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Volunteer Political Party
The Volunteer Political Party (VPP) was a loyalist political party launched in Northern Ireland on 22 June 1974 by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The Chairman was Ken Gibson from East Belfast, an ex-internee and UVF chief of staff at the time.Coogan, p. 209 The success of the Ulster Workers Council Strike had shown some UVF leaders the political power they held and they sought to develop this potential further. The UVF had been banned by the Government of Northern Ireland in 1966, but was legalised at the same time as Sinn Féin by Labour Secretary of State Merlyn Rees in April 1974 to encourage a political path for Loyalist and republican paramilitary groups. It launched its manifesto "The Volunteer Political Party - a progressive and forward thinking unionist party" at a press conference on 27 September. Influenced by the thinking of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, it opposed internment without trial and the idea of independence for Northern Ireland and ...
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Ulster Loyalism
Ulster loyalism is a strand of Unionism in Ireland, Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland (and formerly all of Ireland) within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland independent of the UK. Unlike other strands of unionism, loyalism has been described as an ethnic nationalism of Ulster Protestants and "a variation of British nationalism". Loyalists are often said to have a conditional loyalty to the British state so long as it defends their interests.Smithey, Lee. ''Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland''. Oxford University Press, 2011. pp. 56–58 They see themselves as loyal primarily to the Protestant Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchy rather than to British governments and institutions, while Garret FitzGerald argued they are loyal to 'Ulster' over 'the Union'. A small minority of loyalists ha ...
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October 1974 United Kingdom General Election
The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year; the first year in which two general elections had been held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections had been held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart. The election resulted in a narrow victory for the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which won a wafer-thin majority of three seats, the narrowest in modern British history. It was to remain the last general election victory for the Labour Party until 1997, with the Conservative Party winning majorities in the next four general elections. It would also be the last time Labour won more seats at a national election than the Conservatives until the 1989 European Parliament election. This remains the most recent General Election ...
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Political Parties Established In 1974
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science. Politics may be used positively in the context of a "political solution" which is compromising and non-violent, or descriptively as "the art or science of government", but the word often also carries a negative connotation.. The concept has been defined in various ways, and different approaches have fundamentally differing views on whether it should be used extensively or in a limited way, empirically or normatively, and on whether conflict or co-operation is more essential to it. A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising internal and external f ...
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Defunct Political Parties In Northern Ireland
Defunct may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in a biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when comp ...
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Her Majesty's Government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Overview of the UK system of government : Directgov – Government, citizens and rights
Archived direct.gov.uk webpage. Retrieved on 29 August 2014.
The government is led by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister (Keir Starmer since 5 July 2024) who appoints all the other British Government frontbench, ministers. The country has had a Labour Party (UK), Labour government since 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024. The ...
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Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. It is currently led by Gavin Robinson, who initially stepped in as an interim after the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson. It is the second-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and won five seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 election. The party has been mostly described as right-wing"It will be ‘difficult’ for May to survive, says N Ireland’s DUP"
, By Vincent Boland & Robert Wright. Financial Times. 9 June 2 ...
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John McQuade
John McQuade (9 August 1911 – 19 November 1984) was a Northern Irish unionist politician. He was a professional boxer under the name of Jack Higgins. Career After serving with the British Army in Dunkirk and Burma, he was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member of Belfast City Council from 1955 to 1972. He was a UUP Member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Belfast Woodvale ( Greater Shankill) from 1965 to October 1971, when he resigned from the UUP and joined the Democratic Unionist Party. On 28 March 1972 (the last day the Parliament sat), he resigned his parliamentary seat in protest at the prorogation of the Parliament. In February 1972, in response to the escalating violence in Northern Ireland, he called for the British security forces to take over the town of Newry and for the border with the Republic of Ireland to be closed, stating his belief that the Roman Catholic Church controlled the government of the Republic of Ireland. He contested the February ...
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Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a minor unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979. Linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Red Hand Commando (RHC), for a time it described itself as "the only left of centre unionist party" in Northern Ireland, with its main support base in the loyalist working class communities of Belfast. Since the Ulster Democratic Party's dissolution in 2001, the PUP has been the sole party in Northern Ireland representing paramilitary loyalism. The PUP has one elected representative on the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Russell Watton, the party's current leader. History The party was founded by Hugh Smyth in the mid-1970s as the "Independent Unionist Group" given the dissolution of the 1974 Volunteer Political Party. In 1977, two prominent members of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, David Overend and ...
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Hugh Smyth
Hugh Smyth OBE (16 March 1939 – 12 May 2014) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 1979 to 2002, as well as during an interim period in 2011. He was Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1994 to 1995, as well as a Belfast City Councillor for the Court and Belfast Area E DEAs from 1972 to January 2014, making him one of the longest-serving members on the Council. Smyth was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year's Honours list. Emergence in politics Born in the Woodvale Road district of the Shankill Road area of Belfast, Smyth was one of nine children and was educated locally and worked as a metal bonder in the Short Brothers factory before entering full-time politics. Smyth first came to attention in the early 1970s when he served as a public spokesman for the Ulster Volunteer Force although he was not an active member of the organisation. His inspiration for politics was the struggle h ...
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Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of the participants of the Troubles. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas and to combat Irish republicanism, particularly the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s, uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks that used the cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The British government proscribed the UFF as a terrorist group in November 1973, but the UDA itself was not proscribed until August 1992. The UDA/UFF were responsible for more than 400 deaths. The vast majority of its victims were Irish Catholic civilians, – choose "o ...
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Charles Harding Smith
Charles Harding Smith (24 January 1931 – 1997) was a Northern Irish loyalist and the first effective leader of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). An important figure in the Belfast-based "defence associations" that formed the basis of the UDA on its formation in 1971, Smith later became embroiled in feuds with other UDA leaders and was eventually driven out of Northern Ireland by his opponents. Development of the UDA A former soldier in the British Army Smith, at the time residing in Rosebank Street on the Shankill Road, called a meeting of other locals at the Leopold Street Pigeon Fanciers Club to develop a response to attacks by republicans from the neighboring Ardoyne area. The location was chosen because Smith was himself a pigeon fancier and a member of the club. At the meeting, it was agreed to establish a vigilante group, the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA), with Smith in command assisted by Davy Fogel, who organised military drilling for the forty or so recrui ...
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Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a Unionism in Ireland, unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig (Northern Ireland politician), William Craig, the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was closely affiliated with several Ulster loyalism, loyalist paramilitary groups. The party was set up in opposition to compulsory power sharing with Irish nationalism, Irish nationalist parties. It opposed the Sunningdale Agreement and was involved in extra-parliamentary activity against the agreement. However, in 1975, during discussions on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, constitutional convention, William Craig suggested the possibility of voluntary power sharing with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. In consequence the party split, with dissenters forming the United Uls ...
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