles east, was asked to redraft its submission, signifying that success was imminent,all Derry erupted in righteous indignation”(B. White, John Hume: Statesman of the Troubles).
Sir Basil McFarland, a former mayor of Londonderry, remarked that he doubted if the Lockwood Report would ‘do Derry much good’. Rumours that Coleraine was the chosen location had been current, in fact, since early December.
In late January there was the formation of a University for Derry Committee. ‘Government policy’, the Committee stated, ‘seems directed towards the isolating of the north-west in general and Derry in particular”.
P3 The Lockwood Committee’s decision was controversial for a number of reasons. Firstly, The Lockwood Committee’s terms of reference did not include the question of a site and this question was explicitly placed outside the terms of reference. It was on the initiative of the Lockwood Committee itself that this question was included.” Mr. Hume, leader of the Univesity for Derry Committee said that “Derry is the second city in Northern Ireland, and the only centre of population, outside Belfast, large enough to absorb the student life of a modern university” however the 8 members of the Lockwood Committee, non of whom were Catholic, disagreed with this view and stated that the availability of accommodation in the nearby seaside resorts of Portrush and Portstewart was a factor in Coleraine’s favour, in contrast to Derry, where there was a chronic shortage of accommodation.The Lockwood Committee also controversially recommended the shutting down of Magee College stating “We see no alternative to its discontinuance.
P4. Actions of the University of Derry committee.
Derry was united in anger and took actions to demonstrate this and hopefully convince the UNionist Government led by Capt Terence O’Neill to reject the findings of the Lockwood Committee. O’Neill claimed to be a new brand of Unionist and talked of “Building Bridges between the two communities of the North”however he was to prove himself little different than those who came before him. On 11 February John Hume led a delegation to met O’Neill. “O’Neill remained non-committal”throughout the meeting and was “sympathetic but silent”(F.Curran) Controversially While O’Neill listened to their appeal “the decision against Derry had already been taken and his government was on the point of launching a white paper accepting the Lockwood Committee Report and its recommendation that the second university should be located in the small unionist town of Coleraine” (F Curran). The subsequent debate in Stormont,The longest since the War, was also controversial as the Unionist party felt the need to impose the party whip. O’Neill, opened the debate by stressing the importance of the Lockwood Report’s proposals. The result was 27 to 19 in favour of Coleraine but Controversially all those voting in favour were Unionists and those who voted against included 8 nationalists, 7 labour MPs, one liberal, one independent and 2 unionists who defined the whip and were subsequently expelled from the party.Although the vote appeared to decide the issue, controversy continued over the treatment of Derry.
P5:In May 1965, a Unionist MP Dr. Robert Nixon said that ‘nameless, faceless men from Londonderry’ had gone to Stormont to advise against the locating of a second universityin Derry. These ‘’named figures’’ were local Unionists and members of the Apprentice Boys of Derry. It was said that they feared losing power if Catholics were to benefit from a newuniversity. Nationalists were outraged by this information and this led to a further splitbetween nationalists and unionists this providing great significance in the history of the divide between Nationalists and Unionists in the North of Ireland.
Unionists proceeded to defend the decision to locate the university at Coleraine. They said Lockwood would not be influencedby prejudice and that they were simply following andobliging the criteria. Eventually it was decided that Magee College would remain inoperation as a result of the controversy and that Coleraine University would be built.
Conclusion: The decision to locate the second university in Coleraine proved very controversial. The decision by O’Neill to agree with the Lockwood Committees choice of Coleraine after meeting with the nameless faceless men to side with the more extreme traditional unionist views rather than those who co-operated the catholic community was contrary to the ambition to repair relations between Catholics and Protestants which O’Neill had claimed to be dedicated to.The non Catholic Lockwood Committee was very controversial in it’s decision to recommend a location for the University and it’s justifications for their decision EG accommodation simply didn’t make sense. Not to mention the request for Coleraine to resubmit it proposal and the leaked rumours of its success. The Controversy of the secret meeting with unnamed unionists led to the Unionist government allowing Magee College to remain by way of an olive branch but the Controversy would have dramatic consequences for NI as it launched the political career of John Hume and was the spark to begin the Civil Rights movement. As John Hume noted “the Unionist leopard could not change its spot, and that change would have to be wrestled from them”.
