The Belfast Labour Party was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

from 1892 until 1924. It was founded in 1892 by a conference of Belfast

Independent Labour The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidate ...

activists and trade unionists. Labour ran the Unionist Party close in Belfast North in a by-election in 1905 and in the general election of 1906 with

William Walker William Walker may refer to: Arts * William Walker (engraver) (1791–1867), mezzotint engraver of portrait of Robert Burns * William Sidney Walker (1795–1846), English Shakespearean critic * William Walker (composer) (1809–1875), American Bap ...

as its candidate. The party won 12 seats on

Belfast Corporation Belfast City Council () is the local authority with responsibility for part of Belfast, the largest city of Northern Ireland. The council serves an estimated population of (), the largest of any district council in Northern Ireland, while bein ...

in 1920, but later lost these. Suffragette, ''Independent Labour'' and Co-operative activist

Margaret McCoubrey Margaret McCoubrey (1880–1956) was a Belfast-based Irish suffragist, pacifist, and an activist in the cooperative and labour movements. Standing for the Belfast Labour Party, she was elected to Belfast City Council in 1920.. Life McCoubr ...

in 1920 was elected a Labour councillor for the Dock ward of Belfast.McCoubrey, Margaret 1880-1955 Dictionary of Ulster Biography
Nonetheless, the party came a very close second in Belfast West in the

1923 UK general election The 1923 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 December 1923. The Conservative Party (UK), Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won the most seats, but Labour Party (UK), Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. ...

before merging with others to become the

Northern Ireland Labour Party The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was a political party in Northern Ireland which operated from 1924 until 1987. Origins The roots of the NILP can be traced back to the formation of the Belfast Labour Party in 1892. Previously, in 1885 ...

Ideology

Position on partition & united Ireland

The party found it difficult to sidestep the issue of partition between 1920 and 1922, when the topic pervaded political life in Ireland. In its desire to avoid division over the subject, the party did not directly contest the 1921 Northern Irish election, instead supporting 4 independent candidates. The party's attempt to tip-toe the national question was shown in the campaign run by

Harry Midgley Henry Cassidy Midgley, PC (NI), known as Harry Midgley (1893 – 29 April 1957) was a prominent trade-unionist and politician in Northern Ireland. Born to a working-class Protestant family in Tiger's Bay, north Belfast, he followed his father in ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

in the constituency of Belfast West. In the Protestant Belfast ward of Shankill Midgley emphasized his Protestantism and his military service in the British army during World War One. In contrast, in the Catholic Falls area he attacked the policy of internment of prisoners and showed support for the idea of a

United Ireland United Ireland (), also referred to as Irish reunification or a ''New Ireland'', is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland (legally ...

References

{{Authority control 1892 establishments in Ireland Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Defunct social democratic parties in the United Kingdom History of the Labour Party (UK) Labour parties in Northern Ireland Political parties established in 1892 Socialist parties in Ireland Political parties disestablished in 1924