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:
“He felt that it would be dull times in Dublin, when they should have no usurping government to abuse, no Saxon Parliament to upbraid, no English laws to ridicule, and no Established Church to curse.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)