James Godfrey MacManaway, MBE (22 April 1898 – 3 November 1951) was a British Unionist politician and Church of Ireland cleric, notable for being disqualified as a Member of Parliament, owing to his status as a priest.[1]
MacManaway was selected by the Unionist party to contest Belfast West in the 1950 General Election. As a precaution, he resigned from his offices in the Church of Ireland. He won the election, defeating the sitting Irish Labour Party MP Jack Beattie by 3,378 votes. Among the activists working on this campaign was a young Ian Paisley.[11]
An Act to indemnify the Reverend James Godfrey MacManaway from any penal consequences incurred under the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act, 1801, by sitting or voting as a member of the Commons House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom or as a member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.
As the first priest to take his seat in the House of Commons for 150 years, MacManaway was put under scrutiny by a Select committee of the House. They were unable to come to firm conclusions and, with some disquiet, recommended urgent legislation to clarify the law. The Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, instead referred the matter to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Their judgement, in essence, identified a lacuna in the existing legislation, which would disqualify MacManaway. While the Irish Church Act 1869 did disestablish the Church of Ireland, since there was no express provision in that Act permitting its clergy to sit as MPs and MacManaway was still be subject to the strictures of the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act 1801, which debarred any person "ordained to the office of priest or deacon" from sitting or voting in the House of Commons.
Modern scholars have questioned the rationale of this decision but, nonetheless, the House of Commons resolved on 19 October 1950 that MacManaway was disqualified from sitting. The House did, however, indemnify him (by the Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951) from the £500-a-time fines that he had incurred for voting in parliamentary divisions while ineligible. MacManaway had voted on five occasions.
MacManaway bitterly protested at what he perceived as an unjust anachronism bringing his career to an abrupt end, but did not contest the ensuing by-election, which was held for the Unionists by Thomas Teevan.[12] His House of Commons career had lasted all of 238 days.
Death
Shortly after his leaving the Commons, MacManaway's wife died in January 1951. He also resigned his seat at Stormont.
On 22 October 1951, MacManaway suffered a head injury during a fall,[4] having drunkenly fallen down the stairs at the Ulster Club in Belfast.[13] He died on 3 November, aged 53.[13]
In the aftermath of the MacManaway case, in 1951 another select committee examined the possibility of a change in the law. However, while acknowledging the anomalous and anachronistic nature of the ancient legislation, and taking soundings from various Christian denominations, the Committee recommended no specific change to the law. The law did not, however apply to churches such as the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and ministers such as Martin Smyth successfully served as MPs.
There the matter lay for almost 50 years, until David Cairns was selected to fight the safe Labour seat of Greenock and Inverclyde. Cairns was a former Roman Catholic priest, and a re-run of the MacManaway imbroglio loomed. The Labour government introduced a bill removing almost all restrictions on clergy of whatever denomination from sitting in the House of Commons. The only exception would be Church of England bishops, because of their reserved status as members of the House of Lords. The bill came into law as the House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 in time for David Cairns to take his seat in the Commons.
Arms
Coat of arms of J. G. MacManaway
Notes
Granted 10 December 1917 by George James Burtchaell, Deputy Ulster King of Arms.[14]
Crest
A demi-lion rampant Gules holding between the paws a hand fesswise couped at the wrist Proper grasping a cross-crosslet fitcheé Or.
Torse
Of the colours.
Escutcheon
Or two eagles displayed in chief and a lion rampant in base all Gules.
^Clifford Smyth, Ian Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster, p.4
^"No. 39086". The London Gazette. 8 December 1950. p. 6129. Crown Office, House of Lords, S.W.1. 1st December. 1950. MEMBER ELECTED TO SERVE IN THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT. Belfast West Constituency. Thomas Leslie Teevan, Esquire, in the place of the Reverend James Godfrey MacManaway, M.B.E., who was at the time of his election, and is, disabled from sitting in the House of Commons by reason of the fact that, having been ordained a Priest according to the use of the Church of Ireland, he hath received episcopal ordination.
