Stormont Grave of James Craig Viscount Craigavon Rare Footage

( I was very surprised to find, that for such an important man in the history of Northern Ireland, that his grave has been rarely filmed, outside of particular loyalist circles. I find this very strange. ) We are only yards from the end of Stormont Parliament Buildings East Belfast. If you go yo the western end of this imposing building and cross the MLA car park, you will come across something completely unexpected, -a tomb. Walk along a narrow, hedge/yew tree, lined walkway and you will come across the 'almost hidden', grave of one of the most important figures in the story of the creation of Northern Ireland. This is the joint grave of James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon ( 1871 – 1940 ) and his wife Cecil Mary Nowell Dering Craig, Viscountess Craigavon. ( 1883 - 1960 ) James CraIg James Craig was a prominent Irish unionist politician, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death in 1940. He was created a baronet in 1918 and raised to the Peerage in 1927. Craig was born at Sydenham, Belfast, the son of James Craig (1828–1900), a wealthy whiskey distiller who had entered the firm of Dunville & Co as a clerk: by age 40 he was a millionaire and a partner in the firm. Craig enlisted in the 3rd (Militia) battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles in 1900 and served in the Second Boer War. He became deputy assistant director of the Imperial Military Railways, showing the qualities of organisation that were to mark his involvement in both British and Ulster politics. At the end of the Boer War in 1902 he returned to Ireland and turned his attention to building a career in local politics. As an Ulster Unionist he served as Member of the British Parliament for East Down from 1906 to 1918. From 1918 to 1921 he represented Mid Down, and served in the British government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions (1919–20) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (1920–21). Craig rallied Ulster loyalist opposition to Irish Home Rule in Ulster before the First World War, organising the paramilitary Ulster Volunteers (UVF) and buying arms from Imperial Germany. The UVF became the nucleus of the 36th (Ulster) Division during the First World War. He succeeded Edward Carson as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in February 1921. In the 1921 Northern Ireland general election, the first ever, he was elected to the newly created Northern Ireland House of Commons as one of the members for County Down. On 7 June 1921, Craig was appointed the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A dedicated member of the Orange Order and unashamedly Protestant, Craig famously stated, in 1934, in response to George Leeke's question regarding Craig's Protestant Parliament: 'The hon. Member must remember that in the South they boasted of a Catholic State. They still boast of Southern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast of is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State. ' Craigavon was still prime minister when he died peacefully at his home at Glencraig, County Down at the age of 69. He was buried on the Stormont Estate on 5 December 1940. It is my belief that not many people know of this significant grave. Remarkably few folk have ever visited it either! He was succeeded as the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by the Minister of Finance, J. M. Andrews. Craig had a dual Irish-British self-identity, saying in a 1929 parliamentary debate that "We are Irishmen...always hold that Ulstermen are Irishmen and the best of Irishmen — much the best". In 1965 the new mid Ulster city of Craigavon was named after him.