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The Commonwealth Labour Party in Northern Ireland, 1942–7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

G. S. Walker
G. S. Walker*
Affiliation:
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast
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Extract

The Commonwealth Labour Party (Northern Ireland), hereafter referred to as the C.L.P., came into existence on 19 December 1942. Its birth was the result of a split in the ranks of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (N.I.L.P.). This split centred on the personality and the political outlook of the man who had led the N.I.L.P since 1932, and who was to be leader of the C.L.P during its five-year lifespan: Harry Midgley.

Midgley (1892-1957) was, by the time of the formation of the C.L.P., one of the best-known and most controversial politicians in Northern Ireland. Born into a working-class protestant home in north Belfast, he acquired an early political education as a youth through the medium of the Independent Labour Party organisation in the city. He was close, at least initially, to William Walker, the most outstanding labour leader produced by the north of Ireland during the early troubled years of the labour movement. In addition, he met and listened to some of the most eminent spokesmen of British labour, most notably Keir Hardie. Midgley served his time as a joiner in the Workman Clark shipyard (where his father was a labourer) before spending a brief period in America in 1913 and 1914. After serving in the Ulster division in the First World War, he returned to Belfast in 1919 and quickly got himself a job as a trade-union organiser with the Linenlappers’ Union.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 93 , May 1984 , pp. 69 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1984

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References

1 For Midgley's background and early career, see G. S. Walker, ‘Harry Midgley (1892–1957): an Ulster political biography’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1983).

2 Irish News, 18 May 1921.

3 The labour party in Northern Ireland formally came into existence in 1924 when it was decided to expand the organisation of the Belfast Labour party as far as possible throughout the six counties. The party remained separate from the I.L.P., which was organised only in Belfast. The I.L.P dissolved in Belfast in 1932 and was reconstituted as the Socialist Party of Northern Ireland which operated as a left-wing (and generally republican-socialist) pressure group on the N.I.L.P

4 The result was G. A. Clark (unionist) 3,578; J. C. Collins (nationalist) 2,891; H. C. Midgley (labour) 1,923.

5 The result was Midgley 7,209: Lavery 2,435. This seat had never been contested by labour before and the constituency had always been regarded as a unionist stronghold.

6 Chairman's address reproduced as a pamphlet entitled Pilgrimage of hope (Belfast, 1942).

7 Hansard N.I. (commons), xxv, 3055–68 (25 Nov. 1942).

8 Minutes of meeting of Northern Ireland Parliamentary Labour Party, 4 Dec. 1942 (papers of Mr Sam Napier of Bangor, Co. Down).

9 Belfast News-Letter, 17 Dec. 1942.

10 Beattie was expelled again in 1944. Not until 1949 did the N.I.L.P finally decide its position — affirmatively — with regard to the constitution.

11 Belfast News-Letter, 17 Dec. 1942.

12 Gordon was an independently-minded individual who had been an active member of the labour party in England before returning to Northern Ireland at the end of the 1930s. He was elected vice-chairman of the C.L.P in January 1942, but severed his connexion with the party in July 1943, taking the Londonderry party out with him. Gordon became convinced that the C.L.P was “inimical to the interests of Ulster's workers, in the widest sense’ (New Statesman and Nation, 11 Dec. 1943).

13 John Harbinson, ‘A history of the Northern Ireland Labour Party’ (unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Queen's University, Belfast, 1966), pp 129–32.

14 Belfast Telegraph, 21 Dec. 1942.

15 Constitution and standing orders of the Commonwealth Labour Party, (P.R.O.N.I. D1195/5, Box 1). The constitution took effect on 1 January 1944.

l6 Johnston was the former editor of the I.L.P. newspaper, Forward, to which Midgley had contributed in the 1920s and 1930s.

17 Correspondence between the N.I.L.P secretary, Joseph Corrigan, and the British labour party's national agent, G. R. Shepherd, is contained in the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (U.S.D.A.W.) archives in Manchester (union file A22). Corrigan wrote to Shepherd, 24 Dec. 1942, requesting the British party not to back Midgley by sending speakers to C.L.P. meetings. In reply (30 Dec. 1942) Shepherd acceded to the request.

18 Justice. Nov. 1943.

19 See his ‘Open letter to trade unionists in Northern Ireland’ in Justice Dec. 1943.

20 See the Brookeborough memoirs in the Sunday Sews (Belfast), 4 Feb. 1968. Midgley was the first non-unionist to become a Northern Ireland cabinet minister.

21 The independent unionist M.P.s at Stormont were, like the labour and nationalist representatives but for their own reasons, unwilling to join the government.

22 See Midgley's speech in Hansard N.I. (commons), xxviii, 535–6, (20 Mar. 1945); Ulster for the Commonwealth (Belfast, 1943), p. 15.

23 Justice, Feb. 1944.

24 Ibid., Apr. 1944.

25 See Ulster for the Commonwealth, pp 9–14, for a breakdown of the New Zealand social security system as a whole.

26 Ibid., p. 15.

27 See, e.g., the article by ‘Fusilier’ in Justice, June 1944.

28 See, e.g., Justice, June 1944. See below with regard to Sir Richard Acland.

29 Ulster for the Commonwealth, p. 16.

30 Justice. July 1944.

31 Sec below, pp 86–7.

32 London Evening Standard. 25 Feb. 1944.

33 Addison, Paul, The road to 1945 (London, 1977), p. 15 Google Scholar.

34 Angus Calder, ‘The Commonwealth Party’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Sussex, 1968), p. 12.

35 Sec ibid., p. 24.

36 See, e.g., his New Year message in Justice. Jan. 1944.

37 Justice. Oct. 1943.

38 Belfast Telegraph. 24 Nov. 1945

39 See Colder, , ‘The Commonwealth Party’, pp 30–76 Google Scholar for a discussion of these concepts.

40 Justice, May 1944.

41 Ibid., June and July 1944.

42 Calder, , ‘The Commonwealth Party’, p. 121 Google Scholar.

43 Newtownards Chronicle, 19 Feb. 1944.

44 Calder, Angus, The people's war (London, 1971), p. 634 Google Scholar.

45 Calder, , ‘The Commonwealth Party’, p. 219 Google Scholar.

46 Interview with Mr William Kennedy of Lisburn, 2 May 1983. The second editor of Justice, James Kennedy, was a draper; a prominent member of the North Belfast branch, Dan McVey, was a tailor.

47 See Justice, June 1946.

48 See below, pp 85–6.

49 McElroy, an ex school-teacher, served in the army until 1945; he became a non-subscribing presbyterian minister.

50 P.R.O.N.I., Cab. 4/597/7. The quotation is taken from a memorandum prepared for the cabinet by Midgley.

51 Indeed an article appeared in Justice, Nov. 1944, saying that the measures taken to tighten up control of residence permits were justified.

52 See Irish News, 24 Apr. 1945.

53 He paid tribute to Brooke in his letter of resignation and stressed the C.L.P's loyalty to the constitution. See Northern Whig, 29 May 1945.

54 Northern Whig, 7 June 1945.

55 Belfast Telegraph, 8 June 1945.

56 Ibid., 7 June 1945.

57 Ibid., 6 June 1945. Brooke's campaign echoed that of Churchill against labour in the British general election of 1945.

58 Newtownards Chronicle, 9 June 1945.

59 Ibid.

60 Northern Whig, 13 June 1945.

61 Newtownards Chronicle, 9 June 1945.

62 Belfast Telegraph, 6 June 1945.

63 Ibid., 9 June 1945.

64 The result was Midgley 7,072; Finlay 4,488; McBrinn (N.I.L.P.) 1,082. All election data are taken from Sydney Elliott, Northern Ireland parliamentary election results, 1921–1972 (Chichester, 1973).

65 The results were: Ballynafeigh F Thompson (unionist) 5,775; W Kennedy (C.L.P.) 3,715; J. R. Baine (N.I.L.P.) 2,424; Victoria R. B. Alexander (unionist) 7,618; G. Matthews (N.I.L.P.) 4,342; N. Black (C.L.P.) 2,133; Windsor A. F Wilson (unionist) 8,737; J. Kennedy (C.L.P.) 4,985; Armagh Central Dr G. Dougan (unionist) 9,508; T. Martin (C.L.P.) 4,559: Down, Ards J. R. Perceval-Maxwell (unionist) 7,976; A. H. McElroy (C.L.P.) 5,615.

66 Addison (The road to 1945, p. 268) says that a ‘substantial section of the urban middle classes’ helped labour to its landslide victory

67 Sydney Elliott, ‘The electoral system in Northern Ireland since 1920’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, Belfast, 1971), p. 570.

68 Belfast Telegraph, 2 Dec. 1946.

69 Ibid., 20 Sept. 1946.

70 Commonwealth, Feb. 1947. This newspaper was the C.L.P's successor to Justice, which ceased publication at the end of 1946.

71 Chairman's address to the C.L.P third annual conference on 30 Nov. 1946, reproduced as a pamphlet, Ulster education and democracy (Belfast, 1946).

72 See his speech in Hansard N.I. (commons), xxix, 369 (2 Aug. 1945).

73 Justice, June 1946.

74 Hansard N.I. (commons), xxx, 295–6 (20 Mar. 1946).

75 Ibid., xxxi, 212–13 (7 May 1947).

76 Belfast Telegraph 1 July 1947

77 See Addison. The road to 1945, passim.

78 Belfast Telegraph, 8 Sept. 1947.

79 Northern Whig, 27 Sept. 1947.

80 Ibid., 29 Sept. 1947

81 Interview with Mr Sam Napier, Jan. 1980.

82 Interview with Mr William Kennedy, 2 May 1983.

83 Information from Miss Sheelagh Murnaghan, 9 Jan. 1984.

84 Some unionists favoured greater independence for Northern Ireland on the grounds that the Northern Ireland people had not voted for a socialist government. See Harkness, David, ‘Difficulties of devolution: the post-war debate at Stormont’ in Irish Jurist, xii (1977), pp 176–86Google Scholar.

85 See Norman, Denis, ‘No tories here’ in Moirae, iv (1979), pp 74–85 Google Scholar.

86 It may be held that the N.I.L.P also found this out to its cost after its declaration in favour of the constitution in 1949; but the N.I.L.P successes in the 1958 and 1962 elections to the Northern Ireland parliament are grounds for a contrary view.