Patrick Joseph Devlin (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999)[1] was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer from Belfast.

However his early activism was confined to Fianna Éireann and then the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and as a result he was interned in Crumlin Road Gaol from 1942 to 1945 at age 17.

In the Northern Ireland elections held in 1969, Devlin stood as the NILP candidate and beat Republican Labour's Harry Diamond for the Falls seat in Stormont.

The confrontations descended into sectarian violence as Catholic areas, especially in Belfast, came under attack from Loyalist gangs with many families being burnt out of their homes.

[8] Devlin believed that the NILP working in alliance with the civil rights movement could have changed the situation and reduced the sectarian tensions.

[9] Devlin started discussing with other Labour activists, civil rights leaders and moderate nationalists the possibility of launching a new party.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) brought together politicians and activists from Labour, civil rights and moderate Irish Nationalist backgrounds to form a party committed to achieving a united Ireland by consent and to working within the Northern Ireland political structures for constructive local cross-community politics.

At the time of the SDLP's formation, Devlin believed “the basic party philosophy was to be socialist and democratic and work for the unity of Ireland by consent”.

[11] He was later involved, at the request of William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in ensuring safe passage for Gerry Adams for talks with the British government in 1973.

The motion, also supported by Ivan Cooper, Seamus Mallon, and Paddy Duffy, but opposed by Party leader Gerry Fitt, John Hume and Austin Currie, was defeated by 153 votes to 111.