The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was a political party in

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 ...

which operated from 1924 until 1987.

Origins

The roots of the NILP can be traced back to the formation of the Belfast Labour Party in 1892. William Walker stood as the Labour candidate in the Belfast North by-election in 1905 coming a close second with 47% of the vote. The Belfast Labour Party won 12 seats and over 14% of the vote in the 1920 elections to Belfast Corporation.

After partition

After the

partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...

in 1921, the NILP was founded as a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

political party by groups such as the Belfast Labour Party and found its main bed of support amongst

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

voters in Belfast. Over 40 delegates attended the founding conference of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland held on 8 March 1924. It initially declined to take a position on the "Border Question" and instead sought to offer itself as an alternative to both nationalism and unionism. In the

1925 Northern Ireland general election The 1925 Northern Ireland general election was held on 3 April 1925. It was the second election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. It saw significant losses for the Ulster Unionist Party, although they maintained their large majority. This ...

, the party won 6% of the total vote and secured three seats in Belfast, including William McMullen elected in Belfast West, as well as Sam Kyle ( Belfast North) and

Jack Beattie Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

( Belfast East); this was the last election for the

Northern Ireland Parliament 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 ...

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 ...

system. The party had a Westminster

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

on only one occasion, when

won the 1943 Belfast West by-election, retained the seat in 1945, but lost it in 1950. He regained the seat as an

Irish Labour Party The Labour Party ( ga, Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, literally "Party of the Working People") is a centre-left and social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, ...

candidate in 1951.Bardon, Jonathan, ''A History of Ulster'', p. 523 (The Black Staff Press, Belfast, 1992) In the 1945 election to the Stormont parliament, held in the aftermath of the second world war, the NILP polled 66,503 votes, 18.6% of the total votes cast. In 1949, following the declaration of a Republic in the south, the Northern Ireland Labour Party's conference voted in favour of the Union with

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. The NILP abandoned its neutral position on the border adopting a pro-union position that the “Northern Ireland Labour Party will maintain unbroken the connection between Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Many anti-partition Labour activists drifted out of the NILP and joined the Irish Labour Party. The result was a sharp decline in the party's already limited electoral success, as

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

voters deserted, and the Irish Labour Party attempted to organise in Northern Ireland. An earlier refusal to adopt a pro-union policy had split the party, with leader

Harry Midgley Henry Cassidy Midgley, PC (NI), known as Harry Midgley (1893 – 29 April 1957) was a prominent trade-unionist and politician in Northern Ireland. Born to a working-class Protestant family in Tiger's Bay, north Belfast, he followed his father int ...

forming his own strongly Unionist Commonwealth Labour Party in 1942. In the 1949 elections to the Stormont Parliament, Labour’s vote fell to 26,831 votes, 7% of the total votes cast. This was a dramatic decline from the 18.5% share of the vote in the 1945 election. Later in the 1950s, the party began to gain ground amongst unionist voters and, after the breakup of the Irish Labour Party's new attempts to organise in Northern Ireland, among some nationalists. The NILP campaign to highlight the failure of the Unionist Government to respond effectively to the growing problem of unemployment led to the NILP attracting more support form both Protestant and Catholic working class voters. In the 1953 elections to the Stormont Parliament the NILP recovered to a 12% share of the vote. The NILP saw its greatest period of success between 1958 and 1965. In

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

the Party won nearly 16% of the vote. Four NILP MPs were elected to Stormont for Belfast constituencies: Tom Boyd ( Pottinger), Billy Boyd ( Woodvale), Vivian Simpson ( Oldpark), and

David Bleakley David Wylie Bleakley CBE (11 January 1925 26 June 2017) was a politician and peace campaigner in Northern Ireland. Born in the Strandtown district of Belfast, Bleakley worked as an electrician in the Harland and Wolff dockyards while becomi ...

(

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

). The NILP then became the official opposition at Stormont. In the 1962 Stormont elections the NILP won 76,842 votes, over 25% of the total votes cast. In the 1964 UK General Election the NILP polled 102,759 votes - its highest ever popular vote. Success came despite continued divisions over such matters as Sunday Observance – two NILP Belfast councillors voted to close the city's park playgrounds on Sundays (as demanded by hard line

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

s but opposed by Catholics) and were expelled as a result. During this period the NILP maintained its pro-union stance. Despite this, the NILP was winning support from the Catholic working class who were voting on “bread and butter” issues.

Paddy Devlin Patrick Joseph "Paddy" Devlin (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999) was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a former Stormont MP, and a member ...

, previously an Irish Labour councillor, joined the NILP in 1958: “the only party that filled my need was the NILP, which was then going from strength to strength. With active trade union backing it was climbing back into the natural position for a local Labour Party: chief challenger of Unionist Party dominance.”

Civil Rights

In the early to mid 1960s, the NILP was a leading voice in the calls for civil rights and an end to discrimination. When the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

(NICRA) was formed in 1967, NILP members were prominent in the organisation with

elected to its Executive. But, despite the involvement of many Labour members in the civil rights movement, the NILP felt more comfortable confronting the Unionists at Stormont over civil rights than taking part in the street protests that soon became violent confrontations due to the RUC's brutal enforcement of the state ban on many civil rights marches.

The Troubles

In 1969 the situation in Northern Ireland worsened as the violent response by the RUC and loyalists to the civil rights marches led to the

Battle of the Bogside The Battle of the Bogside was a large three-day riot that took place from 12 to 14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thousands of Catholic/Irish nationalist residents of the Bogside district, organised under the Derry Citizens' Defence ...

in Derry and sectarian clashes in working class areas of Belfast. The growing sectarian polarisation in working class areas in the late 1960s damaged the NILP’s project of building a Labour alternative to Unionism. However, even by 1970 the NILP was still able to poll nearly 100,000 votes across Northern Ireland in the

UK General Election This is a list of United Kingdom general elections (elections for the UK House of Commons) since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland ...

. Any hopes of keeping the cross-community Labour coalition together were damaged by the NILP publicly distancing itself from

’s lobbying for action to protect Catholic working class communities. The NILP expelled Paddy Devlin in August 1970 for his links with civil rights politicians who would go on to form the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irela ...

. The NILP also expelled Eammon McCann, who was chairman of Derry Labour Party, for supporting

Bernadette Devlin Josephine Bernadette McAliskey (née Devlin; born 23 April 1947), usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish civil rights leader, and former politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster in North ...

who had recently been elected as an MP. With the onset of

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

, new parties emerged that appealed to the party's support base, including the

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

(SDLP), the

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembl ...

and the Democratic Unionist Party. Once again the polarisation of politics around partition deprived the party of a critical mass.

Decline

In 1971 the new

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland The prime minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as with governo ...

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 ...

appointed NILP former Stormont MP

to his Cabinet as Minister of Community Relations, in an attempt to bring reforms to Northern Ireland. However, the following year the Stormont Parliament was suspended when it resisted the London government request to take over responsibility for public order. In the 1973 referendum on the border, the NILP campaigned for Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom. By 1973 the NILP was in a serious decline with the party only achieving 2.5% of the vote in the local council elections and a similar 2.6% in the Northern Ireland Assembly election. In contrast,

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

won 13.7% of votes in the local elections and 9.2% in the Assembly elections, and the

achieved its best results so far by polling more than 22% of the votes in the Assembly election. David Bleakley was the only NILP representative elected to the 1973 Assembly and 1975 Forum for East Belfast. The Northern Ireland Labour Party continued to contest elections but with a dwindling support base.

Alan Carr Alan Graham Carr (born 14 June 1976) is an English comedian, broadcaster and writer. His breakthrough was in 2001, winning the '' City Life'' Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards. In the ensuing years, Carr's career burgeon ...

became its leading figure from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, by which point it had only about 200 members, and just a single councillor was elected for the party in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. A party conference in 1983 narrowly failed to secure a necessary two-thirds majority to wind up the party, but it stood no candidates in the 1983 general election, its Chairman and Party Secretary having resigned just beforehand, and by the

1985 Northern Ireland local elections Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 15 May 1985, contesting 565 seats in all. Background 1981 elections The previous elections had been fought in the middle of the hunger strike and the H-Block Prison Protest. Tho ...

, its three candidates received no support from the central body.

Labour '87

In March 1987, the remains of the party merged with

Labour Party of Northern Ireland The Labour Party of Northern Ireland (LPNI) was the name of two distinct political parties in Northern Ireland, the first formed in 1985 by a group around Paddy Devlin, a former Social Democratic and Labour Party councillor and Northern Irelan ...

(formed in 1985 by former SDLP leader

), the

Ulster Liberal Party The Ulster Liberal Party was a liberal and non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland linked to the British Liberal Party. The party was officially neutral on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. Members expressed different vi ...

and the United Labour Party to form the

Labour '87 The Labour Party of Northern Ireland (LPNI) was the name of two distinct political parties in Northern Ireland, the first formed in 1985 by a group around Paddy Devlin, a former Social Democratic and Labour Party councillor and Northern Irelan ...

group. This group also gained the support of the

Newtownabbey Labour Party The Newtownabbey Labour Party is a minor political party based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. The party originated as the Newtownabbey branch of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP). It left its parent organisation in 1974, in opposition ...

. They contested local elections and

Mark Langhammer Mark Langhammer is a Northern Irish trade unionist, employed as Director of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and elected onto the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in 2008, being re-elected in 2010. A forme ...

contested the 1989 European Elections unsuccessfully.Mark Langhammer, Election Results 1989
Elections Ireland

Leadership

Leaders at Stormont

*1925–29: Samuel Kyle *1929–33:

*1933–38:

*1938–42: Paddy Agnew *1942–43:

*1943–45: Paddy Agnew *1945–49:

Hugh Downey Hugh Downey was a politician in Northern Ireland. Downey was a Roman Catholic and worked as a barman. He joined the Northern Ireland Labour Party and by 1942 was its Vice-Chairman.Graham S. Walker, ''The Politics of Frustration'' At the 1945 N ...

*1949–50: William James Smyth *1958–69: Tom Boyd *1969–73: Vivian Simpson

Chairs

:1924: Sam Kyle :1925: William McMullen :1927: Matthew Courtney :1931: Hugh Gemmell :1932:

:1942:

:1943: :1944:

William Leeburn William John Leeburn (1895 – 7 September 1975) was a trade unionist and politician from Northern Ireland. Life Born in Carnmoney, Leeburn came to prominence in the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP). He was elected to Belfast Corporation, and ...

:1945:

Jack Macgougan Jack Macgougan (21 August 1913 – 12 December 1998) was a trade unionist and socialist activist in Ireland. Born in Belfast to a Protestant family, Macgougan became an active trade unionist at an early age. In 1935 he was elected Secretary of the ...

:1946: John Boyle :1947: Robert Getgood :1947: Henry Holmes :1948:

James Morrow James Morrow (born March 17, 1947) is an American novelist and short-story writer known for filtering large philosophical and theological questions through his satiric sensibility. Most of Morrow's oeuvre has been published as science fiction ...

:1950: :1952: Vivian Simpson :1953: Tom Boyd :1954: Cecil Allen :1955: Saidie Patterson :1956: W. Blair :1957:

:1958: Andrew Gibson :1959: Robert Bingham :1960: Billy Boyd :1961: :1962:

Charles Brett Sir Charles Edward Bainbridge Brett, Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, KBE, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, CBE (30 October 1928 - 19 December 2005), was a Northern Irish people, Nor ...

:1963: Hugh Waring :1964: Edward Wright :1965: William Gunning :1966: Martin McBirney :1967:

:1969: Robert Allen :1970: Brian Anderson :1971: Erskine Holmes :1972: Brian Garrett :1973: Archie McArdle :1973: Brian Garrett :1974: Jack Barkley :1975: George Chambers :1976: Sandy Scott :1977:

:1980: Ciaran McAteer :1981: Bob Clarke :1983: William Gunning

Electoral performance

Stormont

Local government

References

{{Authority control 1924 establishments in Northern Ireland 1987 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Defunct social democratic parties in the United Kingdom History of the Labour Party (UK) Labour parties in Northern Ireland Political parties disestablished in 1987 Political parties established in 1924 Social democratic parties in Ireland