Patrick Kennedy (3 September 1942 – 3 May 1999) was a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. Kennedy joined the

Republican Labour Party The Republican Labour Party (RLP) was a political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, with two MPs at Stormont, Harry Diamond and Gerry Fitt. They had previously been the sole Northern Ireland representatives of the Socialist R ...

(RLP) and was elected to

Belfast City Council Belfast City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhéal Feirste) is the local authority with responsibility for part of the city of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The Council serves an estimated population of (), the ...

in 1967. He became involved in the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

protests and was a founder member of 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,

, and joined the Central Citizens Defence Committee. In the

1969 Northern Ireland general election The 1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. Unlike previous elections that p ...

, Kennedy was elected for Belfast Central. In August 1969, during intensive rioting in his constituency, he tried, without success, to get the Royal Ulster Constabulary to withdraw the armoured cars and heavy machine guns they were using against the rioters. After the rioting, in which Catholic residents of mixed areas in Belfast were burned out, Defence Committees were formed to defend nationalist areas. In September 1969, Kennedy was the Falls Road Citizens Defence Committee's delegate in talks with James Callaghan. In 1970, RLP leader

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 yea ...

left to help establish 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 ...

. Kennedy was elected as the new leader of the RLP. The following year, he held a press conference in Belfast where he introduced

Joe Cahill , birth_date = , death_date = , birth_place = Belfast, Ireland , death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland , image = Joe Cahill.png , caption = Cahill, early 1990s. , allegiance = Provisional Irish Republican ...

, a leading figure in the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

, intending that this would show the ineffectiveness of internment. While successful as a media event, appearing with the IRA led many constitutional

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

politicians to refuse to work with him. In 1971, he withdrew from Stormont, which was suspended the following year. He stood unsuccessfully in Belfast West as a candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973. As both he and Harry Diamond, the other RLP candidate, were defeated, it was decided to wind up the party. In the late 1970s, Kennedy moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, where he trained as a barrister before becoming a planning consultant.

Death

Kennedy died at age 56 in 1999 from cancer. He was survived by his wife and five children.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Paddy 1942 births 1999 deaths Leaders of political parties in Northern Ireland Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1969–1973 Politicians from Belfast Republican Labour Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Deaths from cancer in the Republic of Ireland Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Belfast constituencies