Paddy Devlin
Paddy Devlin | |
---|---|
Member of the NI Parliament for Belfast Falls | |
In office 1969–1972 | |
Preceded by | Harry Diamond |
Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | Patrick Joseph Devlin 8 March 1925 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Died | 15 August 1999 Belfast, Northern Ireland | (aged 74)
Nationality | Irish |
Political party | Irish Labour (1948-1958) NILP (1958-1970) SDLP (1970-1977) United Labour (1978-1980s) LPNI (1985-1990) |
Spouse | Theresa Devlin |
Children | 5 |
Patrick Joseph "Paddy" Devlin[1] (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 of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive.
Described as a "relentless campaigner against sectarianism", Devlin had once been a member of the IRA but later renounced
During the late 1960s he entered local politics in the Belfast City Council and went on to help found the SDLP in 1970 with John Hume, Gerry Fitt, Austin Currie and others.[1]
Early life
Devlin was born in the
Post-war
After the war, and in search of work, he spent some time in Portsmouth working as a scaffolder and in Coventry working in the car industry. In Coventry he became interested in Labour and trade union politics and briefly joined the British Labour Party.
Returning to Belfast in 1948 he found the local Labour Party split over partition. Under Harry Midgley’s influence the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) had adopted a pro-partition position. In response, many anti-partition Labour activists left the NILP and joined the Irish Labour Party, which was led locally by Jack Beattie who was an MP in Stormont and Westminster. Paddy Devlin joined the Irish Labour Party in 1949.[4]
Devlin was elected as the Irish Labour candidate in a council by-election for the Falls ward in 1956 beating Gerry Fitt who fought the election as the Dock Labour Party candidate.[5]
Later Catholic Action claimed the Irish Labour Party was infested with communists and ensured the party were effectively wiped out and Devlin lost his seat in 1958. In the same year, in the aftermath of the Council election defeat, he decided to join the Northern Ireland Labour Party.[2]
In 1967 Devlin was elected Chairman of the NILP. In the Northern Ireland elections held in 1969, Devlin stood as the NILP candidate and beat Republican Labour's Harry Diamond for the Falls seat in Stormont.[6]
From 1968 through 1969, Devlin was very involved in the
Devlin’s relationship with the NILP became more strained as he detected a “deafening silence” with “no statements condemning the horrors of the summer, no assertion of the non-sectarian socialist principles we had tried to promote … the NILP in fact tended to disregard the existence of the civil rights movement”.[7] Devlin believed that the NILP working in alliance with the civil rights movement could have changed the situation and reduced the sectarian tensions. Instead, what he deemed to be the party's inadequate response in the summer of 1969 led to his drift away from the NILP.[8] Devlin started discussing with other Labour activists, civil rights leaders and moderate nationalists the possibility of launching a new party. In response to these discussions, the NILP terminated his party membership in August 1970.[9]
Devlin then went on, with Fitt, John Hume, Austin Currie and others to found the SDLP in 1970. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) brought together politicians and activists from Labour, civil rights and moderate Irish Nationalist backgrounds to form a party committed to achieving a united Ireland by consent and to working within the Northern Ireland political structures for constructive local cross-community politics. At the time of the SDLP's formation, Devlin believed “the basic party philosophy was to be socialist and democratic and work for the unity of Ireland by consent”.[10]
He was later involved, at the request of
He was a member of the
By 1977 Devlin felt that the SDLP “was being stripped of its socialism and being taken over by unadulterated nationalists”.[11] These differences came to a head when Devlin resigned as chairman of the parliamentary group and issued a statement criticising the direction of the SDLP. A few days later the SDLP executive met and voted to expel him from the party.[12]
In 1978 he established the
Devlin did not support the hunger strike and the campaign for political status for Republican prisoners.[13] He was re-elected as an Independent Socialist to Belfast City Council in the 1981 local elections but with a much reduced vote of 1,343; down from the 7,087 votes he won four years earlier.
In 1987 he, together with remnants of the NILP and others, established
Devlin was also involved in the Peace Train Organisation.[2]
Devlin suffered from severe diabetes and throughout the 1990s suffered a series of ailments as his health and sight collapsed.[citation needed]
Political beliefs
John Hume and others supposedly saw Devlin as too forgiving of police, but not the British Army, as Devlin supported a motion tabled at the SDLP's annual conference in 1976 for British withdrawal. The motion, also supported by Ivan Cooper, Seamus Mallon, and Paddy Duffy, but opposed by Party leader Gerry Fitt, John Hume and Austin Currie, was defeated by 153 votes to 111.[14] Devlin also spoke out against the assassination of Irish National Liberation Army chief Ronnie Bunting in 1980, commonly attributed to an Ulster Defence Association hit squad, but which Devlin always believed was carried out by an 'SAS type' unit with British Security force involvement.[15]
Devlin was a lifelong socialist who ended up being expelled from the SDLP for criticizing its lack of socialist politics.[2]
Outside of party politics, Devlin spent his later years as Area Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. His knowledge of the Industrial Relations Order (Northern Ireland 1976) was extensive. He wrote an acclaimed study (his MSc thesis) of the 1935 Outdoor Relief Riots in Belfast, published as Yes We Have No Bananas in 1985.
References
- ^ Irish Echo. New York. 16 February 2011. Archived from the originalon 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
- ^ a b c d Unsworth, Monika (16 August 1999). "Lifelong socialist never wavered in his convictions". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
- ^ Ryder, Chris (16 August 1999). "Paddy Devlin". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- OCLC 29670138.
- ^ 'Sinn Féin and the SDLP: From Alienation To Participation', (O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1995), pp.56–7. by Gerard Murray and Jonathan Tonge
- ^ ' The Dirty War', (Arrow, London, 1991), p.293.
External links
Sources
- Devlin, Paddy (1993). Straight Left: An Autobiography. Blackstaff Press Ltd. ISBN 0-85640-514-0 / 9780856405143.