Paddy Devlin

Paddy Devlin Co-founder of the Social Democrat and Labor party in Northern born in the Pound Loney in the Lower Falls in West Belfast on 8 March 1925 and lived in the city for almost all his life. His mother was a leading activist in Joe Devlin’s no relation Nationalist Party machine in the Falls area and Devlin grew up in a highly political household. However his early activism was confined to Fianna Éireann and then the Irish Republican Army and as a result he was interned in Crumlin Road Gaol during the Second World War. On his release he left the republican movement.
Following World War II, and his stay at Crumlin Road Goal, Devlin left the Republican movement and moved to Coventry, where he discovered and became a temporary member of the British Labour Party. Upon his return to Belfast, Devlin founded the Irish Labour Party after the National Ireland Labour Party had split, winning a seat on the city council. However, following claims that many party members were communists, the party was dismantled and Devlin forced off the council. Devlin would join the re-united National Ireland Labour Party in the mid 1960’s only to leave it again after he co-founded the Social Democratic and Labour Party in 1970.
Devlin played a significant role in the creation of the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974, an attempt to create a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly and collective Council of Ireland, until its end as a result of fierce opposition and violence later that same year.
Throughout the late 70’s and 80’s, Devlin tried to create a United Labour Party that would serve as broad-based labor representation, however this aim was never fully achieved. The 1990’s marked the beginning of the end for Paddy Devlin as his lifelong struggle with his diabetes began to prove too much. Devlin’s sight deteriorated and on August 15, 1999, at the age of 74, illness exacerbated his already poor health and Devlin died. He is remembered for his determination and his love for his country and the workingman, Catholic and Protestant alike.