Abstract
Parr (the grandson of former prominent politician and activist, the late Paddy Devlin) employs a biographical approach to his chapter, where—via personal interviews, reportage and scholarly works—he fuses the biographical with the academic to explore Catholic politics in West Belfast. He reasserts Devlin’s belief in the Labour movement, which led to his rejection of Catholicism and speculates whether his variegated political trajectory was a reflection of his own complex Catholic background.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In electoral terms, women were less prominent, but activists including Saidie Patterson, Betty Sinclair, Sadie Menzies and Madge Davison are further exemplars of this vein of Protestant Leftism.
- 2.
Founded in 1964 by Belfast Dock and Falls representatives Gerry Fitt and Harry Diamond, the party had several councillors and later became best known for its involvement in the civil disobedience campaign against internment without trial. Though Paddy Kennedy also became involved with Republican Labour, it was essentially finished when Fitt left to found the SDLP with five others (including Devlin) in 1970.
- 3.
In a recently published piece on the NILP’S Vivian Simpson, Andy Cook suggests that Paddy was sympathetic to Terence O’Neill’s political vision of where Northern Ireland was heading in the late 1960s. Cook traces this to Paddy’s autobiography Straight Left (1993), even though the same book shows that he was fundamentally unimpressed by O’Neill for his attacks on Labour. Paddy even expresses the view that had Brian Faulkner acceded to the leadership of Unionism; the later Troubles may have been averted. A reference in Cook’s piece to Paddy enduing a ‘difficult relationship’ with Vivian Simpson is not backed up by evidence, and the description of his hurling a ‘bundle of Hansards’ at NILP Secretary Douglas McIldoon is rather light going by Paddy’s standards. Cook is probably unaware of the story of my grandfather once losing patience with Conor Cruise O’Brien and registering his displeasure by firing a gun over the head of ‘the Cruiser’ as a warning shot!
- 4.
The importance of the Labour vote in the Ardoyne, north Belfast, cannot be underestimated. It kept the NILP’s seat in Oldpark from 1958 until 1972, a consistent Labour stronghold as the NILP suffered the unwanted attention of Prime Minister Terence O’Neill and the onset of the Troubles.
- 5.
Fascinatingly, in a recent speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the civil rights agitation of 1967, current SDLP leader Colum Eastwood reeled off a list of names including John Hume , Austin Currie and Ivan Cooper of those associated with civil rights (Irish Times, 5 October 2017) and managed to leave out Paddy Devlin, despite his being the only SDLP founding member of the original executive of NICRA . On the other hand, Paddy would not have appreciated being endorsed by an SDLP leader who maintains the party’s socially conservative views on abortion and Catholic control of schooling.
References
Bloomfield, K. (1994). Stormont in crisis: A personal memoir. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Campbell, S. (2015). Gerry Fitt and the SDLP: In a minority of one. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Carnduff, M. (1942, December 19). Letter. Queen’s University Belfast, McClay Library Special Collections.
Clarke, L. (1987). Broadening the battlefield: The H-Blocks and the rise of Sinn Féin. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Cook, A. (2017). “Nature’s Own Moderate”: Vivian Simpson and the Northern Ireland Labour Party 1958–72. Saothar, 42, 75–6, 81.
Cradden, T. (1993). Trade unionism, socialism and partition: The labour movement in Northern Ireland, 1939–1953. Belfast: December Publications.
Cunningham, A., Eagleton, T., Wicker, B., Redfern, M., & Bright, L. (1966). Catholics and the left. London: Sheed and Ward.
Devlin, A. (1986). Ourselves alone (with the long march and a woman calling). London: Faber and Faber.
Devlin, A. (2004). Writing the troubles. In B. Cliff & É. Walshe (Eds.), Representing the troubles: Texts and images (pp. 1970–2000). Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Devlin, B. (n.d.). An interlude with seagulls: Memories of a Long Kesh internee. Belfast: Bobby Devlin.
Devlin, P. (1985). A plain-spoken preacher of catholic alienation, Fortnight, No. 224.
Devlin, P. Quoted in Fortnight, No. 216 (March 18–31, 1985), 26.
Devlin, P. (1993). Straight left: An autobiography. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Devlin, P. Interview. Belfast, 6 May 2009.
Devlin, T. Interview. Belfast, 19 September 2009.
Edwards, A. (2009). A history of the Northern Ireland Labour Party: Democratic socialism and sectarianism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Elliot, S., & Flackes, W. D. (1999). Northern Ireland: A political directory, 1968–1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Garrett, B. Interview. Belfast, 28 March 2011.
Hanley, B., & Millar, S. (2009). The lost revolution: The story of the official IRA and the workers’ party. Dublin: Penguin Ireland.
Hennessey, T. (1997). A history of Northern Ireland, 1920–1996. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Holmes, E. Interview. Belfast, 19 August 2010.
Irish News, 27 May 1981.
Irish Times, 28 May 1981.
McIldoon, D. Interview. Belfast, 27 January 2012.
Moloney, E. (2002). A secret history of the IRA. London: Penguin.
Morrissey, M., & Smyth, M. (2002). Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement: Victims, grievance and blame. London: Pluto Press.
O’Boyle, C. (2017, April 25). Funeral tributes for top NI judge who jailed the Shankill butchers. Belfast Telegraph.
O’Malley, P. (1991). Biting at the Grave: The Irish hunger strikes and the politics of despair. Boston: Beacon Press.
Parr, C. (2012). Managing his aspirations. Irish Political Studies, 27(1), 114.
Purdie, B. (1990). Politics in the streets: The origins of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.
Staunton, E. (2001). The nationalists of Northern Ireland, 1918–1973. Dublin: Columba Press.
The Guardian, 4 June 1979.
The Guardian, 26 May 1981.
Walker, G. (1984). The Commonwealth Labour Party in Northern Ireland, 1942–4. Irish Historical Studies, 24(93), 69–91.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Parr, C. (2018). Paddy Devlin, the Labour Movement and the Catholic Community. In: Burgess, T. (eds) The Contested Identities of Ulster Catholics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78804-3_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78804-3_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78803-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78804-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)