Paddy Devlin

Paddy Devlin
Member of the NI Parliament
for Belfast Falls
In office
1969–1972
Preceded byHarry Diamond
Succeeded byConstituency Abolished
Personal details
Born
Patrick Joseph Devlin

(1925-03-08)8 March 1925
Pound Loney, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died15 August 1999(1999-08-15) (aged 74)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
NationalityIrish
Political partyIrish Labour (1948-1958)
NILP (1958-1970)
SDLP (1970-1977)
United Labour (1978-1980s)
LPNI (1985-1990)
SpouseTheresa Devlin
Children5

Patrick Joseph "Paddy" Devlin[1] (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999) was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a former Stormont MP, and a member of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive.

Described as a "relentless campaigner against sectarianism", Devlin had once been a member of the IRA but later renounced physical force republicanism to work at transcending sectarian differences through peaceful, socialist and nationalist political means.

During the late 1960s he entered local politics in the Belfast City Council and went on to help found the SDLP in 1970 with John Hume, Gerry Fitt, Austin Currie and others.[1]

  1. ^ a b "SDLP founder Paddy Devlin is dead at 74". Irish Echo. New York. 16 February 2011. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.