belfast labour party

The Belfast Labour Party was a political party in Northern Ireland from 1892 until 1924. The first socialist party in Ireland, it was founded in 1892 and affiliated with the British Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and remained attached to the Labour Party in Britain. In 1913 the Labour NEC agreed that the Irish Labour Party would have organising rights over the entirety of Ireland. The Belfast Labour Party disagreed with this, and faced with the British party's refusal to reconsider, formed the independent Belfast Labour Representation Committee, which declared itself a party in 1917. The party won ten seats on Belfast Council in 1919, but soon lost these. Nonetheless, they came a very close second in West Belfast in the 1923 UK general election before forming with others the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

Word Browser