Fitt, Gerry (1926-2005), Lord Fitt of Bell’s Hill, represented the Northern Ireland constituency of Belfast West in the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1966 to 1983. He supported the republican view of the Northern Ireland issue—that Northern Ireland should become part of the Republic of Ireland—but strongly opposed the Provisional Irish Republican Army’s campaign of violence.
Fitt helped found the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which became one of Northern Ireland’s leading political parties, and he led it from 1970 to 1979. In 1979, he resigned the party leadership and became a Socialist member of Parliament. He lost his seat in 1983 and was later made a life peer.
Gerard Fitt was born in Belfast on April 9, 1926. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School, Belfast. From 1941 to 1953, he was a merchant seaman. He became a member of the Northern Ireland (Stormont) Parliament in 1962 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1966. After the Stormont Parliament was ended in 1972, Fitt served in the Northern Ireland Assembly (1973-1975) and the Constitutional Convention (1975-1976). He died on Aug. 26, 2005.
