Ulster Liberal Party

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox political party The Ulster Liberal Party was a liberal and non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland linked to the British Liberal Party. The party was officially neutral on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. Members expressed different views on the issue but agreed that Northern Ireland could only join the Republic of Ireland if that was the wish of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

Active before the First World War, the Ulster Liberal Association sought to avoid a position on the question of Home Rule (the restoration of an Irish parliament in Dublin) which had seen Liberal Unionists split and join Conservatives in the Irish Unionist Alliance. In 1908, the Association dismissed the former Independent Orangeman and Liberal candidate for Mid Armagh in the 1906 parliamentary election, R. Lindsay Crawford as editor of its paper, Ulster Guardian, because it could not allow its pages "to be used directly or indirectly in support of devolution or Home Rule".<ref name="Phoenix">Template:Cite news</ref>

After the creation of Northern Ireland as a home-ruled division of the United Kingdom in 1921, the Association was restyled the Northern Ireland Liberal Association, and in May 1928 relaunched itself as the Ulster Liberal Party.<ref>"Ulster Liberals", Manchester Guardian, 1 March 1928, p.8</ref> It nominated candidates in the 1929 UK general election,<ref>"Ulster's General Election", Manchester Guardian, 15 April 1929, p.14</ref> including future Seanad Éireann member Denis Ireland and Unbought Tenants' Association MP George Henderson, before the party became inactive.

The party was re-founded by Albert McElroy in 1956, as (again) the Ulster Liberal Association.<ref name="o'connor">Fionnuala O'Connor, "Pride of the Ulster Liberals", The Guardian, 16 September 1993</ref> From 1961 to 1969, the party had one seat in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, when Sheelagh Murnaghan held one of the four seats allocated to Queen's University, Belfast.<ref name="o'connor" /> It was represented on the committee of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967. As a party it sought to end sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland and Murnaghan tried on four occasions to pass a Bill of Rights in the Northern Ireland Parliament to address discrimination.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1969 Claude Wilton became a senator for the party in the Senate of Northern Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After 1970, it suffered the loss of many of its members to the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.<ref name="o'connor" /> Its last political contest was the 1985 local government election,<ref>Abstracts on Organisations – 'U' Template:Webarchive, CAIN Web Service</ref> after which its last remnants joined the Labour '87 group.Template:Citation needed The Liberal Democrats, successor to the British Liberal Party, later formed links with the Alliance Party. There is also a small local party of the Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland, who do not contest elections.

Leadership

As of 1971, the party's president was McElroy, while John Quinn was the chair, and Berkley Farr was the secretary.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Cecil Bell replaced Farr as secretary, and James Murray took over in 1979. From 1978 until 1982, the chair was Mervyn Cowan, the secretary was James Murray, and the position of president had been abolished. Patricia Cowan was the treasurer throughout.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Electoral performance

Northern Ireland Parliament & Assembly elections

Year	No. of votes	Share of votes	Seats
1958	759	0.3%	Template:Composition bar
1962	11,005	3.6%	Template:Composition bar
1965	12,618	3.9%	Template:Composition bar
1969	7,337	1.3%	Template:Composition bar
1973	811	0.1%	Template:Composition bar
1982	65	0.0%	Template:Composition bar

United Kingdom House of Commons elections

Year	No. of votes	Share of votes	Seats
1959	3,253	0.6%	Template:Composition bar
1964	17,354	2.7%	Template:Composition bar
1966	29,109	4.9%	Template:Composition bar
1970	10,929	1.4%	Template:Composition bar