Ninety years ago, on January 18 1934, leading journalist, businessman and nationalist politician Joseph “Wee Joe” Devlin died at the age of 62.
Devlin was intimately linked with The Irish News, first as a journalist with the paper from 1891 to 1893, then as a director from 1905 to his death almost 30 years later. He became chairperson in 1922. In that 30-year period, in essence he was the controlling figure of The Irish News which espoused his pragmatic constitutional nationalist political views.
A great organiser and debater, dubbed the “duodecimo Demosthenes” for his oratory skills by fellow nationalist Tim Healy, Devlin rose from humble beginnings to become the leading nationalist voice in Belfast during his lifetime. On top of controlling The Irish News, Devlin was the foremost northern leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), the national president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), and general secretary of the United Irish League (UIL).
His death in 1934 left a big gap in nationalist political leadership only really filled by the emergence of John Hume in the late 1960s
Devlin’s leadership of the AOH was criticised by opponents who considered it a sectarian organisation, the Catholic counterweight to the Protestant Orange Order, and for its reputation for using “Tammany Hall” type-tactics in its political engagements.
While Devlin used robust tactics and methods to achieve political and electoral aims, he was not sectarian. He was one of very few politicians in the north who was able to cross the sectarian divide (at least before 1912), particularly amongst the working classes and with women. A song, ‘Orange and Green will carry the day’, was even used by Devlin’s campaign team in the 1906 general election. As a champion for improvements in workplace conditions, he was admired by Protestant and Catholic workers alike and fondly remembered decades after his death.
As Home Rule seemed on the cusp of being introduced throughout Ireland, Devlin was at the peak of his powers in the early 1910s. By the end of the decade, however, his star had been severely dented, consigned from being a national to a regional Belfast leader, while the IPP was in the midst of its death throes. As well as being affected by the move away from constitutional nationalism to republicanism after the 1916 Easter Rising, Devlin’s stance on partition and the First World War contributed to his dramatic turnaround in political fortune.
As the main party spokesperson for northern Catholics, Joe Devlin was the last of the IPP leadership to accept some form of exclusion for some parts of Ulster on a temporary basis. Under enormous pressure from the governing Liberal Party and IPP figures such as John Redmond, John Dillon and T P O’Connor, Devlin relented. It was his intervention that saw Ulster nationalists vote at a conference in June 1916, by 475 to 265, to accept David Lloyd George’s deal of immediate Home Rule but with the exclusion of six Ulster counties.
While Devlin and Redmond believed the deal was for a temporary exclusion, Lloyd George promised to Ulster Unionist leader Edward Carson that the exclusion would be permanent. Once Lloyd George’s duplicity was revealed, Redmond rejected the proposals. The damage was done though within northern nationalism, which became split between west and south Ulster nationalists and Devlin supporters in east Ulster, predominantly in Belfast. Many nationalists in south and west Ulster transferred their support from the IPP and AOH to Sinn Féin from thereon in. Devlin later conceded that the tactics of the IPP of compromise and reason had not brought about any tangible results, stating: “Each time we conceded anything our position was imperilled amongst our friends and the problem was not correspondingly brought any nearer to a solution.”
His support, along with the rest of the IPP, for Irish involvement in the First World War arguably drained more support from the party than anything else, particularly as the war dragged on and become increasingly unpopular. Even though he opposed conscription, Devlin’s initial support for the war was used extensively by Sinn Féin during the anti-conscription campaign in the spring of 1918.
While Sinn Féin won a spectacular landslide victory in the December 1918 general election, winning 73 of the 105 Irish seats, one of the few blights was Devlin’s comprehensive victory over Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera in the Falls division of Belfast, winning over 70% of the votes. His popularity in west Belfast endured. The IPP performed better in Ulster than elsewhere as Sinn Féin’s penetration in the province was not as deep, in part because of Devlin’s control of The Irish News, according to historian Anthony C Hepburn.
Devlin returned to Westminster with six other colleagues, just a rump of the party remaining. Accepting the IPP had lost its mandate, he still used his voice in Westminster to oppose partition and highlight the sectarian attacks on Catholics in Belfast that engulfed the city from 1920 to 1922.
Sinn Féin and the Devlinites did form an electoral pact, which was loosely followed for the first election to the Northern Ireland parliament in 1921, with both parties winning only six seats each, and Ulster Unionists winning the other 40. No nationalist took their seats in the parliament. There was no unity within nationalism though, and Sinn Féin mistakenly did not avail of Devlin’s considerable experience in negotiating with the British government nor with Ulster unionists as it began its own negotiations with the British from the summer of 1921.
Devlin retained his popularity in west Belfast but was a peripheral figure nationally, side-lined by Sinn Féin and then Cumann na nGaedheal, who feared his sway more than valuing his input. After the Boundary Commission debacle, he took his seat in the Northern Ireland parliament and formed the Nationalist Party, leading an ineffectual opposition given the monopoly unionists had on power.
When he died in 1934, his death was mourned by nationalists of all persuasions, as well as by unionists. His absence left a big gap in nationalist political leadership only really filled by the emergence of John Hume in the late 1960s.
Although “Wee Joe” Devlin made errors, his achievements, as well as his pragmatic political outlook and his unwavering desire to help people less well off, are something we can all appreciate and admire 90 years on.