THE DEATH has been announced of Richard “Dick” Ferguson, a prominent and successful barrister and one-time Unionist Stormont MP.
Mr Ferguson (73), from Derrygonnelly, Co Fermanagh, died on Sunday and is to be buried privately in London tomorrow after a funeral ceremony and reception.
His colleagues at Carmelite Chambers in London said he was “universally respected and admired, his powerful advocacy, his personal warmth and kindness, are a great loss to the Bar collectively and to each of us in Chambers individually”.
Mr Ferguson was a graduate of both Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast.
He was a queen’s counsel in both Northern Ireland and in England and Wales and was also a senior counsel in the Republic.
Elected to the old Stormont parliament for the Unionist Party in the South Antrim constituency in 1968, he supported the premiership of Terence O’Neill.
Although he was re-elected in 1969 he soon left parliament, citing ill health, and eventually joined the Alliance Party.
Republicans, loyalists and British security force members were among those he defended in court.
Patrick Magee, convicted of the Brighton bombing in 1984, was among his clients, as were British soldiers charged with crimes in Iraq and members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
He represented the police in relation to the inquiry, ongoing in Northern Ireland, which is investigating the murder of Robert Hamill.
His client list also included Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, rock guitarist Peter Buck, Ernest Saunders of Guinness and boxer Terry Marsh.
Rose West, whose husband Fred murdered 10 girls at an address in Gloucester, was also represented by him.
Following her conviction he publicly questioned the fairness of her trial.
His family has requested that donations in lieu of flowers be made to the British Heart Foundation in London.