Harry Diamond

Harry Diamond (1908–1996) was a socialist and an Irish nationalist. He was the MP for Belfast Falls in the Parliament of Northern Ireland, and later the leader of the Republican Labour Party. In 1927, Diamond was the main initiator and first chairman of O'Donnell's GAA. He later became chairman of Antrim GAA. Diamond was an active nationalist before the Second World War and in 1933 was sentenced to a month in jail for refusing to pay a fine given out for addressing an illegal rally in support of republican prisoners. The following year, he stood in the Belfast Central by-election as an "Anti-Partition" candidate. In 1944, Diamond became a founder member of the Socialist Republican Party. He took the Belfast Falls seat at the 1945 Northern Ireland general election. In 1949, no one else contested the seat, and he remained the Socialist Republican Party's only MP, but the party disbanded that year. While most of its members joined the Irish Labour Party, Diamond held his seat, until 1964 as an independent standing as "Republican Labour".