SDLP Leadership - What is That?

Guest Blogger Martin Morgan




Editor's Note.

This article was submitted before the the announcement that the current independent, and former Sinn Féin MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Gerry McHugh, announced that he had joined Fianna Fáil. The announcement came after a Fianna Fáil support group in Fermanagh was formally established this past weekend. Fianna Fáil support groups now exist in counties Armagh, Down, and Fermanagh. Membership in the party in the previously unorganised six northern counties is believed to be around 500 with counties Antrim, Derry, and Tyrone, expected to launch by early next year.

"Fianna Fáil offers what both the SDLP and Sinn Féin cannot; it could produce Stormont Ministers and has had Dail Ministers for more than fifty five years of the eighty eight years since partition occurred. Add this together and you could see the creation of the most potent All-Ireland political movement in the island’s history."

Martin Morgan is a former SDLP Lord Mayor of Belfast (2003-2004) and former SDLP Councilor for the Oldpark constituency in north Belfast ( Ardoyne, Waterworks, New Lodge, Cliftonville, Ligoniel wards) which he served for 12 years and was a European Parliamentary candidate in 2004.

A double graduate of the Queen's University of Belfast, he is a Social Worker by profession, Martin left the SDLP in 2005 to progress his professional career. Since then Martin has maintained a strong interest in the organisation of Fianna Fáil as a 32-county political entity. He believes that Fianna Fáil is the only political party on the island of Ireland that has the ability to fully promote the well being of all of the people who live on the island.

Maintaining a strong interest in politics across Ireland especially in his home town of Belfast, Martin is of the view that the current political representation afforded to the people of north Belfast is inadequate, outdated and out of touch and requires replacing.

SDLP Leadership – What is that?

Mark Durkan’s stepping down as the leader of the soft Nationalist SDLP has come as no surprise to me. Durkan was Hume’s left hand man in Derry before becoming the SDLP leader and throughout his stewardship of the Party he was dogged by those who believed that being an able Lieutenant to a former leader was his strongest and most able position in the Party. He is a decent person and was an alright steward, but he was not a leader in its truest sense at a time when the SDLP was losing its direction, requiring a strong and confident hand at the wheel, rather than bowing to the inevitable “I am clever than you” abstract sound bite, which left most of us bewildered.

Since Durkan’s announcement Alasdair Mc Donnell and Margaret Ritchie have declared their intentions to replace him. Others in the Party would have aspired to declare openly their ambition to enter the race. Some of these individuals were clearly delusional having overseen their own electoral demise in their respective home constituencies and their failure to strengthen an eroding electoral base. Their vanity by far outweighed their grasp of reality. At least some members of the SDLP had the sense to counsel them against contesting a race that at best had only three serious contenders and at worst two, the third potential candidate being John Dallat from the East Derry area, who would not enter the race even though he narrowly lost out to Mc Donnell for the Deputy Leadership.

Both Mc Donnell and Ritchie are reasonably well-profiled politicians and in the eyes of the electorate Ritchie in particular has handled her Ministerial portfolio well. However, in my opinion, neither Ritchie nor Mc Donnell can turn the tide of fortune back in the direction of the SDLP.

The reasons;

Firstly neither are charismatic characters, commanding the attention of the Party or the electorate.

Secondly we should not be fooled by the “just good enough” election results of the past five years. The results were just good enough for the Party to avoid collapsing, but not anyway nearly good enough to begin to think that the SDLP was returning to former strengths and glories.

Thirdly even though they topped the European poll in the north Sinn Fein has probably peeked at a time when the SDLP’s life support system coughs and splutters along the same as before. The soothsayers of the SDLP always held out hope against hope that the demise of the Sinn Féin experiment would see again the rise of the SDLP. That has not happened. The SDLP’s old boast of being a “broad church” has ultimately obstructed the Republicanism that lies deep within elements of the Party in favour of a significant number of “latte sipping” come lately representatives ( where were they before the ceasefires?) who want status, status and status. This in turn fed into the Sinn Féin machine that eventually decimated the SDLP.

Fourthly a new powerful, mature and experienced political force in northern politics is rising rapidly in the form of Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil is now organising across the six counties and has recently opened a political surgery in Crossmaglen. Early indicators show a groundswell of goodwill, support and new members for the 32 - county Party, including strong overtures being made by some elected representatives and members of the SDLP to join Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil offers what both the SDLP and Sinn Féin cannot; it could produce Stormont Ministers and has had Dail Ministers for more than fifty five years of the eighty eight years since partition occurred. Add this together and you could see the creation of the most potent All-Ireland political movement in the island’s history.

All of this added together is just too much of a challenge for whoever the new leader of the SDLP will be thus sealing the SDLP’s fate.