History and Hope

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

Brian Eggins

• Publisher: THP Ireland
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780750964753
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In 1970, a group of people had what many commentators felt was a ludicrous dream, that politics in Northern Ireland 'should not be dominated by division, but should be about co-operation, partnership and reconciliation'. This dream was to become the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. In the years since, this ambition to overcome tribal politics for a greater good has been preserved, through good times and bad. This book, the first full record of the development of the Alliance Party, charts that journey of hope and of history.

1

Perchance to dream: The founding of the Alliance Party 1969–1972

INTRODUCTION

This chapter shows how Oliver Napier and others developed the new Alliance Party through the vehicle of the New Ulster Movement against the background of the Civil Rights movement, continuing violence from both Loyalist and Republican paramilitary groups and the prime minister of the day Terence O’Neill’s attempts to provide a package of five reforms, thereby going some distance towards meeting increasing demands from the large minority.

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME MUST GIVE US PAUSE?

There were those who dreamt of a united Ireland and were prepared to fight and die for it. There were those for whom such a vision was a nightmare and who were prepared to fight to prevent it. There were even some who thought an independent ‘Ulster’ might be preferable. There were others with more modest dreams, who just longed for a fair society. Among these was an expanded force of university-educated Catholics, together with some Protestants who could see the injustices of the Unionist-dominated society and who wanted change. Some members of this mixed group, together with English students attending Queen’s University, formed the Civil Rights Association in February 1967 and held protest marches across the province.

In 1963 Captain Terence O’Neill had taken over as prime minister of the Stormont Government from the more hard-line anti-Catholic Lord Brookeborough. Perhaps O’Neill had a dream too that reform was needed, which led to a meeting with Irish Taoiseach Seán Lemass. The meeting was opposed by firebrand preacher Revd Ian Paisley who is said to have called Lemass a ‘Fenian papist murderer’.²²

Catholics suffered systemic discrimination in terms of jobs, housing and electoral representation in Northern Ireland. In fact, many Protestant working people were not much better off, but they felt the Unionist government in the ‘Protestant Parliament’ at Stormont was looking after them. In the 1950s Ian Paisley came to the fore, vehemently opposed to all things Catholic, and opposed to anyone supporting Catholics.

Even after the defeat of the IRA in its 1956–1962 campaign, there was much fear among Protestants. Paisley whipped up this fear, and in 1965 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), originally formed around 1913 to oppose the Home Rule movement, was revived. Perhaps they feared a fresh IRA campaign in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Easter Rising of 1916? In 1966 UVF members, including Gusty Spence who was subsequently convicted and jailed, murdered two innocent Catholics.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Since the 1944 Education Act, free secondary education had become more widely available in Great Britain (but not in Northern Ireland until 1947). More Catholics in particular were obtaining educational qualifications and moving into the professions, though the Civil Service continued to be mainly Protestant, especially in the higher echelons. The situation is demonstrated in an anecdote which describes the Minister of Agriculture’s response when accused of employing Catholics in his ministry: ‘I have 109 officials and so far as I know, four of them are Roman Catholic, three of whom were civil servants turned over to me, whom I had to take on when we began’.²³

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed in February 1967, as mentioned earlier, supported by both Catholics and some moderate Protestants. This association was largely student led and coincided with student civil rights movements across Europe, particularly in Paris and Prague, as well as in the USA, where they were protesting against the Vietnam War. The Association was campaigning for universal franchise for local government elections, the redrawing of electoral boundaries, the introduction of laws to end discrimination in employment, a points system for public housing and repeal of the Special Powers Act.

The Special Powers Act was introduced in 1922 by the Unionist government in an attempt to establish law and order. It contained draconian measures such as empowering the Home Affairs Minister to take whatever measures he deemed necessary for that end. A summary non-jury court could sentence offenders to up to a year’s hard labour in prison or even a whipping. Actions could include the forbidding of inquests, closing licensed premises, banning assembly and marches in public areas, closing of roads, taking possession of arms, ammunition and explosives, seizure of land and destruction of buildings, and even spreading by word of mouth any opinions which might cause disaffection. There were provisions for stop and search and confiscation of motor vehicles, arrest and imprisonments on remand without a warrant. Originally the order was for one year, but in 1928 it was extended for five years and then in 1933 was made permanent following opposition from Nationalist MPs. The act was repealed in 1973 following direct rule. The full details are described in the CAIN WEB.²⁴

The NICRA also demanded the disbanding of the Ulster Special Constabulary (the B-specials) who were almost entirely Protestant and alleged to be riddled with members of Loyalist paramilitary groups.

As in other parts of the world, the civil rights movement was vigorously repressed. Paisley and his colleagues often led the opposition, and the RUC as well as the B-specials often used violence against the protestors. Significant NICRA marches took place in Dungannon on 24 August 1968 and on 5 October in Londonderry. Home Affairs Minister William Craig officially banned this latter march. Over 2,000 people assembled and were viciously attacked by the RUC. Eleven policemen and seventy-seven civilians were injured. The following day students met in protest at Queen’s University in Belfast and formed a more militant group, People’s Democracy (PD), at which meeting Bernadette Devlin emerged as a leader along with Michael Farrell.

Following a meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Home Secretary James Callaghan on 4 November, Terence O’Neill announced a package of five reforms on 22 November 1968, which were intended to meet the main points of the Catholic grievances. The five points were: a new system for allocation of houses by local government; an ombudsman to investigate complaints; a development commission to take over powers of Londonderry Corporation; the Special Powers Act to be abolished ‘as soon as it is safe to do so’ and the end of company vote – but there was no decision to enfranchise non-ratepayers. This innovation led to dissension in the Stormont cabinet, with William Craig calling for tough action against the NICRA, who were in any case not satisfied with O’Neill’s package.

ULSTER AT THE CROSSROADS

On 9 December 1968 Prime Minister Terence O’Neill appealed to the people in a radio broadcast over the heads of his cabinet critics, with his famous ‘Ulster at the crossroads’ speech.

Ulster stands at the cross roads. I believe ... the time has come for the people as a whole to speak in a clear voice. For more than five years I have tried to heal some of the deep divisions in our community ... What kind of Ulster do you want?²⁵

He apparently received overwhelming public support, especially from Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Conway and Nationalist Eddie McAteer. The Unionists as a whole supported O’Neill, with four abstentions. But two ministers resigned, unconvinced by Terence O’Neill’s policies. So O’Neill called an Ulster general election for 24 February (known as the ‘Crossroads Election’). He himself defeated Paisley (standing as a Protestant Unionist) and Michael Farrell (People’s Democracy) in the Bannside constituency. Independent John Hume won Foyle from Eddie McAteer. Nationalists lost three seats to civil rights candidates. Republican Labour won two seats in Belfast for Gerry Fitt and Paddy Devlin. The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) also won a seat. Of thirty-nine Unionist MPs, twenty-seven supported O’Neill, ten were against him and two were undecided.

On 17 April Bernadette Devlin won the Mid-Ulster seat at Westminster in a by-election. Finally, on 23 April, the government agreed to universal suffrage in Northern Ireland elections – the same day the 21-year-old psychology student, Bernadette Devlin, made her maiden speech to an astounded House of Commons.

It is often forgotten that O’Neill had actually won the ‘Crossroads’ election on 24 February 1969 in that twenty-seven out of the thirty-nine Unionists elected supported his reform programme. They were, though, a mixture of Official and Unofficial Unionists and the divisions at the grass roots were serious. Despite having ‘won’ the election O’Neill had failed to unite the Unionist Party, so in April he resigned and was replaced by James Chichester-Clark. Violence continued when Loyalist gangs attacked and burned Catholic homes in West Belfast. On 14 August 1969 British troops were brought in to help the RUC. Initially Catholics, who were hard pressed by the Loyalists in Belfast, welcomed them. The honeymoon did not last long. Once the army called a curfew to search for weapons there were serious riots and the Catholic people turned against the army. Many of them turned to the newly formed Provisional IRA for support.

THE NEW ULSTER MOVEMENT

Meanwhile another group had a different sort of dream. A new political grouping emerged in January 1969 called the New Ulster Movement, which aimed to develop cross-community politics with moderate and non-sectarian policies involving both Catholics and Protestants. Its inaugural meeting was held on 5 February. As Denis Loretto recalled:

Chaos was at hand and it was up to the Northern Irish people themselves to put aside their sterile divisions and build the solution. The root problem was sectarianism. A combination of absolute equality and involvement for Protestants and Catholics and respect for the rule of law was paramount.^26,27

Catholic solicitor Oliver Napier together with Ronnie Boyle invited a number of Liberal Party members, including Tony Cinnamond and Denis Haslem, to this inaugural meeting. As we shall see, it was always Napier’s intention that the NUM should be the launching pad for a new liberal non-sectarian party.

Sir Oliver commented that:

We did our best to hide the fact that a group within the Liberal Party was handling it, which would be the kiss of death. We kept [Revd] Albert McElroy informed at every step but asked him not to attend. I wanted to tell Sheelagh Murnaghan, but Albert advised against. He said he would – it would come better from him as Sheelagh was suspicious of me because she thought I was ‘too political’.²⁸

The Liberals who helped found the NUM were promptly expelled from the Liberal Party. In the subsequent Stormont election, Liberal leader Sheelagh Murnaghan, who had held a seat for the Liberals since 1961 under the anachronistic university franchise, was only able to muster 15% of the vote in North Down.

It was very hard going to develop this new vision in the face of continuing violence and to produce credible documents that would form the basis of constitutional reform of the Stormont Parliament over many years to come. During 1969 the NUM built an active organisation with about 7,000 members, drawn from all sections of the community. It issued many influential papers^29,30 and was the first organisation to call for a Community Relations Commission and a central Housing Executive. Its more radical members, however, were becoming dissatisfied with a movement. They wanted a new political party.

A key new member was another (Catholic) solicitor, Jim Hendron. In a very personal account³¹ he recalled how he and his wife Máire joined the Bloomfield Branch of NUM in September 1969. He quickly proposed that the NUM should set up a special committee to lead to the formation of a new non-sectarian political party. His resolution was easily carried.

The NUM’s first chairperson was personnel manager Brian Walker, followed by Dr Stanley Worrall, former headmaster of Methodist College Belfast.

1970 was the year in which NUM changed its role, owing to the formation of the fledgling Alliance Party. From being an electioneering organisation it became an ‘ideas’ organisation and one which sought to ...