Irish Independence Party

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The Irish Independence Party (IIP) was a nationalist or republican party in Northern Ireland that was founded by Fergus McAteer and Frank McManus in October 1977 and dissolved in the mid-1980s. Frank McManus was an MP for Unity in the House of Commons from 1970 to 1974 . The IIP was against the internment policy , campaigned for the separation of Northern Ireland from Great Britain and for a special status for Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Independence Party emerged from the merger of the Unity and Nationalist Party . After 1979, Pat Fahy was the party leader of the IIP; deputy party leader was Frank McManus; Fergus McAteer took over the role of party chairman. The Protestant John Turnley , who later became deputy party leader of the IIP, joined it in 1980 and was killed in an attack by the Ulster Defense Association in Carnlough , County Antrim that year .

In the British general election in 1979 , the IIP ran in four of the twelve Northern Ireland constituencies. She remained without a mandate with 23,086 votes (3.3% of the valid votes in Northern Ireland). The IIP supported the Republican prisoners in the Maze Prison and their protests, such as the Blanket Protest , Dirty Protest and the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 . The IIP won 21 seats in the district council elections in May 1981 ; The party's strongholds were Derry , Fermanagh , Newry and Morne and Omagh . She did not take part in the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 1982 in favor of Sinn Féin . As a result, their influence waned and Sinn Féin gained Republican voters. The IIP ran again in the local elections in 1985, winning just four seats, losing 17 compared to the 1981 election, while Sinn Féin won a total of 59 seats. The IIP then dissolved and did not stand for the next election in 1989.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Information on cain.ulst.ac.uk . Retrieved December 21, 2010
  2. ↑ WD Flackes, Sydney Elliott: Northern Ireland. A political directory, 1968-88. Blackstaff, Belfast 1989, ISBN 0-85640-418-7 , p. 156f.
  3. ↑ 1979 Election leaflet from IIP candidate John Turnly running in North Antrim . Retrieved December 21, 2010
  4. ↑ Westminster General Election (NI) Thursday 3 May 1979 from CAIN Web Service - Conflict and Politics in Northern Ireland (accessed July 25, 2011).
  5. ↑ Local Government Election (NI) - Wednesday 20 May 1981 from CAIN Web Service - Conflict and Politics in Northern Ireland (accessed July 26, 2011).
  6. ↑ information on cain.ulst.ac.uk . Retrieved December 21, 2010