Austin Currie
| Austin Currie | |
|---|---|
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| Teachta Dála | |
|
In office June 1989 – 17 May 2002 |
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| Constituency | Dublin West |
| Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland | |
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In office 30 May 1964 – 30 March 1972 |
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| Preceded by | Joseph Francis Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Parliament Suspended |
| Constituency | East Tyrone |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
11 October 1939 Dungannon, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party |
Nationalist Party SDLP Fine Gael |
| Spouse(s) | Annita Currie |
| Children | 5 |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Joseph Austin Currie (born 11 October 1939) is a former politician who was elected to the parliaments of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Currie was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland into a large Catholic family. He was educated in Dungannon and at Queen's University Belfast. Between 1964 and 1972 he was the Nationalist Party Stormont MP for East Tyrone. On 20 June 1968, with others including mediator Father Tom Savage, he began a protest about discrimination in housing allocation by 'squatting' (illegally occupying) in a house in a new council development in Caledon, County Tyrone. The house had been allocated by Dungannon Rural District Council to a 19-year-old unmarried Protestant woman, Emily Beattie, who was the secretary of a local Unionist politician. All 14 houses in the new council development had been allocated to Protestants. The protesters were evicted by officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), one of whom was Emily Beattie's brother. The next day the annual conference of the Nationalist Party unanimously approved of the protest action by Austin Currie in Caledon. This was one of the catalysts of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.
He became an active member in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. In 1970 he was a founder of the group that established the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). From 1973 to 1974 Currie was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 1974 he became chief whip of the SDLP. That same year he became Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning in the Northern Ireland Executive.
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