Painting by Sir John Lavery (1856 - 1941)
In ArchiveFramed Oil Painting by Sir John Lavery
The Nationalist Party Leader painted against a Green White and Orange backcloth.
Joseph Devlin or “Wee Joe” as he was popularly known, was an Irish Journalist and influential nationalist politician.
He was born in the Lower Falls area of Belfast in 1871. He showed an early gift for Public speaking as Chairman of a Debating Society in Belfast. He became a Journalist for the Irish News.
He became associated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians which he helped to establish in the 1890s and of which he became a lifelong Grand Master in Ireland.
In 1906 he was Elected Member of Parliament for Belfast West, which he served beyond 1918. In 1918 he was Elected Nationalist MP for Belfast Falls in which election he defeated Eamon De Valera of Sinn Fein, one of the very few Irish Parliamentary MPs to retain their Seats against a Sinn Fein landslide.
In the Election of 1921 he was elected for both Belfast West and Antrim.
He continued to sit at Westminster as he absented himself with Nationalist and Sinn Fein MPs from the Opening of Parliament and the Parliament thereafter as a protest against Partition and the legitimacy of the Parliament itself.
In 1925 he led his Nationalist MPs out of Abstentionism and took their seats in The Northern Ireland Parliament.
From 1929 until his death in 1934 he was MP for Fermanagh & Tyrone.
Owned by NMNI Reference BELUM.U63