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New Nationalism? The S.D.L.P. and the creation of a socialist and labour party in Northern Ireland, 1969–75

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Sarah Campbell
Sarah Campbell*
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University
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Extract

‘Since our foundation, the S.D.L.P. has been proudly nationalist and is 100 per cent for a United Ireland.’ This description, from the website of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (S.D.L.P.), advances a claim which might be thought not to sit easy with the party's founding ideals which claimed it as a ‘radical socialist party’ and insisted that, while a united Ireland was one of the party's main aims, it would prioritise the socio-economic above the constitutional question. This article will argue that while the S.D.L.P. was widely recognised as a major advance in nationalist politics in Northern Ireland when it was formed in August 1970, it had lost its avant-garde approach to the constitutional question and become a more organised form of the old Nationalist Party by 1975. Although initially the S.D.L.P. combined socialist rhetoric with a discourse that linked social justice with the reunification of the island – its ideal was a ‘completely new constitution for the whole of Ireland, a constitution which will provide the framework for the emergence of a just, egalitarian and secular society’ – there existed an uneasy tension between nationalist and socialist aims within the party, with the former taking precedence by the time of the powersharing Executive of 1974.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 151 , May 2013 , pp. 422 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2013

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References

1 ‘A short history of the SDLP’, (April, 2012).

2 Description of the S.D.L.P. papers (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072). See also: Irish News, 20 Aug. 1970.

3 In the months before the S.D.L.P. was set up, both the British and Irish governments were keen for a united nationalist voice to emerge from the North: White, Barry, John Hume: statesman of the Troubles (Belfast, 1984), p. 97.Google Scholar The Irish government’s wish to see a new party along these lines emerge is discussed below.

4 Draft document, ‘Towards a New Ireland’, S.D.L.P. policy sub-committee, 1971–2, (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/30/1).).

5 See www.ark.ac.uk/elections for a summary and break-down of election results in Northern Ireland from 1920.

6 The party only had two leaders after Fitt until February 2010. John Hume replaced Fitt as leader in 1979 and remained in the position until 2001 when he was replaced by Mark Durkan (also Derry-based).

7 At time of writing in April 2012: www.sdlp.ie provides details of S.D.L.P. elected representatives.

8 ‘It is quite possible that, in proportion to its size, Northern Ireland is the most heavily researched area on earth’: Whyte, John, Interpreting Northern Ireland (Oxford, 1990), p. 18.Google Scholar

9 Aaron Edwards, A history of the Northern Ireland Labour Party: democratic socialism and sectarianism (Manchester, 2009), p. 1.

10 Brendan O’Leary and John McGarry, The politics of antagonism: understanding Northern Ireland (2nd edn, London, 1996). Oaaa’Leary and McGarry distinguish their ‘analytical history’ from conventional history and structure their historical account in terms of the categories of nation-building.

11 Ruane, Joseph and Todd, Jennifer, The dynamics of conflict in Northern Ireland: power, conflict and emancipation (Cambridge, 1996), p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Mcgrattan, cillian, ‘Explaining Northern Ireland? The limitations of the ethnic conflict model’ in National Identities, 5, no. 2, (June 2010), pp 181–97.Google Scholar The historical revisionism of the civil rights movement, for example, has started to deconstruct the dominant narratives and myths that surround the movement. See Prince, Simon, Northern Ireland‘s ’68: civil rights, global revolt and the origins of the Troubles (Dublin, 2007).Google Scholar Cf. Thomas Hennessey’s analysis of internment, where he argues that while internment may have been a political failure, it was a military success: Hennessey, The evolution of the Troubles, 1970–72 (Dublin, 2007), p. 217.

13 Five books have been published on the S.D.L.P. (not including biographies and autobiographies). With the exception of Ian McAllister, The Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party: political opposition in a divided society (London, 1977), they all centre on the role of John Hume: Murray, Gerard, John Hume and the S.D.L.P.: impact and survival in Northern Ireland (Dublin, 1998);Google ScholarMurray, Gerard and Tonge, Jonathan, The S.D.L.P. and Sinn Féin: from alienation to participation (Dublin, 2005);Google ScholarMcloughlin, Peter, John Hume and the revision of Irish nationalism (Manchester, 2010);Google ScholarFarren, Sean, The S.D.L.P.: the struggle for agreement in Northern Ireland, 1970–2000 (Dublin,2010).Google Scholar

14 Hennessey, Thomas, Northern Ireland: the origins of the Troubles (Dublin, 2005), p. 9.Google Scholar

15 Walsh, Pat, From civil rights to national war: Northern Ireland Catholic politics, 1964–1974 (Belfast, 1989), p.7.Google Scholar

16 Disturbances in Northern Ireland [Cameron Report], Cmnd 532 [NI], 1969, chapter 1, paragraph 11.

17 Mcallister, , Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party, pp 39–40.Google Scholar

18 Lynn, Brendan, Holding the ground: the Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland, 1945–1972 (Aldershot, 1997);Google ScholarEamon, Phoenix, Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland, 1890–1940 (Belfast, 1994);Google ScholarStaunton, Enda, The nationalists of Northern Ireland,, 1918–1973 (Dublin, 2001).Google Scholar

19 Mulholland, Marc, Northern Ireland at the crossroads: Ulster Unionism in the O’Neill years, 1960–9 (Basingstoke, 2000), p. 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féin and the S.D.L.P., p. 4.

21 An issue of Round Table in September 1966 noted: ‘[there is]… a wind of change … blowing across the Irish scene. Old feuds are dying out, old politicians are retiring, old resentments and loyalties are fading away. Younger leaders are taking over, and new issues taking shape . Poverty, not partition, is now the problem to be solved, prosperity, not separation from Britain, the goal to be won . age and changing circumstances have now at last caught up with the politicians and they must now face retirement or reality.’ ‘Ireland: A wind of change’, The Round Table: the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 55, no. 219 (1965), p. 294.

22 In September 1962 its membership was estimated at just over one hundred persons in various parts of the North. It was headed by a group of nationalist intellectuals, the most prominent of whom was Michael McKeown.

23 ‘Note on national unity’, 9 Apr. 1963 (N.A.I., DFA/305/14/325).

24 Note from Proinseas Mac Aogain (Frank Aiken) to the taoiseach, 18 July 1964 (N.A.I., DFA/305/14/325).

25 Mckeown, michael, The greening of a nationalist (Dublin, 1986), chapter 3.Google Scholar

26 Initially merely a pressure group within nationalism, the N.D.P. went on to become a political party in its own right. It fought the 1967 local government elections, and had twenty-eight candidates elected.

27 Hume wrote two connected articles for the Irish Times on 18 and 19 May 1964 under this title.

28 Irish Times, 18 May 1964. It could be argued that the I.R.A. had made a similar point in 1962 in a statement ending their Operation Harvest Campaign. They recognised that the ‘public’s mind has been deliberately turned from the ultimate aim of the Irish people - the liberty and freedom of Ireland’, Irish Times, 27 Feb. 1962.

29 Irish Times, 18 May 1964.

30 Bob Purdie, Politics in the streets (Belfast, 1990); Hennessey, Origins of the Troubles.

31 Lynn, Holding the ground, p. 242.

32 Walsh, From civil rights to national war, p. 8.

33 Edwards, History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, p. 3.

34 Ibid, p. 52.

35 Morgan, Austen, Labour and partition: the Belfast working class 1905–23 (London, 1991), p. 324.Google Scholar

36 Irish News, 26 May 1969.

37 Ibid.

38 Éamonn Gallagher was a senior official in the Department of External Affairs. From 1969 to 1976, he played a key role in formulating the response of the Dublin government to the outbreak of disorder in Northern Ireland, and in the evolution of Irish policy towards a political solution. He had a keen interest in the civil rights movement and such had been the neglect by Dublin that he was the only person in his department with first-hand, up-to-date knowledge of the events and personalities involved when violence erupted in 1969. In 1993 he returned to the problems of Northern Ireland as a member of the Opsahl commission.

39 Report by Éamonn Gallagher on meetings with individuals in Northern Ireland, particularly Derry, 10 September 1969 (N.A.I., DT 2000/6/600).

40 Irish News, 23 Jan. 1970.

41 McAllister, Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party, p. 34.

42 Rumpf, Erhard and Hepburn, A. C. Nationalism and socialism in twentieth-century Ireland (Liverpool, 1977), p. 188.Google Scholar

43 Gerry Fitt, maiden speech, Hansard 5 (Commons), dccxxvii, 438–41.

44 Murray, John Hume and the S.D.L.P., p. 87.

45 Murphy, Michael, Gerry Fitt: political chameleon (Cork, 2007), p. 50.Google Scholar

46 Austin Currie argues that Fitt always relied heavily on the intuition of his wife Ann, and she had taken a dislike to John Hume: Currie, All hell will break loose (Dublin, 2004), pp154–5.

47 Gerry Fitt, quoted in Chris Ryder, Fighting Fitt (Belfast, 2006), pp 167–8.

48 Murray, John Hume and the S.D.L.P., p. 87.

49 Patterson, Henry, Ireland since 1939: the persistence of conflict (Dublin, 2006), p. 235.Google Scholar

50 S.D.L.P. manifesto for 1973 Assembly elections, A new North, a new Ireland (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/3/1/39).

51 ‘Social and economic policy making in the S.D.L.P.’, 1980 (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/26/4). This was an internal document for party members, possibly for the use in statements.

52 Irish News, 22 Aug. 1970.

53 Ibid.

54 Murphy, Gerry Fitt, p. 50.

55 Irish Times, 21 Aug.1970.

56 Irish News, 7 Feb.1969.

57 Currie, All hell will break loose, pp 157–8.

58 Farren, The S.D.L.P., p. 25.

59 Hume secretly met with Éamonn Gallagher of the Department of External Affairs on at least two occasions, once on 21 September 1969, when Hume outlined talks he was having with Cooper and Currie about a united opposition (note from Gallagher (22 Sept. 1969) re visit to Northern Ireland, 20-21 Sept. 1969 (N.A.I., DT 2000/6/660)) and again on 15 February 1970, when Hume told Gallagher of the progress made on the united front (Currie, All hell will break loose, pp 157–8).

60 ‘Notes on the present Northern situation’, 26 Aug. 1969 and ‘Anti-partition policy’, 2 Sept. 1969 (N.A.I., DT 2000/6/659).

61 Workers Association, The S.D.L.P.: what a Catholic party needs to do, Apr. 1975 (Linen Hall Library, Northern Ireland Political Collection).

62 As seen in the S.D.L.P. party papers (P.R.O.N.I.) The S.D.L.P. enjoyed the support of Dr John Kelly in U.C.D. who regularly held fundraising events for the party at which Hume spoke (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072).

63 Northern Ireland expenses of Opposition M.P.s and senators (N.A.I., DFA/2003/16/525). For example, Austin Currie received £70.56 in February 1972 for four meetings he attended in Dublin (23 August 1971, 3 September 1971, 10 September 1971 and 11 February 1972).

64 Most notably, the Dublin government funded the S.D.L.P.’s ‘Alternative Assembly’ when they left Stormont in July 1971 (N.A.I., DFA/2002/19/394).

65 Most of the meetings taking place at this time were with John Hume.

66 Newe to Whitaker, 16 December 1971 (P.R.O.N.I, D/3687/1/36/1).

67 Conor Cruise O’Brien, Memoir: my life and themes (Dublin, 1998), p. 38.

68 ‘Social and economic policy making in the S.D.L.P.’, (1980) (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/26/4).

69 Internal party papers of the S.D.L.P., (P.R.O.N.I., D/3072).

70 Irish Times, 27 Nov.1973.

71 Devlin, Paddy, Straight left: an autobiography (Belfast, 1993), p. 155.Google Scholar

72 Ibid.

73 The Alternative Assembly was set up when the party walked out of Stormont after the British government refused to initiate an independent inquiry into the shooting dead of Cusack and Beattie.

74 Gallagher note, 15 Nov. 1971 (N.A.I., DT 2002/8/484).

75 Gallagher note, 3 Nov. 1971 (N.A.I., DT, 2002/8/483). Gallagher met with Fitt, Devlin, Currie, Hume, Oliver Napier of the Alliance Party and James Doherty of the Nationalist Party.

76 S.D.L.P. policy sub-committee, 1971–2, draft ‘S.D.L.P. Towards a New Ireland’ (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/30/1). Most of the recorded discussions relating to the policy document centred on how best to bring about Irish unity, and not how to implement social and economic policies in Northern Ireland.

77 ‘Draft working document on proposals relating to the present situation in Northern Ireland’, Dec., 1971 (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/30/1).

78 Paddy Duffy was a solicitor from County Tyrone.

79 Duffy to Devlin, 28 Aug. 1973, S.D.L.P. Assembly Party papers, 1973–4, (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/1/34/3).

80 Gerry Fitt, quoted in Ryder, Fighting Fitt, p. 218.

81 Ibid.

82 Devlin, Straight left, pp 189–90.

83 The Sunningdale Agreement was a tripartite agreement between Westminster, Dublin, and members of the Unionist Party, the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party, and included provisions for a power-sharing Executive and a Council of Ireland, as well as some form of police reform.

84 For the intricacies of the Sunningdale negotations see Ryder, Fighting Fitt; Currie, All hell will break loose; White, John Hume; Devlin, Straight left.

85 Irish Press, 19 Apr. 1974.

86 Report on the third annual conference, 2 Dec.1973 (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/5/3/1-12).

87 White, John Hume, p. 143.

88 Bríd Rodgers commented that the social and economic policies of the S.D.L.P. were largely ignored outside the party, particularly in the early violent years of the 1970s. Interview with the author, 7 Apr. 2009.

89 Report by Donlon on S.D.L.P. fourth annual conference, 17–19 Jan. 1975 (N.A.I., DT 2005/151/691).

90 Northern Ireland Office report on S.D.L.P. conference, 17 Dec. 1976 (T.N.A., FCO 87/553).

91 Note on conversation with Garret FitzGerald, Dec. 1977 (T.N.A., CJ 4/1907) quoted in Farren, The S.D.L.P., p. 132.

92 S.D.L.P., Facing reality (1977) policy document adopted at seventh annual conference, 4-6 Nov. 1977 (P.R.O.N.I., D/3072/5/7/1–10).

93 Report on the seventh annual conference, 4–6 Nov. 1977, Newcastle, Co. Down (P.R.O.N.I, D/3072/5/7/1–10).

94 Murray, John Hume and the S.D.L.P., p. 94.

95 Longley, Edna, The living stream: literature and revisionism in Ireland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1994), p. 119.Google Scholar See also Connal Parr, ‘Managing his aspirations: the Labour and Republican politics of Paddy Devlin’ in Irish Political Studies, xxvii, no. 1 (Feb. 2012), pp 111–38.