The Irish Independence Party (IIP) was a nationalist political party in Northern Ireland, founded in October 1977 by Frank McManus (former Unity MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone between 1970 and 1974) and Fergus McAteer (son of Eddie McAteer, who had been leader of the Nationalist Party between 1953 and 1969). The party was effectively a merger of Unity and the Nationalist Party, as the bulk of activists and councillors from the two movements joined IIP. However several independent councillors also joined the party. It was boosted in the late 1970s by the defection of a prominent Protestant Larne Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor, John Turnley, later the party chairman, who was killed in 1980 in Carnlough, County Antrim, by an attack claimed by the Ulster Defence Associat