On the SDLP: “We were a group of individuals who belong to a broad church…”
Pretty good discussion on Hearts and Minds last night (as so often, a politician free zone, the exception of Martin who’s firmly in the Fianna Fail camp these days, is its own reward) of the strengths and weaknesses of the SDLP… Organisation seems to be a critical issue, although Fionnuala O’Connor note that what the SDLP is to become is party of the larger question of what is to become of Northern Irish nationalism…
Stick around for Harry Magee on Nationalism in the wake of #Aras11…
Tags: leadership election, Nationalism, sdlp
Topic: Politics, Society and Culture
Region: Ireland, Northern Ireland
Topic: Politics, Society and Culture
Region: Ireland, Northern Ireland
I have listened on several occasions to Brian Feeney talk about the SDLP needing “to cut its cloth” and “its never going to be big again and they have to accept it.” You have to wonder what the hell he is talking about. What party is going to accept being a bit part player and just settle for that. If the SDLP were going to settle for that, whats the point?
Morgan’s comments were interesting, and reinforced the reasons why Patsy McGlone needs to win thise leadership election. The other three are too divisive. Patsy let himself down by talking about being snubbed but besides that, I do think he could be a more unifying figure
Morgan probably speaks truer of his own party than his former one.
“Organisation seems to be a critical issue”
Patrick Murphy points to a different issue in your ‘personalities’ tweet on the side-bar, Mick:
With all due respect your [the SDLP] analysis is wrong. You have defined the troubles as a dispute over national identities, when it is simply a case of Britain once again using sectarianism to retain political influence in Ireland
Is Murphy taking a SF line on ‘sectarianism’? The bit about national identities certainly wasn’t one acknowledged by Hume:
“p67 “Personal Views … by the Irish people I mean all the people who live on this island … the healing of divisions between Catholic and Protestant in Ireland, however difficult that may be, is the major challenge and the major priority facing those who wish to exercise the self-determination of all the Irish people and establish permanent peace in Ireland”
The SDLP still doesn’t recognise the Unionist aspiration ie that NI remains part of the UK:
The SDLP’s vision is a reconciled people living in a united, just and prosperous new Ireland
The SDLP Is to soft, it sounds more like a Unionist party every time i hear it.