One of the parties, the SDLP , Social Democrat and
Labour, grew out of the old Nationalist Party and was founded in 1970. The old
Nationalist Party was powerless - when Ireland's
northeast was organised as the last part of Ireland under London control it was
made powerless. Constituency boundaries and voting were arranged to make the
Ulster Unionists unbeatable, assuring
them of an unchangeable majority of seats in local government and parliament. Seats
in both were often uncontested in elections because it was not worthwhile to
contest them.
When the northeast was carved out to make it
politically unchangeable Nationalists tried at first to have nothing to do with
it, then they took their seats when elected
and tried to create some elements
of democratic interaction between themselves and the unbeatable Unionists.
Eventually, under pressure from some of
their influential constituents, high
clergy for example, they even consented to
become an official Opposition, an opposition that could never be in government. A Nationalist leader, T.J. Campbell,
wrote in his memoirs (Fifty Years of
Ulster, published 1941) that in his experience his party was able to bring
about only one piece of legislation. It was for the Protection of Wild Birds. It could never
put forward successfully any measure for
the protection of his party's democratic constituents.
The two parties, Unionist and Nationalist, managed
however to create a small system within a system : Nationalist representatives in City Hall or
local council would identify " decent Unionists" - of whom there
were more than could show their decency in public - and ask them to vote for
some measure that would not be politically incorrect, for instance new amenities
in a mostly Nationalist area of Belfast. In return Unionists would approach
Nationalists to add their votes in councils for some politically harmless
measure that might not get the enthusiastic support of fellow Unionists.
In the mid-sixties, however, an important revolution happened :
nationalists turned away from asking
favours and took to demanding rights.
Those who now saw the old Nationalist Party as worthy
but powerless created a new party combining Social Democracy and
Labour. It was a loose-fitting title for a loose fitting political programme
but in the circumstances it worked. The civil rights campaigns had brought new
strength to demands for good government. And meanwhile another revolution was
pending, a widespread reawakening of the
political idea of, " We are not looking for suitable people to govern us,
we are looking for how to govern ourselves". Sinn Fein summed up that
thought in the title of their Party
which challenged both Unionist and Nationalist.
As Sinn Fein gained strength the SDLP lost it.
For some time now a weakened SDLP in the northeast has been
approached by Fianna Fáil, from the
other side of the border, to create a
merger, a sharing of resources or whatever the two parties agree to. This might perhaps help
the SDLP to survive and help Fianna Fáil to become an all Ireland party.
Both parties have their doubters internally.
Bringing two political groups together can cause internal weakness in both of them
rather than strength for both of them together, so they have to depend on this
new alignment to compensate and to fulfil the needs of both. Which is quite a
lot to ask.
Other things to ask - for future electors to ask - what are the needs of these two parties on their
way to becoming successful partners? Are
they likely to use their combined strength to preserve old ideas or to create fresh ones? Are they going to strengthen
confrontational politics so as to
eliminate other parties rather than find common cause with them in building a shared
democracy for all Ireland ?
Working for a shared democracy in Ireland is for
now.
After that there will be plenty to agree and differ
about.
But first things first.
The year the SDLP came into being, 1970, the
Alliance Party also came. Early attempts to change the politics of N.E. Ireland under leaders like Terence Ó
Neill still left the Ulster Unionist Party refusing membership to Catholics who
wanted to test the sincerity of such changes. Two prominent ones applied for admission to the Party and were
refused.
During the nineteen sixties however Young Unionists ( the title they had) became prominent and as
far as they seemed able opposed this exclusiveness. In time the Alliance Party
came into being and was basically a
unionist party in which Catholics would be welcomed and feel so. Some prominent
Protestant clergy as well as prominent Catholic non-clergy were involved in the
New Ulster Movement that led up to the
formation of Alliance. The New Ulster Movement included, prominently, those
whom the Ulster unionists had rejected.
All of which is part of a strange and
interesting Irish political evolution we Oldies remember. Churchill's foolish remark about the
permanence of Fermanagh's dreary steeples and other people's insistence on
saying everything always was and always will be a simple carve-up between
orange and green, a backstop colourful but inaccurate, may have overlooked what
many of our fellow citizens were really up
to all those years ago. Maybe overlooking what they are really up to now?
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