# Paddy Devlin
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{{Short description|Northern Irish politician (1925–1999)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Paddy Devlin
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Paddy_Devlin.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Devlin c. 1980
| office =
| constituency_MP = [Belfast Falls](/source/Belfast_Falls_(Northern_Ireland_Parliament_constituency))
| parliament = Parliament of Northern Ireland{{!}}NI
| majority =
| term_start = 1969
| term_end = 1972
| predecessor = [Harry Diamond](/source/Harry_Diamond_(politician))
| successor = Constituency Abolished
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|3|8|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [Pound Loney](/source/Pound_Loney), [Belfast](/source/Belfast), Northern Ireland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1999|8|15|1925|3|8|df=y}}
| death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland
| resting_place =
| birth_name = Patrick Joseph Devlin
| party = [Irish Labour](/source/Labour_Party_(Ireland)) {{small|(1948–1958)}}
[NILP](/source/Northern_Ireland_Labour_Party) {{small|(1958–1970)}}
[SDLP](/source/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party) {{small|(1970–1977)}}
[United Labour](/source/United_Labour_Party_(Northern_Ireland)) {{small|(1978–1980s)}}
[LPNI](/source/Labour_Party_of_Northern_Ireland) {{small|(1985–1990)}}
| other_party =
| spouse = Theresa Devlin
| relations =
| children = 5
| alma_mater =
| occupation =
| profession =
| cabinet =
| committees =
| portfolio =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
}}
'''Patrick Joseph Devlin''' (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999)[Michael O'Regan,
[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/tributes-to-paddy-devlin-who-dies-after-long-illness-1.217014 'Tributes to Paddy Devlin who dies after long illness']. ''The Irish Times'', 16 August 1999. Retrieved 14 December 2024] was an [Irish](/source/Irish_people) socialist, [labour](/source/Labour_movement), and [civil rights](/source/Northern_Ireland_civil_rights_movement) activist and writer from [Belfast](/source/Belfast). He was a founding member of the [Social Democratic and Labour Party](/source/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party) (SDLP), a [Stormont](/source/Parliament_of_Northern_Ireland) MP and a member of the 1974 [Power Sharing Executive](/source/Sunningdale_Agreement).[{{cite news |title=SDLP founder Paddy Devlin is dead at 74 |url=https://www.irishecho.com/2011/02/sdlp-founder-paddy-devlin-is-dead-at-74 |access-date=11 May 2021 |work=[Irish Echo](/source/Irish_Echo) |date=16 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511111519/https://www.irishecho.com/2011/02/sdlp-founder-paddy-devlin-is-dead-at-74/ |archive-date=11 May 2021 |location=[New York](/source/New_York_City)}}]
Described as a "relentless campaigner against sectarianism", Devlin had once been a member of the IRA but later renounced [physical force republicanism](/source/physical_force_republicanism) to work at transcending sectarian differences through peaceful, [socialist](/source/socialist) and [nationalist](/source/Irish_nationalism) political means.
==Early life==
Devlin was born in the [Pound Loney](/source/Pound_Loney) in the [Lower Falls](/source/Falls_Road_(Belfast)) in West [Belfast](/source/Belfast) on 8 March 1925 and lived in the city for almost all his life. His mother was a leading activist in [Joe Devlin](/source/Joseph_Devlin)'s (no relation) [Nationalist Party](/source/Nationalist_Party_(Northern_Ireland)) machine in the Falls area, and Devlin grew up in a highly political household. However, his early activism was confined to [Fianna Éireann](/source/Fianna_%C3%89ireann) and then the [Irish Republican Army](/source/Irish_Republican_Army_(1922-1969)) (IRA) and as a result, he was [interned](/source/internment) in [Crumlin Road Gaol](/source/Crumlin_Road_Gaol) from 1942 to 1945 at age 17. After his release, he became convinced that physical force nationalism would fail in its goals.[{{cite news |last1=Unsworth |first1=Monika |title=Lifelong socialist never wavered in his convictions |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/lifelong-socialist-never-wavered-in-his-convictions-1.217021 |access-date=11 May 2021 |newspaper=[The Irish Times](/source/The_Irish_Times) |date=16 August 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511111929/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/lifelong-socialist-never-wavered-in-his-convictions-1.217021 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |location=Dublin}}][{{Cite web |last=Ryder |first=Chris |date=1999-08-16 |title=Paddy Devlin |url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/aug/16/guardianobituaries |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}]
==Post-war==
After the war, and in search of work, he spent some time in [Portsmouth](/source/Portsmouth) working as a scaffolder and in [Coventry](/source/Coventry) working in the car industry. In Coventry, he became interested in Labour and trade union politics and briefly joined the [British Labour Party](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)).
Returning to [Belfast](/source/Belfast) in 1948, he found the local Labour Party split over partition. Under [Harry Midgley](/source/Harry_Midgley)’s influence, the [Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP)](/source/Northern_Ireland_Labour_Party) had adopted a pro-partition position. In response, many anti-partition Labour activists left the [NILP](/source/Northern_Ireland_Labour_Party) and joined the [Irish Labour Party](/source/Labour_Party_(Ireland)), which was led locally by [Jack Beattie](/source/Jack_Beattie), who was an MP in Stormont and Westminster. Paddy Devlin joined the Irish Labour Party in 1949.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=68–70 |oclc=29670138}}]
Devlin was elected as the Irish Labour candidate in a council by-election for the Falls ward in 1956, beating [Gerry Fitt](/source/Gerry_Fitt), who fought the election as the Dock Labour Party candidate.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=70–71 |oclc=29670138}}]
Later [Catholic Action](/source/Catholic_Action) claimed the Irish Labour Party was infested with communists and ensured the party was effectively wiped out, and Devlin lost his seat in 1958. In the same year, in the aftermath of the Council election defeat, he joined the [Northern Ireland Labour Party](/source/Northern_Ireland_Labour_Party).[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=83–85 |oclc=29670138}}]
From 1968 through 1969, Devlin was very involved in the [Northern Ireland civil rights movement](/source/Northern_Ireland_civil_rights_movement). The heavy-handed response by the [RUC](/source/Royal_Ulster_Constabulary) and the [B Specials](/source/B-Specials) to civil rights marches resulted in widespread rioting. The confrontations descended into sectarian violence as Catholic areas, especially in Belfast, came under attack from Loyalist gangs, with many families being burnt out of their homes.
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".[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=131–132 |oclc=29670138}}] 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.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=133 |oclc=29670138}}] 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 its party membership in August 1970.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=139 |oclc=29670138}}]
Devlin then went on, with Fitt, [John Hume](/source/John_Hume), [Austin Currie](/source/Austin_Currie) and others, to found the [SDLP](/source/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party) in 1970. The [Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)](/source/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party) 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".[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=142 |oclc=29670138}}]
He was later involved, at the request of [William Whitelaw](/source/William_Whitelaw%2C_1st_Viscount_Whitelaw), the [Secretary of State for Northern Ireland](/source/Secretary_of_State_for_Northern_Ireland), in ensuring safe passage for [Gerry Adams](/source/Gerry_Adams) for talks with the [British government](/source/British_government) in 1973.
He was a member of the [Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973](/source/Northern_Ireland_Assembly%2C_1973), and Minister of Health and Social Services in the power-sharing Executive from 1 January 1974 to 28 May 1974. The [power-sharing Executive](/source/Executive_of_the_1974_Northern_Ireland_Assembly) was a cross-community coalition administration. The SDLP joined the Executive along with the pro-power-sharing wing of the Ulster Unionist Party and the Alliance Party. The Executive would be short-lived. It collapsed after five months at the end of May 1974, following the Protestant workers Ulster Workers Council strike.
By 1977 Devlin felt that the SDLP "was being stripped of its socialism and being taken over by unadulterated nationalists".[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=278 |oclc=29670138}}] 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.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=279–283 |oclc=29670138}}]
In 1978 he established the [United Labour Party](/source/United_Labour_Party_(Northern_Ireland)), which aimed to be a broad-based Labour formation in Northern Ireland. He stood under its label for the [European Parliament](/source/European_Parliament) in 1979 but polled just 6,122 [first preferences](/source/Single_Transferable_Vote) (1.1% of those cast) and lost his deposit.
Devlin did not support the hunger strike and the campaign for political status for Republican prisoners.[{{Cite book |last=Devlin |first=Paddy |title=Straight left : an autobiography |date=1993 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0-85640-514-0 |location=Belfast |pages=284 |oclc=29670138}}] He was re-elected as an Independent Socialist to Belfast City Council in the [1981 local elections](/source/1981_Belfast_City_Council_election) but with a much reduced vote of 1,343; down from the [7,087 votes he had won four years earlier](/source/1977_Belfast_City_Council_election).
In 1987 he, together with remnants of the NILP and others, established [Labour '87](/source/Labour_'87) as another attempt at building a Labour Party in Northern Ireland (LPNI) by uniting the disparate groups supporting labour and socialist policies but it too met with little or no success. In 1985, he lost his place on Belfast City council.
Devlin was also involved in the [Peace Train Organisation](/source/Peace_Train_Organisation).['Sinn Féin and the SDLP: From Alienation To Participation', (O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1995), pp.56–7. by Gerard Murray and Jonathan Tonge] Devlin also spoke out against the assassination of [Irish National Liberation Army](/source/Irish_National_Liberation_Army) chief [Ronnie Bunting](/source/Ronnie_Bunting) in 1980, commonly attributed to an [Ulster Defence Association](/source/Ulster_Defence_Association) hit squad, but which Devlin always believed was carried out by an '[SAS](/source/Special_Air_Service) type' unit with British Security force involvement.[' The Dirty War', (Arrow, London, 1991), p.293.]
Devlin was a lifelong socialist who ended up being expelled from the SDLP for criticizing its lack of socialist politics.