Dialogue with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)

Abstract

The SDLP was formally launched on 21 August 1970 with a promise ‘to provide a strong alternative to unionism’ and ‘to promote the cause of Irish unity by the consent of the majority of the people in Northern Ireland’ (McAllister, 1977, p. 33). The party brought together six Stormont MPs that had constituted fractured strands in northern Nationalist political representation. They included the Independents who emerged from the civil rights movement — John Hume, Ivan Cooper and Paddy O’Hanlon; Austin Currie, a Nationalist MP; Paddy Devlin from the Northern Ireland Labour Party; and Gerry Fitt, Republican Labour (RL), who became the first party leader. They were joined by Stormont Senator, Paddy Wilson, RL.KeywordsModern StatePolitical IdentityEuropean Economic CommunityParty LeaderDemocratic RepresentationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.