Scottish Independence Guide: Ireland (Eire)
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Nationalist Parties:
SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) The SDLP is one of the two main nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. It was formed on 21 August 1970 by six Stormont MPs and one Senator who represented a variety of nationalist, republican and labour parties. Drawing on these roots the party established itself as left of centre and became a member of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. Its critics have described it as more of a nationalist party than a socialist one. It draws its support from middle-class and working-class Catholics. Gerry Fitt, its first leader, resigned in 1979 claiming the party had become more nationalist than socialist. John Hume, who won one of three Northern Ireland seats to the European Parliament in 1979, replaced Fitt, who was made a life Peer in 1983. The party supports the reunification of Ireland by consent and has opposed both Provisional IRA and state violence. It withdrew from the Stormont parliament in July 1971 when the Unionist government refused to set up an inquiry into army killings in Londonderry. It supported the civil disobedience campaign of withholding rent and rates for public sector housing in protest at internment without trial. The party refused to take part in the 1972 Darlington Conference but agreed to participate in the power-sharing Executive that lasted from January to May 1974. Gerry Fitt was appointed Deputy Chief Executive and five of his colleagues held ministerial posts. SDLP leader Mark Durkan addresses his first party conference, 11th November 2001 With the departure of Fitt in 1979 the party had no MPs at Westminster. That changed in the 1983 general election when Hume took the Foyle constituency. SDLP representation increased again when Seamus Mallon won the 1986 Westminster by-election in Newry and Mourne and the following year when Eddie McGrady won the South Down seat. The party increased its Westminster representation to four MPs when Dr Joe Hendron took the West Belfast seat from Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams in 1992. In the 1997 general election Gerry Adams took the seat back from Hendron leaving the SDLP with three Westminster MPs. In 1998 the SDLP won 24 seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly and its deputy leader, Seamus Mallon, was appointed Deputy First Minister. Under Hume's leadership, the party engaged in a series of initiatives at home and abroad that have had an impact on how the British, Irish and American governments view the conflict. The SDLP supported the Anglo-Irish Agreement and used it in their attempts to involve Sinn Féin more closely in constitutional politics. Discussions between the two parties eventually led to the Hume/Adams dialogue whose proposals were believed to have informed the agenda on which the 1993 Downing Street Declaration was based. The SDLP backed the 1995 Frameworks Document and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. After more than twenty years as leader of the party John Hume announced in September 2001 that he was making way for a new leader. A few days later the deputy leader Seamus Mallon announced that he would also step aside. At the annual party conference on 11th November Mark Durkan was confirmed leader and Brid Rodgers was elected deputy leader. In one of his first acts as head of the nationalist party Mark Durkan addressed a Unionist Association meeting.
Sinn Fein The largest of the modern-day Sinn Féin parties, also referred to as Provisional Sinn Féin, is the only political party to have seats in the parliaments of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Féin is the largest group in the Republican wing of Irish nationalism and is closely associated with the demobilized Provisional IRA. The question of whether Sinn Féin is in fact the political wing of the provisional IRA remains in dispute. Although some party members have also been members of the IRA, both organisations maintain that they are independent from one other. Each advocate a United Ireland and avowedly socialist values with a nationalist slant. Sinn Féin is currently the third-largest party in Ireland by vote share, although the whole island only votes together at European elections. Sinn Féin is the largest nationalist political party in Northern Ireland, having recently displaced the previously dominant nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in national elections. It currently has five MPs (gaining one in the United Kingdom general election of 2005) in the House of Commons (out of eighteen MPs representing Northern Ireland) and twenty-four MLAs (out of a Northern Ireland Assembly membership of 108, making it the joint second largest, behind the Democratic Unionist Party with thirty-three seats and alongside the Ulster Unionist Party who also have twenty-four). It is a much smaller political force, in electoral terms, in the Republic of Ireland, where it currently has five TDs (out of 166) in Dáil Éireann and no members of the Republic's Seanad Éireann (Senate). Sinn Féin has two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) out of sixteen Irish MEPs, one from either side of the Irish border; one out of three in Northern Ireland, and one out of thirteen in the Republic. It is the only political party in Europe to be represented by members from different EU states. Its MEPs sit as part of the left wing European United Left - Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament. Sinn Féin had two ministers in the now suspended Executive Committee (cabinet) of the Northern Ireland Assembly but has never sat in cabinet in the Republic. In 2005 the unionist parties indicated that they would not serve in government with Sinn Féin until its relationship with the Provisional Irish Republican Army was terminated. Sinn Fein's official newspaper is An Phoblacht/Republican News. Sinn Fein have a number of supporters groups in Scotland: Tiocfaidh Ar La or TAL which organises around Glasgow Celtic football supporters. (Like Hibernian in Edinburgh, Celtic were set up by Irish immigrants and some of their supporters retain a keen interest in Ireland accordingly.) You can read their magazine here. And the James Connolly Society who organise a regular (and successful) march through Edinburgh. (They don't appear to have a current web site.)
James Connolly society supporting Independence First's 30th September March. More information about James Connolly is here and the new film about him here.
Republican Sinn Féin (Sinn Féin Poblachtach) Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) is a minor political party operating in Ireland. It formed in 1986 as a splinter from Sinn Féin and represents what is often described as 'fundamentalist republicanism'. The decision was taken in response to Sinn Féin's decision at their 1986 Ard-Fheis to end their policy of abstaining from taking seats won in Dáil Éireann. RSF viewed this as an acceptance of the legitimacy of the partition of Ireland into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The splinter was led by the former leader of Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and much of the older Southern based membership of the movement who disagreed with Gerry Adams and his Northern based backers. The Continuity IRA, founded in 1986 but which emerged publicly in 1994, in opposition to the ceasefire declared by the Irish Republican Army, is believed to have links to RSF. Both RSF and the CIRA have been proscribed by the United States State Department as terrorist organisations. RSF claims to be the true inheritor of a tradition of Irish republicanism that includes the original Sinn Féin of the secessionist Irish Republic declared in 1919, and the 'Old' Irish Republican Army that fought the 1919-1921 War of Independence. RSF remains a fringe party and continues its policy of abstentionism, thus meaning they have not stood in elections to either the Commons or the Dáil. They also opposed the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly as they felt this further entrenched a British presence in Ireland. They have therefore not participated in elections to the Assembly either. The party did initially plan to contest the 1989 local government elections in Northern Ireland and had planned to run 23 candidates in that year, with three of those being sitting councillors elected for Sinn Fein in 1985. However shortly before those elections, the British Government introduced a requirement that all prospective candidates must sign an anti-violence declaration. RSF refused to do so and thus their candidates became ineligible. They stand on a platform of the establishment of social justice based on what they describe as the principles of Irish Republican Socialism, based on the 1916 proclamation of an Irish Republic. They also have a policy named Éire Nua ("New Ireland"), which would see the establishment of a 32 county Ireland completely independent of the United Kingdom and set up as a federation of the four Irish provinces. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is RSF's President. RSF's online magazine is available here. RSF have a branch in Glasgow: If you like this site VOTE for it as a 'top Scottish Political site' be clicking on this text
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