Jack Beattie
John Beattie (14 April 1886 – 9 March 1960) was a Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) politician from Northern Ireland.[1] He was a teacher by profession. In 1925, he became a Member of the
from 1929. At one point he served as leader of the NILP.Early life
Beattie was born into a
Early career
Belfast did not prosper in the 1920s. During the period, 1923 to 1930, unemployment in Northern Ireland averaged 19 per cent of the insured workforce. Many of the long term unemployed became ineligible to receive unemployment assistance. To make matters worse, the Belfast
Historian Tim Pat Coogan remarks of the time that, despite the prevailing conditions, "the Unionist ascendency was so secure that it could blithely go ahead with measures such as cutting unemployment benefits while lavishing expenditure on the new parliament building, which was opened in 1932".[6]
Jack Beattie did not blithely play along with the establishment. One occasion perhaps highlights this better than any: in September 1932,
Unlike the majority of the NILP, Beattie supported Irish unity. In 1934 he was expelled from the NILP after refusing to call a by-election in Belfast Central, where the party were the main opponents of the Nationalist Party. In the same year, he became an organiser for the Northern Ireland Teachers' Organisation.
Beattie was a director and vice-president of Glentoran Football Club.[7]
Later career
In 1942, Beattie was readmitted to the NILP. He went on to win the 1943 Belfast West by-election but resigned from the NILP shortly after.
In 1945, he held his seat and formed the
When the
Beattie lost his seat, disbanded the Federation and joined the Irish Labour Party.[4] Tim Pat Coogan remarks that with the defeat of Beattie and other opposition candidates, "for the first time the opposition at Stormont was entirely Catholic, a matter of much satisfaction to [Prime Minister] Brooke".[6]
Although he lost Belfast West in the 1950 UK general election, Beattie retook it in 1951, losing it once more at the 1955 election. His attempt to win Belfast Central in the Stormont Parliament in 1953 also failed.
References
- ISBN 0-85527-335-6
- ^ "ElectionsIreland.org: Jack Beattie". www.electionsireland.org. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^ "Beattie, John ('Jack') | Dictionary of Irish Biography".
- ^ a b c d Bardon, Jonathan, A History of Ulster, p 523 (The Black Staff Press, Belfast, 1992)
- ^ Devlin, Paddy, Yes, We have no bananas: Outdoor relief in Belfast 1920–1939, 1988 p 112, in Bardon, Jonathan, Ibid
- ^ a b Coogan, Tim Pat
- ^ Malcolm Brodie (1981), The Story of Glentoran. Belfast:Glentoran Football Club, p. 41
- ^ "Aggravated Political Assault - The Labour Party and Northern Ireland". 27 October 2004. Archived from the original on 27 October 2004.
- ^ Hansard, House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Vol. 29, Col. 952, via Stormont Papers Archived 4 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine.