Irene Calvert

Who was Irene Calvert?

Irene Calvert was a Northern Irish politician and economist.

Born in Belfast, as Lilian Irene Mercer Earls, she studied at Methodist College, Belfast. Leaving school at the age of 18 she worked for some years in various stores, before going to Queen's University, Belfast from 1933 to 1936 to study economics and philosophy. In 1941 she was appointed to the vacant post of Chief Welfare Officer for Northern Ireland, immediately having to organise care for a flood of wartime evacuees including those evacuated to Northern Ireland from Gibraltar.

In 1944, Calvert was urged to contest a by-election for the Queen's University Belfast constituency to put a woman's point of view. She was unsuccessful but stood again in the Northern Ireland general election, 1945, as an independent candidate, and on this occasion succeeded in taking a seat. She held the seat until she stood down at the 1953 election. In Parliament, she refused to discuss the constitutional question, which she regarded as a distraction from the real task of social reform, including the passage of the Education Act, 1947. In her resignation speech, she did however question whether the Northern Irish economy could thrive while the partition of Ireland continued.