Our Man in Belfast

SteveW

I've been away for a while because I've just been too busy. But here's a new TL which hopefully hasn't been done before.

In November 1965, Northern Ireland went to the polls. A promising challenge from the Northern Ireland Labour Party was crushed by the PM, Terence O'Neill, scaremongering enough that a vote against the Ulster Unionists would propel Nationalists into power.

But what if Ian Paisley had decided to stand? After all, he did IOTL not long after. In this TL, he and his acolytes stand and don't do brilliantly; but they split the vote and cause all manner of trouble.

At a rally at Ballymena on 28th October 1965, Ian Paisley addressed a crowd.

"We reject Captain O'Neill and his appeasement of the South. We reject all those who brought Lemass to Ulster, a shameful day. And we reject those who would betray Protestantism!

Ulster Protestant Action today registered with Her Majesty's Electoral Commission. We shall fight across Ulster for the sake of our people and our faith!"

Such demagoguery sounded good to those who liked it- but little did anyone realise the consequences.
 

SteveW

The campaign was suddenly looking more heated. The entry of the UPA was the talk of voters Protestant and Catholic alike.

Terence O'Neill, the Prime Minister, was concerned. He had been planning to tell the electorate to vote Ulster Unionist as the only choice for the Union; but now that a more hardline variety had appeared, he was stuck. Some in his party advocated turning right, but he held out. "Paisley is a gadfly", he told his MPs.

The Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) meanwhile smelled blood and the opportunity of a lifetime. Their Presbyterian leader, Tom Boyd, hit the ground running and went for the East Belfast working class Protestant areas with gusto, whilst his younger fellow MP Paddy Devlin did the same in the Catholic areas of the city. In Londonderry and Fermanagh too, NILP activists saw a chance.

In Antrim, notably around Paisley's Ballymena base, the UPA were working hard but hurt by the lack of a nationwide network.

The election was to prove a highly intriguing one.
 

poster342002

This is another promising one. I'm surprised there aren't many Northern Ireland ATLs here - it's such a rich mine of potential ideas, imo.
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
poster342002 said:
This is another promising one. I'm surprised there aren't many Northern Ireland ATLs here - it's such a rich mine of potential ideas, imo.
Click to expand...

It's because they tend to degenerate into flamewars so quickly.

Interesting promise, Steve: hope you continue it.
 

SteveW

Thande said:
It's because they tend to degenerate into flamewars so quickly.

Interesting promise, Steve: hope you continue it.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear there's interest- hopefully no flaming here!

Sorry for the delay everyone, moved office the other week and all has been hectic.
 

SteveW

For the first time in many a year, the mainland took an interest. However, this was for an unexpected reason.

On 4th November 1965, Paisley attacked the NILP, afraid of their competition for working class Protestant votes. Describing Labour supporters as "traitors" and "agents of the Irish Labour Party", he drew a furious, public response from the Chancellor, Jim Callaghan.

"I will take no lessons on Britishness from this man. He is a disgrace to the nation".
 

SteveW

In what was effectively a one-party state, this was one of the most bad-tempered election campaigns ever. There was the Paisley-Callaghan spat. There were the posters of the Irish Taioseach Sean Lemass with "Vote O'Neill" underneath as a smear. There were the claims that the NILP were Communists. But the results came and shocked observers even though the Ulster Unionists were returned.

UU- 28 (-6)
NILP- 8 (+4)
Nationalists - 9 (Hold)
National Democrats- 1 (+1)
Ulster Liberals- 2 (+1)
Republican Labour- 1 (Hold)
Independent- 1 (Hold)
Ulster Protestant Action-2 (+2)

Independent Labour and Irish Labour had been wiped out.

The UU had lost a sizeable number of seats thanks to the vote-splitting of Paisley and his pals. The loss of City of Londonderry to the Liberals' Claude Wilson was a notable embarassment.

Terence O'Neill had won a two-seat majority, but it was clear that civil war was looming. Not in the land, but in the Ulster Unionist party.
 

Vextra

Also watching with keen interest. Given how I'm researching Ireland and the IRA for my own personal curiousity, This timeline could not have come at a better time. I hope you don't mind if i take notes from your ATL for my own research. :D
 

SteveW

Vextra said:
Also watching with keen interest. Given how I'm researching Ireland and the IRA for my own personal curiousity, This timeline could not have come at a better time. I hope you don't mind if i take notes from your ATL for my own research. :D
Click to expand...

Be my guest, I've done a fair bit of research so hopefully names etc. should be fairly recognisable.

By the way, do read Tim Pat Coogan's 'The Troubles' if you haven't already.
 

SteveW

O'Neill resigned on the 27th November 1965, as his own party split in two and turned on him. The modernisers proposed James Chichester-Clark as the new Prime Minister; the hardliners demanded the hardline Desmond Boal. When Chichester-Clark squeaked in in a vote of Stormont MPs, the modernisers cheered. However, Boal and 8 others walked out and left.

On the 30th November, with smug satisfaction and the strong sense that this had been arranged beforehand, Paisley and Boal shared a platform at Lurgan and announced the formation of the Democratic Unionist Party, "a collection of real Unionists fighting for a Protestant Ulster".

Chichester-Clark seemed to have been plunged into immediate trouble. Coudl he form a government?

The same night, he rang the NILP leader, Tom Boyd.
 

SteveW

On the 8th December, after much wrangling (and interventions from across the water), Chichester-Clark and Boyd agreed to form a government. For Chichester-Clark, this was almost the best state of affairs: the avowedly secular NILP had a broad base of Protestant working support but Catholics too.

Chichester-Clark returned as Prime Minister, with Boyd as his deputy. Despite some protests, the NILP managed to persuade the UU to accept a nominally Catholic (but fierce Labour man) Paddy Devlin in a role that was not even possibly sectarian, Transport.

The points conceded by the UU to the NILP were:
- The building of new homes in West Belfast, East Belfast and Londonderry, at a rate of 5,000 a year for the rest of the parliamentary term.
-The expansion of Culmore in County Londonderry into a new town along the lines of Craigavon, to cater for Derry's underhoused population.
-The phasing out of discrimination against Catholics in the workplace.
 

SteveW

The small-scale triumph of the NILP, breaking open Ulster Unionist hegemony (granted, with help) should have reflected well on the sister party on the mainland, Labour.

Except it was causing trouble. Callaghan's unapproved statement had gone down well with the public, and it was clear that his popularity had soared. Harold Wilson began to worry that Callaghan would amass too much power, as did many who fancied themselves his successor.
 
Fletch

Fletch

Kicked
Keep it going! This is a brilliant timeline. It could, possibly if done right show a scenario where the venom is taken out of Northern Irish politics. Bravo Again! :D
 

SteveW

FletcherofSaltoun said:
Keep it going! This is a brilliant timeline. It could, possibly if done right show a scenario where the venom is taken out of Northern Irish politics. Bravo Again! :D
Click to expand...

Many thanks! I envisage the dividend of peace causing trouble on the mainland and in the Republic as well. Politics will not be the same again...
 

SteveW

As January 1966 dawned, Wilson was increasingly frustrated with his lot. His majority was tiny and relatively useless. He wanted to go to the polls and seek a bigger majority.

But he could not be sure how it would go. There had been fears that he might face a by-election in Hull North, where the ailing Henry Solomons was on his last legs and was rumoured to be on the brink of being hospitalised. But January came and went, and Callaghan managed to persuade Wilson to soldier on and not risk a defeat to Edward Heath.

In Belfast, Chichester-Clark was doing well as the new year rolled in. The government was enjoying a honeymoon, and the hardline unionist types in the new DUP were too busy fighting each other for control.
 

SteveW

However, there was a problem. The press sensed that Wilson had dithered, and speculation mounted. He was forced to deny the rumours, which irritated some of his members, who were chomping at the bit.

Heath, however, could not find a good way to capitalise. And so it would prove for now. 1966 would not be an election year. But much was to change before the next vote.
 
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