James Godfrey MacManaway, MBE (22 April 1898 – 3 November 1951) was a British Unionist politician and Church of Ireland cleric, notable for being disqualified as a Member of Parliament, owing to his status as a priest. Early life James Godfrey MacManaway was born in County Tyrone in 1898, the youngest son of the Rt. Rev. James MacManaway, Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and Trinity College, Dublin. He served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, having enlisted at the age of 17. In 1925 MacManaway was ordained as a priest of the Church of Ireland by the Bishop of Armagh. He married Catherine Anne Swetenham Trench (née Lecky), in 1926. He was Rector of Christ Church, Derry from 1930 to 1947. He served as Chaplain to Forces during the Second World War. In 1945, he was awarded an MBE. Political career In June 1947 MacManaway was elected to the Parliament of Northern Ireland, as Unionist member for the City of Londonderry. He then set his sights on Westminster, although, as a man of the cloth, there was some doubt as to his eligibility, owing to various historical statutes debarring clergymen of both the Established Church and the Roman Catholic Church from sitting as MPs in the British House of Commons. MacManaway sought legal advice from the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, Edmund Warnock. Warnock advised him that since the Church of Ireland had been disestablished in 1869, the statutory bars would not apply to MacManaway. MacManaway was selected by the Unionist party to contest Belfast West in the 1950 General Election. As a precaution, he resigned from his offices in the Church of Ireland. He won the election, defeating the sitting Irish Labour Party MP Jack Beattie by 3,378 votes. Among the activists working on this campaign was a young Ian Paisley. Political career terminated As the first priest to take his seat in the House of Commons for 150 years, MacManaway was put under scrutiny by a Select committee of the House. They were unable to come to firm conclusions and, with some disquiet, recommended urgent legislation to clarify the law. The Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, instead referred the matter to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Their judgement, in essence, identified a lacuna in the existing legislation, which would disqualify MacManaway. While the Irish