| Raymond Ferguson | |
| Office: | Member of Fermanagh District Council |
| Constituency: | Enniskillen |
| Term Start: | 15 May 1985 |
| Term End: | 5 May 2005 |
| Predecessor: | District created |
| Successor: | Arlene Foster |
| Constituency1: | Fermanagh Area E |
| Term Start1: | 18 May 1977 |
| Term End1: | 15 May 1985 |
| Predecessor1: | George Cathcart |
| Successor1: | District abolished |
| Office2: | Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone |
| Term Start2: | 20 October 1982 |
| Term End2: | 1986 |
| Birth Date: | 16 February 1941 |
| Birth Place: | County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland |
| Party: | Ulster Unionist Party |
Raymond Ferguson (born 16 February 1941) is a Northern Irish former rugby union player with Ulster Rugby and a politician with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
Part of a well established Ulster Unionist family in his native County Fermanagh, Ferguson represented his province at rugby.[1] He studied law at Queen's University, Belfast and subsequently practised as a solicitor, initially in Belfast and then Coleraine before establishing his own still extant legal partnership in Enniskillen.[2]
Ferguson gained his first elected office in 1977 when he was elected to Fermanagh District Council. He held a seat on the body until 2005.[3] He served as Council Chairman from 1981 to 1983.[1] He was chosen as UUP candidate for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency for the 1979 general election although the seat was retained by sitting Independent Republican MP Frank Maguire.[1] Ferguson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.[1]
Following the collapse of the Assembly Ferguson became a leading voice in support of the restoration of devolution and in 1988 advocated the adoption by the UUP of a policy in favour of negotiation with constitutional Irish nationalists on both sides of the border. His views were rejected at the annual UUP conference however.[1] The suggestion was labelled a "Lundy-like attack on the leadership" of the party by fellow Fermanagh delegate Sammy Foster.[4]
However Ferguson's moderate views made him popular with the Republic of Ireland's political leaders and he was offered a seat in the Seanad Éireann. He declined the offer due to his opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.[1] Nonetheless his support for cross-community politics continued and in 1992 he publicly criticised colleagues on Fermanagh Council for their refusal to rotate the Council chairmanship with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party.[1]