Oliver was born on the 11th July 1935 on the feast day of Saint Oliver Plunkett. He was the eldest son of Belfast solicitor James J Napier, and Sheila Bready. He was brought up in a Catholic home to believe that there was no essential difference between Catholic and Protestant. He had two brothers, Christopher (Kit) and Nicholas, and a sister Sarah, all of whom were brought up with a deep sense of duty to serve others.
He was educated in St Malachy’s College Belfast and Queen’s University where he obtained his Law degree before entering his father’s practice, Napier and Sons Solicitors Belfast.
[caption id="attachment_25804" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Five leaders of the Alliance Party. Sir Oliver Napier, second right, with John Cushnahan, Sean Neeson, David Ford, and Lord Alderdice."]
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On the 19th April 1970, together with other moderate minded people, he founded the Alliance Party in order to create a new non-sectarian society where Protestants and Catholics would work together to achieve peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland. He believed that reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics was the only key to the future. He had great faith and confidence in the common sense and honesty of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland. He believed that religion was a deeply personal thing and not a political label. He therefore stood for election in East Belfast while his lifelong friend and co-founder of the Alliance Party, Bob Cooper, a protestant, stood in West Belfast in order to lead by example, a path away from sectarianism.
He became leader of the Alliance Party on the 3rd July 1973, a role which he held until 1984. He was an advocate of change and after 11 years as leader he felt that he too had a duty to step aside in order to foster new policies and give others the chance to develop and preserve the founding principles of the Alliance Party. In 1985 he was included on the Queen’s Birthday List and Knighted for his services to politics in Northern Ireland. In July 1988 he began a three year term as the Chairman of the Standing Commission on Human Rights. He also served as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Constitutional Convention. On his retirement he joined the Board of Governors of Lagan College as integrated education was close to his heart.
His crowning political achievement was the Sunningdale Agreement and he felt that the collapse of the Executive was a major setback which cost thousands of people their lives. He served as the Minister of Law Reform in the Power-sharing Executive from January to May 1974. It was therefore with great joy that he welcomed the Good Friday Agreement, as the successor to Sunningdale , and was particularly pleased that the Alliance Party was able to play an active role.
He was not a man to take the easy road. Despite personal attacks on himself and his family, including being burnt out of his home, he believed in justice and fairplay and that if Northern Ireland was going to create a new society of tolerance and mutual respect then it was incumbent upon us all to stand up and be counted. If circumstances had been different, he would probably have been content with a career as an Insolvency Practitioner and as a small farmer in his beloved County Down.
It was in his garden growing vegetables and teaching his children how to cultivate and rear animals that he was happiest. He had a thirst for knowledge, was an avid reader and had a love for languages, especially Spanish. He also had a mischievous sense of humour. But above all else he was a family man and the happiest day of his life was when he married Briege Barnes on the 6th April 1961. He had nine children: James, Brigid, Veronica, Charles, John Paul, Nuala, Kevin, Emma and Mary Jo, and 23 grandchildren. It was this aspect of his life that he regarded as his greatest achievement and he often expressed his pride and enjoyment at the achievements of his children and grandchildren.
Despite entering politics in Northern Ireland’s darkest hour, he was eternally optimistic that a meaningful partnership between both sections of the community was possible if people had the courage to reach for it. It was therefore a great comfort to him in his latter days to witness an operational power-sharing Executive in place which commanded widespead support throughout all sections of our divided community. He was particularly pleased that Alliance had secured two Ministries in this Executive and that the sitting MP for his beloved East Belfast was Alliance.
He has left a beacon of hope and a vision for Northern Ireland where regardless of creed or political aspiration we should have the humanity in our hearts to live in peace and to continue to work towards a better future in which there is permanent peace. ]]>
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