1921 – 1971 Despite all the obstacles, Liberalism survived in Northern Ireland after partitition. Berkley Farr explains how. LiberalismLiberalism inin UnionistUnionist NorthernNorthern IrelandIreland
he partition of Ireland and the establish eight, comprising four Independent Unionists, three ment of a devolved parliament in North Labour and one Unbought Tenant (George T ern Ireland in was a landmark in the Henderson in Co. Antrim). history of both Ireland and the Irish impact on The Unbought Tenants’ Association had been British Liberalism. Unionist rule from Belfast re- formed over the issue of tenants who had not been placed the pre-Great War Liberal rule administered included in the land purchase scheme. Its presi- via Dublin. Ulster’s leading Liberal and champion dent was Robert Nathaniel Boyd and when this as- of Home Rule, Rev J. B. Armour declared that the sociation developed into the revived Liberal Party Unionists ‘had yelled about “No Home Rule” for a for Ulster he was appointed the first president. The generation, and then they were compelled to take a land question had been a key issue for Liberals in form of Home Rule that the Devil himself could Ireland since before the days of Gladstone. This was never have imagined’. For almost half a century to be the final chapter in the struggle. Ireland was to disappear as a major item on Brit- The Liberal revival of the late s in Ulster was ain’s political agenda. Northern Ireland in was closely connected with the revival in Britain under a highly polarised community following the tur- Lloyd George and his programme to conquer un- moil of the previous years and as such was even less employment. In particular the financing of the fertile soil than usual for Liberalism. Whilst the general election from the Lloyd George Fund ap- Liberal Party in Britain had declined to a shadow pears to be a key factor in the number of candidates of its former self, it was to face virtual extinction in going forward. In April there were reports, fol- Ulster. Despite having had two MPs before , lowing a deputation of NI Liberals to London, of a the party failed to contest any general election up galaxy of candidates. Finance was the principal sub- to . It thus missed taking part in the first two ject of discussion and there was to be substantial as- Northern Ireland elections of and held sistance for the imperial but not the local general under proportional representation, as well as in the election. The financing of the Westminster candi- Westminster elections of the period. dates was an issue in the campaign with the Liberals PR by Single Transferable Vote was introduced to being called remittance men and J. M. Andrews, both parts of Ireland as part of the settlement in the Craigavon’s future successor as Prime Minister, Government of Ireland Act . The North- claiming it was unfair that Unionist candidates ern Ireland election was the first time in Europe that should be put to the trouble of a contest because this system was used to elect all the members of a Lloyd George had provided £, or £, for Parliament and the results reflected the polarised the Liberal candidates. position of the time. The Unionists took forty seats In the election for the thirteen Westminster with the Nationalists and Sinn Finn taking six each. seats, the Liberals put forward six candidates, com- The second election in showed how PR could pared with eleven Unionists, three Nationalists and enable a weakening of the two extremes and the three others. George Henderson MP and R. N. creation of a new middle group of MPs. The Re- Boyd were leading candidates and were also among publicans were reduced from six to two while the the five contesting the Northern Ireland Parliamen- Nationalists went up to ten. The Unionists fell from tary election. forty to thirty-two with the new central group of At the start of the campaign Henderson stressed
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 33 Winter 2001–02 29 the need for an effective opposition the bitter ‘Chapelgate’ Election in election the Liberals decided to contest and declared, ‘I think there is a real February a leading Nationalist, South Belfast and the candidate was danger that our politics in the Six Shane Leslie, a cousin of Churchill, Sheelagh Murnaghan who had made Counties will become divided along wrote to Lady Violet Bonham-Carter: her name as Northern Ireland’s only sectarian lines. That was bad for our ‘If you are alive I presume there is still woman barrister and as an international country in the past, and, I believe it a Liberal Party!’. He advocated the hockey player. Her grandfather had will be bad for it in the future. The Liberals making a gesture towards Irish been a Nationalist MP and alongside only Opposition that can combat this unity that might swing forty seats to Albert McElroy from the radical Pres- thing is a party along Liberal lines, that them and he suggested Liberals stand byterian tradition they were the per- will bring to its support people of pro- again in Ulster. Lady Violet replied in a sonification of the non-sectarian and gressive thought from every creed and characteristically forthright manner progressive message that the Liberals class of the community.’ The election reminding him of Ireland’s neutral were putting forward. Ulster Liberals slogan ‘Not for Class or Creed – But stance in the war and stating that the were free to have their individual opin- for the Common Good’ was used only way to bring Ulster in is to make ions for or against Irish unity but they and much emphasis was placed on the her want to come in. Rejecting the were the first party to accept that economic and farming programmes of bait, she declared: ‘I only want votes to Northern Ireland’s constitutional posi- the party. Johnston, incidentally, be- be given and seats to be won for the tion within the UK could only be lieved that motor taxation should be things I believe in’. changed by a majority of the people on the basis of petrol consumption in- The following year in the gen- wanting to do so. They also advocated a stead of horse power. eral election the North Down Labour programme of reform in common with When the results were declared the candidate stated in his election leaflet: the rest of the Liberal Party. Liberal Liberals in Northern Ireland had polled ‘The tragedy of Irish politics is the vir- News described Sheelagh Murnaghan , votes in the UK election. All tual absence of any Liberal tradition’. as the bravest Liberal candidate among six candidates had straight fights with His name was Albert McElroy and six all the eleven score and ‘a gallant fighter the Unionists and their percentage of years later when the Ulster Liberal As- for social unity in a land of sterile con- the vote ranged from per cent in sociation was reformed he became the flict’. Conservative South Belfast was East Belfast to per cent in Armagh driving force behind it and its President not prepared for such a challenge and with combined proportions of per until his death in . the . per cent Liberal vote was a dis- cent and per cent in the two- seaters The Ulster Liberal Association was appointment. of Antrim in Down. Whilst the results reformed in following a letter to The first Liberal meeting I attended were respectable no candidate was the press and Aubrey Herbert who in August included six other elected and it would be twenty-nine represented the party in Britain ad- people (the then size of the pre- years before another Liberal stood in a dressed the founding meeting. The Orpington Parliamentary Party!) but Northern Ireland election. first electoral test was in the the meeting nominated Sheelagh The abolition of PR, except for the Stormont general election when Rev Murnaghan to contest the forthcom- four Queen’s University seats, resulted Albert McElroy contested the Queen’s ing by-election at Queen’s University. in forty years of electoral stagnation University constituency. Nationalists Her November victory in becoming under single party government. The distrusted Liberals because of Lloyd the only Liberal to be elected to the vast majority of new constituencies, George and partition while Unionists Northern Ireland Parliament was one with some gerrymandering, were safe loathed Liberals because of Gladstone, of the greatest moments in Ulster Lib- seats for either Unionists or National- Asquith and Home Rule. McElroy eral history and it placed the Liberals ists and seldom changed hands. In nine made no apology for his forebears and in the forefront of reform throughout general elections between and was convinced that Home Rule in the s in the years before the out- the number of unopposed MPs Gladstone’s time would have spared break of ‘the troubles’. During her varied between nineteen and thrity- Ireland the bloodshed and bitterness of time in Stormont until her university three out of fifty-two. In the remaining the following century. Standing against constituency was abolished in years of the Stormont Parliament the three Unionists, an Independent and a Sheelagh Murnaghan was one of the number of Unionist MPs never fell to Northern Ireland Labour candidate most active MPs campaigning for re- the level of thirty-two in the last PR for the four-seat PR constituency, form. On four occasions she intro- election of and the middle group- McElroy polled per cent of the first duced a Human Rights Bill despite in- ing of non-sectarian plus Independent preference votes. This was greater than evitable defeat by the Unionist major- Unionists never exceeded the eight the Labour and Unionist candidates ity and she campaigned tirelessly on a elected in . The Northern Ireland but the Labour voters’ second prefer- wide range of issues including capital Labour Party reached a maximum of ences were insufficient to elect him. punishment, itinerants, and electoral four MPs in and . The result was promising and helped reform. Many of her proposals were The period from the s to the to spread the Liberal message to the eventually to be introduced but only s was also the darkest period for graduate electorate. after her reasoned arguments were re- the Liberal Party in Britain. Following In the Westminster general placed by violence on the streets.
30 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 33 Winter 2001–02 British and Ulster Liberals at the 1963 Liberal Assembly at Brighton (just after Jo Grimond’s ‘sound of gunfire’ speech). From left: Kina and Eric Lubbock, Richard Moore, Chris Woods, Berkley Farr, Sean Kelly, Bob Huston, Rev. Albert McElroy and Sheelagh Murnaghan MP.
The years following the by- four-cornered contests. The result Coleraine was to galvanise Derry into election were ones of expansion of the was disappointing but it was the start political action which had long-term organisation and impact of the Ulster of a much wider geographical spread consequences. Claude Wilton was one Liberals. Around half of the seats in of Liberal activity across the province of the few Liberals in Derry but he Stormont were unopposed and Liberals and an increase in the tactics of taking headed a coalition of people wanting tried to pick these, thereby avoiding on Unionists where they expected no change, and among his supporters most of the Belfast seats where the opposition. were John Hume and Ivan Cooper. Northern Ireland Labour Party were In the Stormont election The Westminster election in March established. In four seats were Sheelagh Murnaghan achieved the was to prove a major advance for fought in the Stormont general elec- rare status of becoming an unopposed Ulster Liberals, who achieved , tion, the first councillor was elected and Liberal MP! Bert Hamilton polled votes in three seats. In North Antrim a by-election was contested. The per cent in Mid Armagh and Albert Richard Moore polled per cent, af- party began to have local branches and McElroy, after a campaign needing po- ter fighting four campaigns in England. the NI Federation of Young Liberals lice protection during physical disrup- In South Down John Quinn came sec- was formed. Ulster Liberals had at- tion of his meetings, gained per ond ahead of a Republican, with per tended Liberal assemblies but they now cent in Enniskillen. The most interest- cent, while Sheelagh Murnaghan got took part in the regular activities of the ing result was in Derry City where per cent in North Down after a late various strands of the Liberal Party Or- Claude Wilton, a popular local solici- entry. In the latter case she polled ganisation. This was a two-way process tor and the son of a Unionist mayor, , votes without an election ad- with visits by Pratap Chitnis and with Devon’s Chris Trethewey as dress but was helped by the Unionist Michael Meadowcroft to advise on or- agent, won per cent of the vote in MP’s complaining in his address about ganisation and Mark Bonham-Carter an per cent poll losing by , to the election being forced on the rate- and George Scott to speak in the South the Unionist’s ,. Northern Ire- payers by the Liberals. The election was Belfast by-election. land’s second city had for years felt ne- followed by the launch of the monthly The Westminster general elec- glected and disillusioned on many Northern Radical. Later in another tion was a major challenge with four fronts but the decision to locate the by-election occurred at Queen’s in of the twelve seats being fought in second university in Unionist which Albert McElroy got the highest
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 33 Winter 2001–02 31 ever opposition vote, but there were The appearance of troops on the 6 Northern Whig, 18 May 1929. fewer Unionist abstentions and he lost streets of Derry and Belfast in August 7 Northern Whig ‘London Letter’, 13 April 1929. The election for the Northern Ireland Parliament with per cent. utterly changed the situation from was held on 22 May, eight days before the In visits by Jeremy Thorpe a solely Northern Ireland problem to a Westminster election. were soon followed by almost every British one. At Brighton the following 8 Northern Whig, 23 May 1929. 9 George Henderson MP and R. N. Boyd con- leading Liberal. Young Liberal branches month McElroy declared to the Liberal tested Co Antrim (two seats), R. D. Pollock and increased dramatically and following a Assembly that we were not dealing with David Johnston (First President of the Ulster letter to the press from McElroy, the a rational body of political thought but a Farmers’ Union) fought Co Down, W. R. Todd fought Armagh and Capt. Denis Ireland (later to ULP helped to set up a Liberal Party in state of mind bordering on a psychosis. be a well-known writer and first northern resi- the Republic. By-elections were soon He expressed his personal hope for a dent in the Irish Senate) stood in East Belfast. In fought in Wicklow and East Limerick united Ireland based on a union of Irish the election for the Northern Ireland Parliament with help from northern Liberals but hearts not lit by a Celtic twilight or Or- Henderson fought Bannside, Boyd North An- trim, Johnston East Down, Todd Mid-Armagh the results did not meet local expecta- ange midnight, but outward looking in a and James Boyd Ards. tions and enthusiasm waned. The prob- united Europe. 10 Northern Whig, 20 April 1929. lems in Northern Ireland were increas- Violence struck the Liberals in Feb- 11 D. Johnston and Ireland election addresses. 12 Ibid. ingly exercising the concern of Liberal ruary when a bomb exploded 13 In the Northern Ireland Parliament election, with Party and at the Blackpool Assem- outside Sheelagh Murnaghan’s house PR abolished, Henderson polled 38 per cent in bly McElroy proposed an executive and the polarisation of society was re- Bannside with Boyd getting 40 per cent in N An- trim, Todd 29 per cent in Mid-Armagh, J Boyd resolution urging reforms. flected in the June Westminster elec- 11 per cent in Ards and Johnston 44 per cent in In March the former Prime tion. Despite an electoral collapse, E Down. Bannside and Ards were three-cor- Minister Lord Brookeborough re- Liberals continued to play an active role nered fights involving Labour candidates. signed his Lisnaskea seat and Liberals campaigning for reforms and when 14 Mark Pottle, Daring to Hope: the diaries & let- ters of Violet Bonham-Carter 1946-1969. seized the opportunity to oppose his Stormont was suspended Whitelaw ap- 15 Ibid. son in the by-election. Most National- pointed Sheelagh Murnaghan to his 16 Gordon Gillespie, Albert H. McElroy: the Radi- ists, however, voted for an Independ- Advisory Commission. Whitelaw ac- cal Minister, reviewed in this issue. 17 Gordon Gillespie, The Ulster Liberal Party 1956- ent Unionist and Stanley Wynne was a cepted almost all the ULP proposals, in- 73, MSS dissertation, QUB. disappointing third with . per cent. cluding STV, but Liberals gained no 18 Liberal News, 1 October 1959. As the year wore on politics increas- electoral benefit. The Ulster Liberal 19 Sheelagh Murnaghan was elected on the first count at Queen’s with 25 per cent of the vote; ingly moved from the polling station Party continued as a political entity un- Albert McElroy polled 29 per cent in Ards, to the streets as the Civil Rights cam- til it becaming part of the Liberal Arthur Burns 31 per cent in North Down and paign gained momentum. Many Lib- Democrats but it was only to contest Judith Rosenfield got 13 per cent in the three- erals became involved but McElroy one further election, with James cornered Ballynafeigh (S. Belfast) contest. Brian Wimpress became the first elected councillor in did not as he believed it was easier to Murray in . Bangor and Bob Huston polled 13 per cent get people on to the streets than it was What is the Liberal legacy in the against both Unionist and Labour in the Decem- to get them off again and he dreaded homeland of Paddy Ashdown and ber Cromac by-election. 20 Bert Hamilton polled 10 per cent of the vote in the descent into bloodlust that the Lembit Öpik? When Albert McElroy the October 1963 by-election. protests might bring. died the Irish Times declared ‘he 21 Giles Fitzherbert, a son-in-law of Evelyn Waugh, McElroy’s fears were well justified as championed the cause of justice, polled 11 per cent in Fermanagh and South Tyrone despite physical attacks. Major Hamilton the street protests became more violent equality and fair play in Northern Ire- Simonds-Gooding polled 10 per cent in South and the community polarised. As land a very long time before it was Down, McElroy 6 per cent in North Down and O’Neill belatedly tried to introduce re- profitable or popular’. Rosenfield 5 per cent in South Belfast. forms that were ‘too little and too late’ 22 Op. cit. 23 Sheelagh Murnaghan, on the abolition of her he tried to overcome the opposition of Berkley Farr is a former Ulster Liberal Party Queen’s seat, got 15 per cent in North Down in his own Unionist MPs by calling an chairman, and was candidate for South a straight fight while Claude Wilton polled 35 election in February . Liberals were Down in . per cent and lost by only 710 votes in Derry City with an O’Neillite coming third. in an increasingly difficult position with 24 Op. cit. moderate O’Neillite Unionists and oth- 1W. S. Armour, Armour of Ballymoney, 1934, p. 25 As Paisley took North Antrim Richard Moore’s ers appearing on the scene and in a de- 332. vote fell to 4 per cent while in South Down John 2The last Irish Liberal to be returned to Westmin- Quinn polled 12 per cent. Simonds-Gooding in sire to avoid vote splitting they only con- ster was unopposed in 1914 following the death North Down and Rodney Smith in South Antrim tested two seats. Sheelagh Murnaghan of the winner of 1913 Londonderry City by- only got 1 per cent of the vote. had proposed trying to create a popular election. 2 In the first PR elections for the Assembly in 1973 3 James Knight and Nicholas Baxter-Moore, front of reformist parties but she and the votes for Sheelagh Murnaghan in South Bel- Northern Ireland The Elections of the Twenties, fast and myself in South Down were around the McElroy were too radical in their views 1972. 1 per cent level. for some Liberals who were key players 4 Ibid. 27 It was felt that the party with the longest pro-Eu- 5 Boyd had been Liberal candidate for South in forming the O’Neillite New Ulster ropean record should fight the first European Tyrone in December 1910 when he polled 47 election but the result was still under 1 per cent. Movement which subsequently evolved per cent, losing by 300 votes. 28 Irish Times, editorial, 15 March 1975. into the Alliance Party.
32 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 33 Winter 2001–02