Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, a centrist political party established in April 1970, mainly by people not previously involved in politics. It has sought to develop a political middle ground for Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, on a platform of reconciliation within the United Kingdom. Its strongest support has been in the middle‐class suburban areas, although paradoxically its modest success has played a major part in putting the Northern Ireland Labour Party out of business. It has made relatively little impact in the west of the province and in rural areas generally.

The party's initial rationale was that a strong body of support for conciliation existed, but was masked by the first‐past‐the‐post electoral system which operated in the province prior to 1973. The reintroduction of proportional representation poured some cold water on this: the party has never obtained more than about 13 per cent of the vote in local council elections and 10 per cent in regional elections; since the early 1980s levels of support have been slightly lower. Far from encouraging the emergence of a strong centre, PR actually facilitated the emergence of more extreme parties within each ethnic camp. Although Alliance has retained a strong core of committed Catholic and Protestant supporters, its electoral successes have been in situations where this core has been enhanced by a local minority which is too small to sustain its own ethnic parties, such as the Catholic minority in East Belfast and North Down.

A. C. Hepburn