David McCann of this parish posted an interesting article yesterday in the Irish News noting that Irish Labour at their weekend conference called for the next government to establish a department to begin planning for Irish unity. While welcoming this as part of the ‘growing interest in the conversation regarding the constitutional future of Ireland’, David does pose the killer question…
‘Yet, as was pointed out on social media, will Labour be in any position to deliver any of this given the state of its polling in the Republic? To be honest, this question can be asked of other parties of the left, with the Greens and Social Democrats all polling around the 3-6 per cent range.’
The Irish left is in a bit of a rough state right now, with Sinn Féin’s rise in the south stealing their thunder, a fate familiar to the SDLP here in Northern Ireland. David makes the following suggestion…
‘Instead, the inevitable realignment conversation between the Social Democrats and Labour should include the SDLP. It makes little sense, north or south, for three different vehicles to essentially occupy the same space when they agree on so many issues.’
Would such a realignment, and on the face of it a more natural fit for the SDLP than its dalliance with Fianna Fáil, be the way forward for the Irish left or would the attempt be doomed to failure?
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