Following the resignation of Terence O’Neill as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, on the back of ambiguous election results, Major James Chichester-Clark was narrowly elected as his successor. The new Prime Minister faced enormous challenges in governing the country with rising tensions on all sides.
One of his biggest challenges was in trying to bring some unity to his Unionist Party. He had helped to usher out his predecessor, but now had to placate that wing of the party, as well as find room in his Cabinet for the anti-O’Neillite faction - and for the man he had so narrowly defeated in the leadership election, Brian Faulkner. It would be a difficult balancing act and this clip shows the first meeting of the newly formed Cabinet in May 1969.