Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP)

The Northern Ireland Labour Party was founded in the wake of the British Labour Party’s decision to give the Irish Labour Party organising rights in Ireland in 1913. Following partition the NILP was founded from a number of groups. It took no position on the issue of partition until 1949 and the declaration of the Republic at which point it expressed support for the Union. Electorally it had mixed fortunes with one Westminster MP during the 1940s and as many as four MPs elected to Stormont in the late 1950s. In 1971 David Bleakley was appointed to Cabinet. WIth proroguement of the Stormont Parliament the party went into a long decline. In 1987 it merged with Paddy Devlin’s Labour Party of Northern Ireland and other small parties to form Labour ‘87.