Ulster Liberal Party

The Ulster Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Northern Ireland, supporting a unionist position and linked to the British Liberal Party.

The party succeeded the Northern Ireland Liberal Association, which was active before World War I and relaunched in May 1928.^[1] It nominated candidates in the UK general election, 1929,^[2] 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 the Ulster Liberal Association.^[3] 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.^[3] In 1967, it was represented on the committee of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

After 1970, it suffered the loss of many of its members to the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.^[3] Its last political contest was the 1985 local government election,^[4] after which its last remnants joined the Labour '87 group.^{[citation needed]} The Liberal Democrats, successor to the British Liberal Party, later formed links with the Alliance Party. There is also a small, somewhat inactive, local party of the Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Ulster Liberals", Manchester Guardian, 1 March 1928, p.8
2. ^ "Ulster's General Election", Manchester Guardian, 15 April 1929, p.14
3. ^ ^{a b c} Fionnuala O'Connor, "Pride of the Ulster Liberals", The Guardian, 16 September 1993
4. ^ Abstracts on Organisations - 'U', CAIN Web Service