Gerrard "Gerry" Fitt, Baron Fitt (9 April 1926 – 26 August 2005) was a Northern Irish politician. He was the founder leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, a socialist and Irish nationalist party. April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Royal motto: Quis separabit (Latin: Who will separate?) Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685,267 122/km² NUTS 1... The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP — Irish: Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is the smaller of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... An Irish nationalist is generally one who seeks (greater) independence of Ireland from Great Britain, including since 1921 the goal of a United Ireland. ...

Fitt was born in Belfast and educated at the Christian Brothers School. Between 1941 and 1953 he served in the merchant navy. Living in the Beechmount area of the Falls, he stood for the Falls as a candidate for the 'Dock Labour Party' in a city council byelection in 1956 but lost to Paddy Devlin, later his close ally, of the Irish Labour Party. In 1958 he was elected to Belfast City Council as a member of the Irish Labour Party. In 1962 he won a Stormont seat from the Unionist Party. In 1966 he won the West Belfast seat in the Westminster parliament. He represented the people as Republican Labour Party candidate. Belfast (Béal Feirste in Irish) is a city in the United Kingdom. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Falls Road is a main road through West Belfast; from Divis Street in the city centre to Andersonstown in the suburbs. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paddy Devlin was a Northern Irish social democrat and Labour activist, a former Stormont MP, a founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and a member of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive. ... Logo of the Irish Labour Party The Irish Labour Party (Irish: Páirti an Lucht Oibre) is the third largest political party in the Republic of Ireland. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which existed from June 7, 1921 to March 30, 1972, when it was suspended. ... The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP, sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or OUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland, and was the party of government in Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... West Belfast is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Westminster is the area located immediately to the west of the ancient City of London, in the centre of the wider conurbation of London. ... The Republican Labour Party was a political party in Northern Ireland. ...

He used Westminster as a platform to interest British MPs in the problems and issues surrounding Northern Ireland. Many sympathetic MPs were present at the civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968 when Fitt was wounded by police. RTÉ's film, in which Fitt featured prominently, of the police attack on the peacful, but illegal, demonstration drew world attention to the claims of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Royal motto: Quis separabit (Latin: Who will separate?) Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685,267 122/km² NUTS 1... Derry or Londonderry (in Irish, Doire or Doire Cholm Chille), often called the Maiden City, is a city in Northern Ireland. ... October 5 is the 278th day of the year (279th in Leap years). ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ; Irish for Radio and Television of Ireland) is the national publicly-funded broadcaster of Ireland. ... The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was an organization which campaigned for civil rights for Northern Irelands Catholic minority. ...

Fitt also supported the 1969 candidacy of Bernadette Devlin in the Mid Ulster by-election who ran as an anti-abstenstionist 'Unity' candidate. Devlin's success greatly increased the authority of Fitt in the eyes of many British commentators, particularly as it produced a second voice on the floor of the Commons who challenged the Unionist viewpoint at a time when Harold Wilson and other British ministers were beginning to take notice. 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born April 23, 1947), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a Northern Ireland republican politician. ... Mid Ulster is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... This article is about the British politician. ...

Fitt was elected as a republican and, for instance, unveiled a plaque at the house, on the Falls Road where James Connolly had lived. But he was also anxious to build a broader movement that would challenge unionist hegemony. At the same time a new generation of Catholics, many with secondary education and university degrees for first time as a consequence of the post-War creation of the welfare state, were determined to make their voices heard. Irish Republicanism is the nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a united independent republic. ... The Falls Road is a main road through West Belfast; from Divis Street in the city centre to Andersonstown in the suburbs. ... There are two well-known individuals named James Connolly: James Connolly - Irish socialist republican James Connolly - American athlete This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

And in August 1970 Fitt became the first leader of a coalition of civil rights and nationalist leaders who created the Social Democratic and Labour Party. The party was founded on high hopes - rejecting abstensionism and containing a number of prominent protestants and without the stigma of conservatism and impotency that surrounded the old nationalist party. But already by then Northern Ireland was charging headlong towards near civil war and the majority of unionists remained hostile. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP — Irish: Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is the smaller of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. ... Abstensionism is the policy of seeking election to a body while refusing to take up the seats or even sitting in an alternative assembly. ...

After the collapse of Stormont in 1974 he became deputy chief executive of the short-lived Power-Sharing Executive created by the Sunningdale Agreement. Arguments still rage over the extent to which Fitt, as opposed to John Hume, helped shape the agreement. Fitt certainly was becoming less engaged with the nationalist concerns of the majority of the SDLP. 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... The Sunningdale Agreement on December 9, 1973, was an attempt to end the Northern Ireland troubles by forcing unionists to share power with nationalists. ...

He became a target for republican sympathisers in 1976 when they attacked his home. He became disillusioned with the handling of Northern Ireland by the British government. In 1979 he abstained from a crucial vote in the House of Commons which brought down the Labour government, citing the way that the government had failed to help the nationalist population and tried to form a deal with the Ulster Unionist Party. 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The Labour Party is a centrist/centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ...

In 1980 he was replaced by John Hume as leader of the SDLP and he left the party altogether after he had agreed to constitutional talks with British Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins without any provision for an 'Irish dimension' and had then seen his decision overturned by the SDLP party conference. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... John Hume - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP — Irish: Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is the smaller of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. ... The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is the British cabinet minister who has responsibility for the government of Northern Ireland. ... Humphrey Atkins (b. ... The Council of Ireland may refer to one of two councils, one proposed and one implemented for a brief period. ...

Like Paddy Devlin before him, he claimed the SDLP had ceased to be a socialist force.

In 1981 he opposed the hunger strikes in the Maze prison in Belfast. His seat in Westminster was targeted by Sinn Féin as well as by the SDLP. In June 1983 he lost his seat in West Belfast to Gerry Adams, in part due to competition from an SDLP candidate. The following month he was made a UK life peer as Baron Fitt, of Bell's Hill in the County of Down. His Belfast home was firebombed a month after the election and he moved to live in London. The name Sinn Féin (pronounced in English, in Irish), which means ourselves or we ourselves (not as sometimes incorrectly translated, ourselves alone or we alone) has been applied to a series of political movements since 1905 in Ireland, each of which claim or claimed sole descent from the original... West Belfast is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Gerry Adams Gerry Adams (Irish name Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born October 6, 1948) is an Irish politician, Member of Parliament for West Belfast, and president of Sinn Féin. ... In the United Kingdom, Life Peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as hereditary peers). ...

In his later life he was an active member of the House of Lords where he was strongly critical of some aspects of the political developments of Northern Ireland, including concessions to Irish republicanism and the disbandment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. This article is about the British House of Lords. ... The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ...

Although Fitt was initially considered a Nationalist politician, his career defies the traditional terms used for the discussion of Northern Irish politics. It would perhaps be most fair to say that he was first and foremost a socialist politician rather than a Nationalist. For example, on October 11, 1974 he stated: October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

In Northern Ireland it is very difficult to be a socialist without being labelled a Unionist socialist or an anti-partionist socialist, but I am a socialist...