20 Facts About Paddy Devlin

Patrick Joseph Devlin was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer from Belfast.

Paddy Devlin was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, a Stormont MP and a member of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive.

Paddy Devlin was 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.

Paddy Devlin's mother was a leading activist in Joe Devlin's Nationalist Party machine in the Falls area and Devlin grew up in a highly political household.

Paddy Devlin was elected as the Irish Labour candidate in a council by-election for the Falls ward in 1956 beating Gerry Fitt who fought the election as the Dock Labour Party candidate.

Later Catholic Action claimed the Irish Labour Party was infested with communists and ensured the party were effectively wiped out and Paddy Devlin lost his seat in 1958.

From 1968 through 1969, Paddy Devlin was very involved in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement.

Paddy Devlin believed that the NILP working in alliance with the civil rights movement could have changed the situation and reduced the sectarian tensions.

Paddy Devlin started discussing with other Labour activists, civil rights leaders and moderate nationalists the possibility of launching a new party.

Paddy Devlin then went on, with Fitt, John Hume, Austin Currie and others to found the SDLP in 1970.

Paddy Devlin was later involved, at the request of William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in ensuring safe passage for Gerry Adams for talks with the British government in 1973.

Paddy Devlin was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973 and Minister of Health and Social Services in the power-sharing Executive from 1 January 1974 to 28 May 1974.

Paddy Devlin stood under its label for the European Parliament in 1979 but polled just 6,122 first preferences and thereby lost his deposit.

Paddy Devlin did not support the hunger strike and the campaign for political status for Republican prisoners.

Paddy Devlin was re-elected as an Independent Socialist to Belfast City Council in the 1981 local elections but with a much reduced vote of 1,343; down from the 7,087 votes he won four years earlier.

Paddy Devlin suffered from severe diabetes and throughout the 1990s suffered a series of ailments as his health and sight collapsed.

Paddy Devlin spoke out against the assassination of Irish National Liberation Army chief Ronnie Bunting in 1980, commonly attributed to an Ulster Defence Association hit squad, but which Paddy Devlin always believed was carried out by an 'SAS type' unit with British Security force involvement.

Paddy Devlin was a lifelong socialist who ended up being expelled from the SDLP for criticizing its lack of socialist politics.

Outside of party politics, Paddy Devlin spent his later years as Area Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union.

Paddy Devlin wrote an acclaimed study of the 1935 Outdoor Relief Riots in Belfast, published as Yes We Have No Bananas in 1985.