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Encyclopedia entry: Northern Ireland Labour Party
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to Irish History
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to Irish History 2007, originally published by Oxford University Press 2007. (Hide copyright information)
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Northern Ireland Labour Party (
NILP
),
founded in 1924. It was based on the Belfast Labour Party, originally founded in 1893 as part of the Independent Labour Party. Before the
First World War
, labour politics in Belfast made advances comparable to those achieved in British cities, but thereafter the
partition
question hindered further progress. NILP policy was to argue the primacy of social and economic issues over the national question: prior to 1949 it sought to achieve this by having no position on the national question, and allowing its candidates considerable leeway according to personal preference and electoral circumstance; after that date it pursued the same end by endorsing ...