Building the ‘Great March’ of Progress

Loughlin, Christopher J. V.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71081-5_3

Christopher J. V. Loughlin²

332 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter utilises quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the electoral performance of Labour in Belfast, at parliamentary and local government levels, in 1921–39. The party never had more than a single-figure level of councillors on Belfast Corporation or more than three MPs in the Northern Ireland parliament. This vote, however, was significantly under-represented because of the ‘winner takes all’ nature of simple plurality voting. Ultimately, it was questionable electoral practice and the political dominance exercised by the Ulster Unionist Party which prevented the development of a coherent Labour political voice in Belfast. The power-holders of the local regime established a plebiscitary democracy and this contributed to the lack of development of wider labour and class politics.

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Notes

1.
Irish News, 16 Jan. 1924.
2.
For the most comprehensive academic treatment of the Irish Labour Party, see Niámh Puirséil, The Irish Labour Party, 1922–73 (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2007).
3.
The official name of the organisation was the Labour Party (Northern Ireland), but for ease of reference, the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) will be the preferred title throughout these case studies.
4.
Brian Barton, ‘Northern Ireland, 1921–5’, in A New History of Ireland, 9 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), VII: Ireland 1921–84, ed. by J. R. Hill, pp. 161–98 (pp. 162–3); Patrick Buckland, A History of Northern Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1981).
5.
From 1924 to 1949, the NILP had no official position on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. In 1949, the party officially accepted the constitutional position of the state. For detailed discussion of these issues, see Chap. 2.
6.
Patrick Buckland, A History of Northern Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1981), p. 57; Graham Walker, Intimate Strangers: Political and Cultural Interaction Between Scotland and Ulster in Modern Times (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1995), p. 137; Graham Walker, ‘The Northern Ireland Labour Party, 1924–45’, in Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830–1945 ed. by Donal Ó Drisceoil and Fintan Lane (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 229–45 (p. 243).
7.
Aaron Edwards, A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, pp. 10–11.
8.
Proportional representation was used for one local election in Belfast in 1920 and two elections to the Northern Ireland parliament in 1921 and 1925; it was replaced by simple plurality vote in 1922 and 1929, respectively. See Chap. 1, footnote 46.
9.
D. G. Pringle, ‘Electoral Systems and Political Manipulation: A Case Study of Northern Ireland in the 1920s’, The Economic and Social Review, 11, No. 11 (1980), 187–205 (188 and 194).
10.
Ian Budge and Cornelius O’Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis: A Study of Belfast Politics, 1613–1970 (London: Macmillan, 1973), p. 195.
11.
Graham Walker, ‘The Northern Ireland Labour Party’, p. 235.
12.
Aaron Edwards, Northern Ireland Labour Party, p. 24; Christopher Norton, ‘The left in Northern Ireland 1921–32’, Labour History Review, 40, part one (1995), 3–20 (15).
13.
Aaron Edwards, Northern Ireland Labour Party, pp. 16–17.
14.
John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland (second ed., London: Athlone Press, 1997), p. 121.
15.
Labour candidates had to stop campaigning in 1921 after Loyalists stormed an election meeting held in the Ulster Hall. See Sydney Elliott, Northern Irish Parliamentary Election Results, pp. 2–9; Austen Morgan, Labour and Partition: The Belfast Working Class, 1905–23 (London: Pluto Press, 1991), pp. 263–4.
16.
For the Northern Ireland parliamentary franchise, which had first a three-year and then a seven-year residency qualification and a company vote, see Ulster Year Book 1929, p. 219; Ulster Year Book 1935, p. 279. See Chap. 1, footnote 46.
17.
The NILP vote expanded despite a decline of nearly 100,000 electors voting.
18.
Sydney Elliott, Northern Irish Election Results, pp. 89–90.
19.
Ibid.
20.
D. G. Pringle, ‘Electoral Systems and Political Manipulation’, p. 204.
21.
Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State (second ed., London: Pluto Press, 1980), p. 146.
22.
Patrick Buckland, The Factory of Grievances: Devolved Government in Northern Ireland, 1921–39 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1979), p. 29.
23.
NILP candidates from a Catholic background for municipal elections, such as Murtagh Morgan and James Grimley. Irish News, 11 Jan. 1927.
24.
For further consideration of women, labour and politics, see Chap. 5 below.
25.
Christopher Norton, ‘The Left in Northern Ireland’, p. 7.
26.
The 1927 Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act was a response to the 1926 general strike, and the legislation was replicated by the Northern Irish parliament. The Act made sympathetic strike action illegal, forced civil service unions to disaffiliate from the Trades Union Congress, and meant trade unionists had to ‘contract in’ to trade union political levies rather than ‘contract out’ as previously. For discussion of this act and the local labour movement, see Chap. 4 below.
27.
Northern Whig, 12 Jan. 1927.
28.
Ibid., 11 Jan. 1934.
29.
Belfast Newsletter, 14 Jan. 1925.
30.
Belfast Telegraph, 10 May 1929.
31.
Patrick Buckland, Factory of Grievances, p. 14.
32.
Belfast Newsletter, 12 Jan. 1924.
33.
Irish News, 8 Jan. 1929.
34.
Ian Budge and Cornelius O’Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis, pp. 186–7.
35.
The Voice of Labour , 23 Jan. 1926.
36.
Ian Budge and Cornelius O’Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis, p. 191.
37.
See Patrick Buckland, The Factory of Grievances, pp. 236–43.
38.
Hansard N.I. (Commons), ii, 917 (5 July 1922).
39.
Northern Ireland Labour Party, Report of Executive Committee to 5th Annual Conference, 31 Mar. 1928 (Belfast, 1928), pp. 2–3.
40.
Census of Population of Northern Ireland 1937, p. 15.
41.
Ulster Year Book 1926 (Belfast: HMSO, 1927), p. 141; Ulster Year Book 1938 (Belfast: HMSO), p. 315.
42.
For discussion of labour, nationalism and sectarianism, see Chap. 2.
43.
Belfast Newsletter, 16 Jan. 1925, 16 Jan. 1926, and 15 Nov. 1933; Belfast Telegraph, 2 April 1925, 6 and 14 Jan. 1928, 8 Jan. 1929, 17 and 24 May 1929; Northern Whig, 8 Jan. 1925, 10 and 17 Jan. 1927, 9 Jan. 1928; Irish News, 14 Jan. 1925, 16 Jan. 1926, 9 and 17 Jan. 1928, 11 Jan. 1929, 7 Jan. 1930, and 29 Nov. 1933.
44.
Sydney Elliott, ‘The Electoral System in Northern Ireland since 1920’, 2 vols. (unpublished PhD thesis, Queen’s University Belfast, 1970), I, p. 262.
45.
See Chap. 1, footnote 46.
46.
See Table 3.7 above.
47.
D. S. Johnson, ‘The Northern Irish Economy, 1914–39’, An Economic History of Ulster, 1820–1939 ed. by Liam Kennedy and Philip Ollerenshaw (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), pp. 184–223 (pp. 208–9).
48.
Ibid., p. 209.
49.
See relevant chapters of Ulster since 1600: Politics, Economy and Society ed. by Liam Kennedy and Philip Ollerenshaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
50.
‘Identity’ is here taken to include issues of nationality, religion and ethnicity.
51.
The Voice of Labour , 4 April 1925.
52.
Patrick Buckland, Factory of Grievances, p. 30.
53.
Belfast Newsletter, 6 Jan. 1925.
54.
Belfast Telegraph, 16 May 1929.
55.
Northern Whig, 9 Jan. 1928.
56.
Irish News, 7 Jan. 1930; Northern Whig, 8 Jan. 1925.
57.
‘An Open Letter to the Electors by Alderman Harry Midgley, Parliamentary Labour Candidate for Dock’, July 1932 (PRONI, Records of Sam Napier, ‘An open letter to the electors by Alderman Harry Midgley, parliamentary labour candidate for Dock’, p. 1, D/3702/B/4A-G).
58.
Belfast Newsletter, 11 Jan. 1928.
59.
Belfast Newsletter, 12 Jan. 1924.
60.
The Megaw report investigated the procurement and building of houses by the Belfast Corporation. It substantiated claims of over-payment for timber and criticised the administration of housing by Belfast Corporation and lack of supervision by the Corporation’s Housing Committee. See R. D. Megaw, Report of the Inquiry into the Housing Schemes of the Belfast Corporation (Belfast: HMSO, 1926).
61.
See Chap. 2.
62.
The Voice of Labour , 28 March 1925.
63.
Irish News, 10 Jan. 1928.
64.
Belfast Newsletter, 12 Jan. 1933.
65.
Graham Walker, A History of the Ulster Unionist Party: Protest, Pragmatism and Pessimism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), p. 76.
66.
The Watchword, 20 Dec. 1930.
67.
Irish News, 12 Jan. 1925.
68.
Ibid., 16 Jan. 1925.
69.
Ibid., 9 Jan. 1925, 14 Jan. 1926, 14 Jan. 1927, and 9 Jan. 1928.
70.
Belfast Newsletter, 12 Jan. 1933.
71.
Irish News, 8 Jan. 1930.
72.
Ibid.
73.
Irish News, 8, 9, and 14 Jan. 1925.
74.
Graham Walker, The Politics of Frustration, p. 107; see Betty Sinclair’s explanation for Harry Midgley’s defeat at the 1938 Northern Irish general election, Chap. 2.
75.
Belfast Newsletter, 27 Nov. 1933; Belfast Telegraph, 18 Jan. 1927; Irish News, 10 Jan. 1928; Northern Whig, 12 Jan. 1927.
76.
A. C. Hepburn, Catholic Belfast and Nationalist Ireland in the Era of Joe Devlin, 1871–1934 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 264.
77.
See footnote 46, Chap. 1.
78.
Sydney Elliott, ‘The Electoral System’, I, p. 262.
79.
Ian Budge and Cornelius O’Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis, p. 178.
80.
Sydney Elliott, ‘The Electoral System’, II, p. 789.
81.
Irish News, 16 Jan. 1924.
82.
Northern Ireland Labour Party, Organisational and Financial Report 1927–8 (Belfast, 1928), p. 7.
83.
The Irishman, 4 Jan. 1930.
84.
Northern Ireland Labour Party, Report of the Executive Committee to 16th Annual Conference (Belfast, 1939), p. 2.
85.
Graham Walker, The Politics of Frustration, p. 52.
86.
Belfast Telegraph, 25 and 29 Jan. 1938.
87.
Ian Budge and Cornelius O’Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis, p. 177.
88.
Northern Whig, 16 Jan. 1924.
89.
Belfast Telegraph, 17 Jan. 1928.
90.
Belfast Newsletter, 2 Dec. 1933; Belfast Telegraph, 7 April 1925 and 16 Jan. 1933; Irish News, 15 Jan. 1930.
91.
Belfast Telegraph, 13 Jan. 1926.
92.
Ibid., 17 May 1929; Belfast Newsletter, 15 Nov. 1933; Irish News, 16 Jan. 1926.
93.
In 1930, 1931, and 1933, NILP candidates received 2260, 2605, and 1450 votes in Belfast Corporation elections for the Shankill ward.
94.
Belfast Newsletter, 2 Dec. 1933; Belfast Telegraph, 24, 25 and 31 March 1925.
95.
‘Harry Midgley to the Electors of Dock Division’, Nov. 1933 (PRONI, Harry Midgley Papers, D/4089/4/1/36).
96.
Belfast Telegraph, 25 and 26 Jan. 1925.
97.
Irish News, 5 Feb. 1938.
98.
Ibid., 2 Feb. 1938.
99.
The ‘Armagh resolution’ was a pro-Irish unity amendment moved at the NILP’s 1937 annual conference. Midgley and his supporters helped defeat the motion and alternatively orientated the party towards links with the British Labour Party.
100.
A. C. Hepburn, Catholic Belfast and Nationalist Ireland, p. 257.
101.
Northern Whig, 16 Jan. and 30 March 1925.
102.
Northern Whig, 13 and 16 Jan. 1925.
103.
Belfast Telegraph, 13 Jan. 1925.
104.
Belfast Newsletter, 16 Nov. 1933.
105.
Northern Whig, 10 Jan. 1927.
106.
Irish News, 11 Jan. 1927.
107.
Irish News, 17 Jan. 1933.

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Christopher J. V. Loughlin

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Loughlin, C.J.V. (2018). Building the ‘Great March’ of Progress. In: Labour and the Politics of Disloyalty in Belfast, 1921-39. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71081-5_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71081-5_3
Published: 07 February 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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