The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (NICC) was an elected body set up in 1975 by the United Kingdom
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
government of
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.
Formation of the Constitutional Convention
The idea for a constitutional convention was first mooted by the
Northern Ireland Office
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for N ...
in its
white paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
''The Northern Ireland Constitution'', published on 4 July 1974.
The paper laid out plans for elections to a body which would seek agreement on a political settlement for Northern Ireland. The proposals became law with the enactment of the
Northern Ireland Act 1974
The Northern Ireland Act 1974 ( ga, An tAcht um Rialtas na hÉireann) was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the government of Northern Ireland following the collapse of the Sunningdale Agreem ...
later that month. With
Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
Robert Lowry Robert Lowry may refer to:
* Robert Lowry (governor) (1829–1910), American politician, governor of Mississippi
* Robert Lowry (hymn writer) (1826–1899), American professor of literature, Baptist minister and composer of gospel hymns
* Robert L ...
appointed to chair the new body, elections were announced for 1 May 1975.
The elections were held for the 78-member body using the
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
system of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
in each of Northern Ireland's twelve
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
constituencies. Initially the body was intended to be purely consultative, although it was hoped that executive and
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
functions could be
devolved
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...
to the NICC once a cross-community agreement had been reached.
Election results
Unionists opposed to the NICC once again banded together under the umbrella of the
United Ulster Unionist Council
The United Ulster Unionist Council (also known as the United Ulster Unionist Coalition) was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland.
Formation
The UUUC was established in Janua ...
(UUUC) and this coalition proved the most successful, taking 46 seats.
Source
Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention Elections 1975
Votes summary
Seats summary
Leading members
A number of leading Northern Ireland politicians were elected to the NICC, increasing hope that the body might achieve some of its aims. Also elected were some younger figures who went on to become leading figures in the future of Northern Ireland politics. These included:
*
Glenn Barr
Albert Glenn Barr OBE (19 March 1942 – 24 October 2017) was a politician from Derry, Northern Ireland, who was an advocate of Ulster nationalism. For a time during the 1970s he straddled both Unionism and Loyalism due to simultaneously hol ...
– VPUP
*
Lord Brookeborough – UPNI
*
William Craig – VPUP
*
Austin Currie
Joseph Austin Currie (11 October 1939 – 9 November 2021) was an Irish politician who served as a Minister of State for Justice with responsibility for Children's Rights from 1994 to 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West ...
– SDLP
*
Reg Empey
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey, Baron Empey, (born 26 October 1947), best known as Reg Empey, is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, who was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010. He was the chairman of the ...
– VPUP
*
Brian Faulkner
Arthur Brian Deane Faulkner, Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick, (18 February 1921 – 3 March 1977), was the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, from March 1971 until his resignation in March 1972. He was also the chief executive ...
– UPNI
*
Gerry Fitt
Gerard Fitt, Baron Fitt (9 April 1926 – 26 August 2005) was a politician in Northern Ireland. He was a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party.
Early year ...
– SDLP
*
John Hume
John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Irela ...
– SDLP
*
James Kilfedder
Sir James Alexander Kilfedder (16 July 1928 – 20 March 1995), usually known as Sir Jim Kilfedder, was a Northern Irish unionist politician.
Early life
Jim Kilfedder born in Kinlough, a village in the north of County Leitrim in what was the ...
– UUP
*
Seamus Mallon
Seamus Frederick Mallon (; 17 August 1936 – 24 January 2020) was an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 1979 to 2 ...
– SDLP
*
Oliver Napier
Sir Oliver Napier (11 July 1935 – 2 July 2011) was the first leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. In 1974 he served as the first and only Legal Minister and head of the Office of Legal Reform in the Northern Ireland power-shar ...
– APNI
*
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...
– DUP
*
Martin Smyth
William Martin Smyth (born 15 June 1931) is a Northern Irish unionist politician, who served as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast South from 1982 to 2005. He was a vice-president of the Conservative Monday ...
– UUP
*
John Taylor – UUP
*
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He wa ...
– VPUP
*
Harry West
Henry William West (27 March 1917 – 5 February 2004) was a politician in Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 until 1979.
Career to Stormont
West was born in County Fermanagh and educated at Portora R ...
– UUP
Progress of the NICC
The elections left the body fundamentally weakened from its inception as an overall majority had been obtained by those Unionists who opposed power sharing as a concept. As a result, the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention Report published on 20 November 1975
recommended only a return to majority rule as had previously existed under the old
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...
government. As such a solution was completely unacceptable to the nationalist parties, the NICC was placed on hiatus. The NICC report in its conclusion said of mandatory power-sharing with a role for the SDLP in a devolved government:
Hoping to gain something from the exercise,
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
Merlyn Rees
Merlyn Merlyn-Rees, Baron Merlyn-Rees, (né Merlyn Rees; 18 December 1920 – 5 January 2006) was a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament from 1963 until 1992. He served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1974–197 ...
announced that the NICC would be reconvened on 3 February 1976. However, a series of meetings held between the UUUC and the SDLP failed to reach any agreement about SDLP participation in government, and so the reconvened NICC once again failed to achieve a solution with cross-community support. As a result, Rees announced the dissolution of the body on 4 March 1976 and Northern Ireland remained under
direct rule Direct rule is when an imperial or central power takes direct control over the legislature, executive and civil administration of an otherwise largely self-governing territory.
Examples Chechnya
In 1991, Chechen separatists declared independence ...
.
Significance of the NICC
On the face of it, the NICC was a total failure as it did not achieve its aims of agreement between the two sides or of introducing 'rolling devolution' (gradual introduction of devolution as and when the parties involved saw fit to accept it). Nevertheless, coming as it did not long after the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
-sponsored
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unionist ...
, the NICC indicated that no British government would be prepared to re-introduce majority rule in Northern Ireland. During the debates
William Craig accepted the possibility of power-sharing with the SDLP, a move that split the UUUC and precipitated the eventual collapse of
Vanguard
The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force.
History
The vanguard derives fr ...
.
The idea of electing a consultative body to thrash out a deal for devolution was also retained and in 1996 it was revived when the
Northern Ireland Forum
The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...
was elected on largely the same lines and with the same overall purpose. The Forum formed part of a process that led to the
Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
and the
Northern Ireland Assembly
sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie
, legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly
, coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg
, coa_res = 250px
, house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral
, hou ...
.
References
External links
A full discussion of the election results
{{United Kingdom local elections, 1975
Constitutional conventions (political meeting)
General elections in Northern Ireland
Government of Northern Ireland
Constitutional history of Northern Ireland
May 1975 events in the United Kingdom
1975 elections in Northern Ireland