ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI - Mr. Bird, who died on June 28, 1999 at the age of 89, led his country to independence which took place on November 1, 1981 and he became the first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. In 1994 he was declared a national hero of the twin Island State.
Premier O’Neal told VINO, that “V. C. Bird was not admitted to Grammar school in Antigua, but yet he rose to be the Prime Minister of the country. He was able to change the education system……He pursued trade union and politics and brought Antigua to where it is today. I admire that man,” a smiling Premier O’Neal said while sitting in his office at the Government’s Headquarters at the Central Administration Complex in the capital city Road Town, on the main Island of Tortola.
VINO’s research confirmed that the late V. C. Bird was indeed unique from other West Indian politicians, lacking in any formal education except primary schooling. He attended the then St. John’s Boys School, now known as The T.N. Kirnon Primary School. He was an officer in the Salvation Army for two years interspersing his interests in trade unionism and politics according to research. Bird, later affectionately known as “Papa Bird”, gave up the Salvation Army because he saw the way the land owners were treating the local black Antiguans and Barbudans.
Mr. Bird decided to leave his post to fight for the freedom of his people, which he succeeded in doing. In 1943, according to research, he became the president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union. He achieved national acclaim politically for the first time when he was elected to the colonial legislature in 1945.
The late national hero formed the Antigua Labour Party and became the first and only Chief Minister, first and last Premier, and first Prime Minister from 1981 to 1994. His resignation was due to failing health.
In 1985, Antigua’s international airport which was first named Coolidge, was renamed V.C. Bird International Airport in his honour.
Most Caribbean historians and scholars have written that the late Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Vere Cornwall Bird was a member of an elite group of militant trade unionists who blazed a trail through colonial times up to or near political independence of the Caribbean countries.
According to Caribbean and African academias, the group included Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley of Jamaica, Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, Robert Bradshaw of St. Kitts and Nevis, Grantley Adams of Barbados, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, Ebenezer Joshua of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Eric Gairy of Grenada.
Mr. Bird was among the early organizers of labour movements in colonial Antigua and Barbuda in the 1930s and 1940s. His biggest battles were fought in the sugar industry, where he achieved better wages for workers and recognition of the right of workers to have annual holidays with pay.
Premier Ralph T. O’Neal entered the political arena in 1975 and was successful in being elected as the representative for the then 7th district, which was at the time Virgin Gorda, Peter Island and Salt Island. By 1979 there was an increase of districts and Virgin Gorda and Anegada became the ninth district. Mr. O’Neal was returned to the legislative council as representative for the ninth district in 1979, and in the succeeding general elections of 1983, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007.
In February of 1995, according to VINO’s research, following the general elections, Mr. O’Neal was appointed as Minister for Health, Education and Welfare and Deputy Chief Minister and served in that position until the death of Chief Minister H. Lavity Stoutt on May 14, 1995 at which time he assumed the position of Chief Minister and leadership of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP).
In the 1999 general elections as leader of the VIP, his party won an outright majority of seats to form the government. In the 2003 elections his Virgin Islands Party government was defeated by the National Democratic Party (NDP) of Dr. the Honourable D. Orlando Smith, with the NDP gaining a one seat majority.
However, in the 2007 general elections, Ralph T. O’Neal made history by gaining the biggest landslide in the Virgin Islands young political history by taking 10 out of 13 seats in the new House of Assembly with the one independent candidate who won, Honourable J. Alvin Christopher from the second district, joining his government giving him an unprecedented 11 seats to the NDP’s two. Mr. O’Neal also became the VI’s first Premier the new title for the head of government following the new Constitutional Order of 2007.
Finally, Premier O’Neal told VINO that he will be writing a book that will include information about himself and history related to the Virgin Islands.
Article taken from Virgin Islands News Online - http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com
British Virgin Islands News