Opinion

SDLP must develop credible all-Ireland presence

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has said he is not precious about the party's leadership. Picture by Mal McCann
SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has said he is not precious about the party's leadership. Picture by Mal McCann SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has said he is not precious about the party's leadership. Picture by Mal McCann

It was once famously said by the then Ulster Unionist Party leader, Jim Molyneaux, that the 1994 IRA ceasefire was the most destabilising thing that could have happened to unionism.

Ironically, he could have been speaking about the impact upon the SDLP as the ceasefire proved to be the decisive development signalling the beginning of the end for the party as the dominant voice within northern nationalism. Two decades later and there’s no sign that the party has managed to work out what it must do to make itself relevant to a majority of nationalists again. If anything, the SDLP is now in danger of finding itself surplus to requirements for nationalism.

The SDLP has never been less popular than it is today, with the party failing to claim even 14 per cent of the vote at this year’s Westminster election.

The party has failed to forge a new identity in the devolution era, still clinging to the status of being the nationalists untainted by republican violence, a position which carried them through the decades of conflict but which has diminishing appeal with each passing year.

The news that the SDLP may now be facing into a new leadership contest will not come as a surprise.

Whether or not a changing of the guard results from this latest internal spat, the party will continue to face a bleak present and future unless and until it faces up to a number of daunting realities.

The SDLP needs to understand the nationalist electorate is unconvinced of its nationalist credentials, and that this critical failing continues to undermine all of its efforts to claw back ground from a Sinn Fein which stands on the threshold of being the first party to hold office in both Leinster House and Stormont since partition, something that would stand as the signature achievement of the Adams-McGuinness leadership, a powerful statement for northern nationalists.

Any SDLP recovery must involve the party developing a credible all-Ireland presence to counter Sinn Fein’s advances. Inviting southern politicians, motivated by nothing other than an intense loathing of Sinn Fein, to canvass for SDLP candidates at election time will not cut the mustard. The SDLP needs to formally align itself with a southern party, perhaps even going one step further and merging with one of the two main parties of southern Irish politics, Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.

Yet the problems that immediately arise from that statement reveal another of the difficulties plaguing the SDLP.

Not only is it viewed as lacklustre and not credible on the issue of unity, it has also failed to decisively mark out its own ground on the ideological spectrum. The SDLP continues to be a coalition of interests and voices representative of the left, centre and right on a range of policy matters, yet the left wing of the party continues to be the most vocal.

Unfortunately for the SDLP, Sinn Fein ‘do’ the leftist rhetoric and politics better and, as is the case when judged on its green credentials, the SDLP compares poorly to Sinn Fein. Furthermore, many influential voices within the SDLP are most comfortable associating with the Irish Labour Party, as opposed to either of the larger two centre-right parties, and would resist any moves to align the party with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.

There will always be a place and electoral space for a second nationalist party to thrive in northern Irish politics. The SDLP’s difficulty is that it is by no means certain any more that the second voice will be theirs.

Michéal Martin has committed Fianna Fail to contest elections in the north from 2019, and this has the potential to accelerate the demise of the SDLP, as the self-proclaimed Republican Party has both of the ingredients which are currently missing from the SDLP: the all-Ireland nationalist credentials that come with being the most successful party in southern Irish political history, and a centre-right vision and platform which can connect with those nationalists uncomfortable and increasingly disillusioned with the centre-left ideological positioning shared by both Sinn Fein and the SDLP, a factor contributing towards the declining nationalist turnout.

In that event, it is highly likely that a significant section of the existing SDLP party at a representative and grass roots level will defect to a Fianna Fail party holding out the prospect of challenging Sinn Fein in a way now appearing beyond the SDLP.

Whoever emerges as SDLP leader will need to appreciate that the party could soon be entering the last chance saloon.

:: Chris Donnelly is a blogger and former Sinn Fein council candidate.

:: Fionnuala O Connor is away.