Alliance Party Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party Northern Ireland is a centrist political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1970 and seeks to bridge the gap between the unionist and nationalist communities by promoting a shared future and inclusive politics. The party advocates for progressive policies and is known for its support of integrated education and a more consensual approach to politics in Northern Ireland.
4 Key excerpts on "Alliance Party Northern Ireland"
eBook - ePubNorthern Ireland
Conflict and Change
- Jonathan Tonge(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The political centre in Northern Ireland occupies narrow, diminishing ground. Although it may create a new cross–community centre forged from several moderate parties, the Good Friday Agreement has not helped the existing centre party, by reducing it to the label of ‘other’ party within a Unionist-Nationalist political framework. Formed in 1970, the Alliance Party’s electoral support has ebbed gently from its high-water mark of 14.4 per cent in 1977. The party has a tendency to perform better in opinion polls than in elections (Whyte, 1991). Nowadays, the party averages around 7 per cent of the vote and its support is mainly confined to the East of Northern Ireland. Led by Sean Neeson, Alliance holds six seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, but does not hold a seat within the Executive. It has operated as a bi–confessional party amid a confessional party system (McAllister and Wilson, 1978; Leonard, 1999). Alliance attracts support among Protestants and Catholics, although Protestant support tends to be higher. Approximately 10–12 per cent of Protestants voted Alliance in the mid-1990s (McGarry and O’Leary, 1995: 200). However, this figure has fallen slightly. Of the party’s 1,000 members, 66 per cent are Protestants, 18 per cent Catholics and 13 per cent do not claim any religion (Tonge and Evans, 2000b). Alliance’s aim is to create a distinctive third tradition, designed to overcome the Unionist versus Nationalist zero-sum politics which it believes infests Northern Ireland. Having long argued for devolved power-sharing government, the party strongly supports the Good Friday Agreement, even though it has reservations about some aspects which legitimise competitive politics between Unionists and Nationalists. In the words of one senior party figure, ‘compromise is an honourable necessity’ (Ford, 1996)...
eBook - ePubA Troubled Constitutional Future
Northern Ireland after Brexit
- Mary C. Murphy, Jonathan Evershed(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Agenda Publishing(Publisher)
...Brexit, however, presented the Alliance Party with an opportunity to fashion a policy position appealing to both unionists and nationalists, consolidating its cross-community attraction, and potentially heralding the start of a more permanent reshaping and even normalization of Northern Ireland’s (ethnic dual) party system to the benefit of the centre ground. Brexit has, therefore, at least partially helped to arrest a stagnant electoral trend and demonstrated an appetite for moderation among a sizeable (and growing) constituency of voters from across the political divide who have switched their allegiance to the middle ground in general, and to the Alliance Party in particular. This development has been to the particular (although not exclusive) detriment of unionism. Alliance has accommodated pro-Remain unionists frustrated with how political unionism, and particularly the DUP, has navigated Brexit, but critically the party has not required those voters to abandon or reject their unionist constitutional preference. APNI also garners support from Catholic/nationalist voters who continue to aspire to a united Ireland. However, the largest single proportion of Alliance Party voters – 51 per cent – claim to be “neither unionist or nationalist” (Tonge 2020b: 465). This means that Alliance appeals to a trilogy of (ultimately incompatible) positions on the constitutional question: unionist, nationalist and non-aligned, which complicates the party’s agency on the constitutional question. The growing size and increasing political muscle of Northern Ireland’s middle ground challenges traditionally neutral stances on constitutional change as espoused by the Alliance Party and the Green Party. How the Alliance Party (as the larger of the two) positions itself on the developing constitutional debate is consequential for the outcome of that debate, and ultimately for the future of Northern Ireland...
eBook - ePubHistory and Hope
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
- Brian Eggins(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- THP Ireland(Publisher)
...More sensitivity and more study and appreciation of Irish culture would place the party in a better position to explain those advantages to Unionists from a centrist neutral viewpoint. The Alliance Party must stand fast in offering an alternative to sectarian voting. It has played a valuable part in bringing the Northern Ireland people to negotiate their own future and has played a crucial if unsung part in obtaining the Belfast Agreement. If the other ‘pro-Agreement’ parties and the two governments are serious about implementing the spirit of the Agreement, they should be prepared to encourage those who would wish to vote for a non-sectarian party. If the arrangements for strengthening the influence of the ‘Other’ bloc’s votes, as suggested in the next section, are made it will act as an incentive to moderate people to vote for parties in the ‘Other’ group. A strong representation from such parties would act as a catalyst 499 to promote the aims of the Agreement. Church of Ireland priest, Revd Timothy Kinahan, 500 suggested that the Alliance Party’s strength is in local councils and interacting with ‘grass roots’ people where councillors and their workers can actively work across the communities and practise ‘moving beyond sectarianism’. 501 Lederach’s model for building peace involves the interaction of people at all levels of society, not just the top echelon involved in statist diplomacy, but also the grass-roots community workers and especially the middle-range (professional) leadership people. 502 Journalist Peter Walker confirmed this when he wrote in Fortnight : Real peace needs people based initiatives designed to promote peace. ... It can only be realised when diversity is respected. .....
eBook - ePub- Brian Feeney(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- The O'Brien Press(Publisher)
...II. The Main Political Parties Involved in the Politics of Northern Ireland Alliance party Founded in 1970, a small, middle-class party attracting support from both communities. Based mainly in the greater Belfast area, it normally received 6% of the vote. Democratic Unionist party Founded in 1971 by Rev. Ian Paisley and initially known as the Protestant Unionist party, it has opposed any move seen as weakening the position of Northern Ireland within the Union. The DUP attracts a strong working-class Protestant vote and in November 2003 became the largest Unionist party in Northern Ireland. Fianna Fáil Translated as ‘Soldiers of Destiny’, it is the largest of the Irish Republic’s political parties. Perceived as being the most republican of the south’s large parties, for much of the Troubles it was led by Charles Haughey. His successors, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, played key roles in the peace process of the 1990s, Ahern signing the Good Friday Agreement with British PM Tony Blair. Fine Gael Literally meaning ‘Tribe of the Gael’, it is the second largest political party in the Irish Republic. In 1985 its leader and then Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with Margaret Thatcher. Progressive Unionist party The political wing of the UVF, it is a small political party based mainly in west, north and east Belfast since the early 1970s and receives limited electoral support outside those areas. Its most prominent representatives are David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson. Sinn Féin Regarded as the political wing of the IRA, it claims descent from the party established in 1904 by Arthur Griffith. It is an all-Ireland political organisation and unique in that it has representation in Dáil Éireann and the House of Commons as well as in the Northern Ireland assembly, although its MPs do not take their seats at Westminster. It aims to create a united thirty-two-county Irish Republic...
