Northern Ireland Women's Coalition

Northern Ireland

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The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition was a non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1996 by Catholic academic Monica McWilliams and Protestant social worker Pearl Sagar to contest the elections to the Northern Ireland Forum, the body for all-party talks which led to the Belfast Agreement.

McWilliams and Sagar were elected as Members of the Northern Ireland Forum and supported the Belfast Agreement. The party claimed credit for the inclusion of a commitment to integrated education in the agreement. They were also strongly opposed to sectarian violence from both sides.

In the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998, party leader McWilliams representing South Belfast and Jane Morrice representing North Down were elected to the inaugural Northern Ireland Assembly. McWilliams also stood as a candidate in United Kingdom general election, 2001, and came a respectable third.

The party did not take a position on whether Northern Ireland should be part of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. It attracted support from former supporters of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, but also the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Ulster Unionist Party. Both its MLAs lost their seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections, 2003 and its final remaining elected representative lost her seat on North Down Borough Council in 2005.

On May 11, 2006 the Women's Coalition was wound down officially at a function held in Belfast.[1]

External links

• NIWC 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election Manifesto - A New Voice for New Times
• NIW 2001 Local Government Election Manifesto
• Coalition stands in South Belfast
• Women's party to fight on