The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons.
Founded in 1970 from the New Ulster Movement, the Alliance Party originally represented moderate and non-sectarian Unionism. However, over time, particularly in the 1990s, it moved towards neutrality on the Union, and has come to represent wider liberal and non-sectarian concerns. It opposes consociational power sharing as deepening the sectarian divide, and, in the Northern Ireland Assembly, it is designated as neither unionist nor nationalist, but 'Other'.
In May 2010 the Alliance Party won their first Westminster seat in a General Election, in Belfast East, unseating Peter Robinson, leader of the DUP and First Minister of Northern Ireland. Naomi Long, the successful candidate, is the first MP from the Alliance Party since Stratton Mills who had joined the party from the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973.
Read more about Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland: Aims and Objectives, Philosophy, Regionalisation of Alliance's Vote, Leaders of Alliance, Deputy Leaders, MPs, MLAs, Young Alliance and Alliance Youth
Famous quotes containing the words alliance, party, northern and/or ireland:
“From his childhood onwards this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers.... In due course, following the precedent which has already been set, he will be sent on a tour of the world and probably rumours of a morganatic marriage alliance will follow, and the end of it will be the country will be called upon to pay the bill.”
—James Keir Hardie (1856–1915)
“Last night, party at Lansdowne-House. Tonight, party at Lady Charlotte Greville’s—deplorable waste of time, and something of temper. Nothing imparted—nothing acquired—talking without ideas—if any thing like thought in my mind, it was not on the subjects on which we were gabbling. Heigho!—and in this way half London pass what is called life.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.”
—Jack Holland (b. 1947)