Paddy Devlin
| Paddy Devlin | |
|---|---|
| Member of the NI Parliament for Belfast Fall |
|
|
In office 1969–1972 |
|
| Preceded by | Harry Diamond |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 March 1925 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 15 August 1999 (aged 74) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | SDLP |
| Spouse(s) | Theresa Devlin |
| Children | 5 |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Paddy Devlin (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999) was an Irish social democrat and Labour activist, a former Stormont MP, a founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and a member of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive.
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. His mother was a leading activist in Joe Devlin's (no relation) Nationalist Party machine in the Falls area and Devlin grew up in a highly political household. However his early activism was confined to Fianna Éireann and then the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and as a result he was interned in Crumlin Road Gaol during the Second World War. On his release he left the republican movement.
After the war, and in search of work, he spent some time in Portsmouth working as a scaffolder and in Coventry working in the car industry. In Coventry he became interested in Labour and trade union politics and briefly joined the British Labour Party.
Returning to Belfast in 1948 he helped establish the Irish Labour Party there after the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) split on the issue of partition and later he beat Gerry Fitt to win a seat on the city council. Later Catholic Action claimed the Irish Labour Party was infested with communists and ensured the party were effectively wiped out and Devlin lost his seat.
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