Draft:The Assembly of the Irish People

In July 1971, the SDLP proposed the setting up of an Assembly of the Nationalist people in the North of Ireland. The Assembly of the Irish People (also known as the Assembly of the Northern Irish People) was set up on the afternoon of 26 October 1971 in protest at the then government of the Northern Ireland Assembly. This alternative executive designated Dungiven Castle as its debating chamber under the chairmanship of Senator Gerry Lennon, John Hume and Ivan Cooper. A constitution and rules of The Assembly of the Northern Irish People was drawn up

MPs, Senators and local authority representatives from the SDLP and Nationalist Party who represented the non-Unionist community met in Dungiven Castle, County Derry as an alternative to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. 60 of the 130 delegates expected were in attendance, as representatives from Newry and Belfast attended the funerals of those killed in the violence in the preceding days.

In John Hume's speech on the day, he quoted Unionist Sir Edward Carson's refusal, in 1912, to participate in the then proposed Home Rule parliament, by stating that "We do not recognise the authority of the Stormont Parliament, and we do not care tuppence whether it is treason or not".

The validity of the alternative assembly elicited a response from Sormont's Cabinet Secretary, Sir Harold Black and as a result of the threat of prosecutions, the Assembly only ever met on two occasions.