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The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention was an elected body set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson as an attempt to deal with constitutional issues surrounding the status of Northern Ireland.

Contents 1 Formation of the Constitutional Convention 2 Results 3 Leading Members 4 Progress of the NICC 5 Significance of the NICC 6 External link

The idea for a NICC was first mooted by the Northern Ireland Office when it produced a white paper entitled The Northern Ireland Constitution [1] on the 4th July 1974. The document laid out plans to hold elections to a body which would seek to agree a political settlement for Northern Ireland. The proposals became law with the Northern Ireland Act of 1974 [2] later that month. With Lord Chief Justice Robert Lowry appointed to chair the new body, elections were announced for the 1st May 1975.

The elections were held for the 78 member assembly using the Single Transferable Vote system of proportional representation in each of Northern Ireland's existing 12 constituencies. Initially the body was intended to be purely consultative, although it was hoped that executive and legislative functions could be devolved to the NICC as agreements were made.

Unionists opposed to the NICC once again banded together under the umbrella of the United Ulster Unionist Council and this coalition proved the most successful. The eventual seat allocation was as follows.

• UUUC - 46 seats
  • Ulster Unionist Party - 19 seats
  • Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party - 14 seats
  • Democratic Unionist Party - 12 seats
  • Independent Unionist - 1 seat
• Social Democratic and Labour Party - 17 seats
• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - 8 seats
• Unionist Party of Northern Ireland - 5 seats
• Northern Ireland Labour Party - 1 seat
• Independent Loyalist (later the PUP) - 1 seat

As well as Independents, the only other (unsuccessful) groups to stand were the Republican Clubs and the Communist Party of Ireland, as well as one Ulster Unionist candidate who ran without UUUC support.

Main article: Members of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention

A number of leading Northern Irish politicians were elected to the NICC, increasing hope that the body might achieve some of its aims. Also elected were a number of younger figures who would go on to become leading figures in the future of Northern Irish politics. These included:

• Glenn Barr - VPUP
• Lord Brookeborough - UPNI
• William Craig - VPUP
• Austin Currie - SDLP
• Reg Empey - VPUP
• Brian Faulkner - UPNI
• Gerry Fitt - SDLP
• John Hume - SDLP
• James Kilfedder - UUP
• Seamus Mallon - SDLP
• Oliver Napier - APNI
• Ian Paisley - DUP
• Martin Smyth - UUP
• John Taylor - UUP
• David Trimble - VPUP
• Harry West - UUP

The elections left the body fundamentally weakened from its inception as an overall majority had been obtained by those Unionists who opposed power sharing as a concept. As a result the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention Report published on 20th November 1975 [3] recommended only a return to majority rule as had previously existed under the old Parliament of Northern Ireland government. As such a solution was completely unacceptable to the nationalist parties, the NICC was placed on hiatus.

Hoping to gain something from the exercise, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees announced that the NICC would be reconvened on 3 February 1976. However a series of meetings held between the UUUC and the SDLP failed to reach any agreement about SDLP participation in government and so the reconvened NICC once again produced the same results. As a result Rees announced the dissolution of the body on 4 March 1976 and Northern Ireland was returned to direct rule. The NICC had, overall, been a failure as it failed to lessen the impasse in Northern Irish politics and so no changes enacted.

On the face of it, the NICC was a total failure as it did not achieve its aims of agreement between the two sides or of introducing 'rolling devolution' (gradual introduction of devolution as and when the parties involved saw fit to accept it). Nevertheless, coming as it did not long after the Conservative-sponsored Sunningdale Agreement, the NICC indicated that no British government would be prepared to re-introduce majority rule in Northern Ireland. During the debates William Craig accepted the possibility of power-sharing with the SDLP, a move that split the UUUC and precipitated the eventual collapse of Vanguard.

The idea of electing a consultative body to thrash out a deal for devolution was also retained and in 1996 it was revived when the Northern Ireland Forum was elected on largely the same lines and with the same overall purpose. Given that the Forum led to the Belfast Agreement and the Northern Ireland Assembly, the importance of the NICC as a model for this second body is clear.

• A full discussion of the election results

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