The Social Democrats, the Labour Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

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?


Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.