The Republican Labour Party (RLP) was a political party in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It was founded in 1964, with two MPs at Stormont, Harry Diamond and

Gerry Fitt Gerard Fitt, Baron Fitt (9 April 1926 – 26 August 2005), was a politician from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party. ...

. They had previously been the sole Northern Ireland representatives of the Socialist Republican Party and the Irish Labour Party respectively, so a common joke was that "two one-man parties had become one two-man party". Fitt won the West Belfast seat in the UK general election of 1966, and held it in the 1970 election. In August 1970, Fitt founded the

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (M ...

, and he and Senator Paddy Wilson were expelled from the RLP by a vote of 52 to 1. Paddy Kennedy was elected as the new party leader. He formally withdrew from Parliament in 1971, and adopted a more strongly

Irish republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

stance, agreeing to attend a conference organised by William Whitelaw only if he could bring

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

members as part of his delegation. Eamonn McCann,
Obituary: Paddy Kennedy
", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 4 May 1999 The party was wiped out in both the 1973 elections to the

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

and the 1973 local elections and as a result was disbanded.

Electoral Results

Northern Ireland General Elections

Westminster Elections

Local Elections

References

Defunct socialist parties in the United Kingdom Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Labour parties in Northern Ireland Political parties established in 1964 Political parties disestablished in 1973 Irish republican parties Republicanism in the United Kingdom Socialist parties in Ireland Eurosceptic parties {{Northern-Ireland-party-stub