Prime minister of Northern Ireland from 1963 to 1969, Terence O'Neill (1914-1990) strived to achieve a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants. However, his efforts proved ineffectual and he resigned from office.

Captain Terence Marne O'Neill, created Lord O'Neill of the Maine in 1970, came from an impeccable Anglo-Irish establishment family which included the ancient O'Neills of Ulster and the English Chichesters, a leading family in the same area since the seventeenth century. Educated privately and at Eton, he served throughout World War II in the Irish Guards, the same regiment as his father, who was killed in December 1914, three months after his son's birth.

His upbringing on the fringes of a great family with the strong influences of private school and army molded his character and outlook, and he was later to find it difficult to relate to the ordinary people of Northern Ireland. Familiar with top Unionist circles from family...