Parliament
In the 1969 general election, Cooper was elected as an independent Member for Mid-Londonderry, defeating the sitting Nationalist Party MP, Paddy Gormley.
On 12 August - the start of the few intense days of violence which have become known as the Battle of the Bogside - Cooper tried to restrain Catholics protesting an Apprentice Boys of Derry parade by linking arms with John Hume and Eddie McAteer. They were swept aside however and Cooper was knocked unconscious by a brick.
Cooper was suspended from Stormont for a week on 20 March after a protest in the Chamber over a Public Order Bill.
Read more about this topic: Ivan Cooper
Famous quotes containing the word parliament:
“A Parliament is that to the Commonwealth which the soul is to the body.... It behoves us therefore to keep the facility of that soul from distemper.”
—John Pym (1584–1643)
“The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)