Hidden Histories: Wee Joe Devlin

On The Record with Gavan Reilly Highlights

English - February 12, 2023 12:15 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MB
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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the election of Gerry Adams as MP for West Belfast for the first time - a seat he would hold from 1983 until 1992, and then from 1997 until 2011.

Yet decades earlier, the West Belfast MP seat was held by a man who seemed genuinely unshakeable - ‘Wee Joe Devlin’.

He was one of the most influential Irish politicians of his day so much so that even the rise of the first Sinn Féin in 1918 couldn’t topple Devlin when his followers ran them from the Falls.

Tomorrow, 13 February, is the birthday of the man who seemed destined for great things before the political winds blew in a different direction.

Donal Fallon joins Gavan for another episode of Hidden Histories to discuss.