Harold McCusker; Protestant Party Leader in Northern Ireland

Harold McCusker, 50, a schoolteacher who became prominent in Northern Ireland politics. He was a member of the British Parliament for 16 years, representing the Official Unionists, the mainstream Protestant party in Northern Ireland. He was party deputy leader from 1982. McCusker was an eloquent speaker and campaigner for tougher measures against the Irish Republican Army, which is fighting to rid Northern Ireland of British rule. Like most Northern Ireland Protestants, McCusker opposed the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement that gave the Irish Republic a say in running the province. But he later became critical of older colleagues for failing to come up with an alternative to the pact. In Belfast on Monday of cancer.