Social Democratic and Labour Party

One of the two main Nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. The party was formed on 21 August 1970 and its first leader was Gerry Fitt. Many of those who were members of the Nationalist Party joined the SDLP. The party receives support mainly from middle-class and working-class Catholics. The SDLP is a constitutional democratic party which wants to see the reunification of Ireland by agreement. The party withdrew from Stormont in July 1971 in protest at the introduction of Internment. It also supported the civil disobedience campaign which involved the withholding of rent (on public sector houses) and rates. In September 1972 the party proposed a form of joint sovereignty over Northern Ireland. The proposals were contained in the document Towards a New Ireland. The SDLP refused to take part in the Darlington conference in 1972. However, the party took part in the power-sharing Executive which lasted from January to May 1974. The SDLP also took part in the Constitutional Covention election in May 1975 and secured 23.7 per cent of the vote. In 1977 Paddy Devlin was expelled from the party following his criticism that the SDLP had moved away from socialist principals. In 1979 John Hume, then deputy leader of the SDLP, took 25 per cent of the vote in the European election to win one of the three Northern Ireland seats. In 1979 Gerry Fitt resigned from the party saying that it was renouncing its socialist principles and was becoming more 'green Nationalist'. John Hume replaced Fitt as party leader. In 1982 the party was against the plan for 'rolling devolution'. In the 1983 Westminster election the party refused to enter an electoral pact with Sinn Féin (SF) and fought all 17 seats. However the party won only one seat when John Hume took the Foyle constituency. The SDLP took part in the New Ireland Forum and many of its ideas were incorportated in the report of the forum. Seamus Mallon won the 1986 Westminster by-election in Newry and Mourne and Eddie McGrady won the South Down seat in the 1987 Westminster election. During 1988 John Hume held a series of talks with Gerry Adams, then President of SF, in an attempt to persuade SF that the IRA should call an end to its campaign of violence. Further talks between Hume and Adams in 1993 produced strains within the SDLP. The party supported the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993. Although the party was critical of the proposals to establish the Northern Ireland Forum in May 1996 it did take part in the election but then refused to take any active part in the Forum's meetings. Instead the SDLP concentrated on the multi-party talks that commenced in June 1996. When these culminated with the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in April 1998 it campaigned for a 'Yes' vote in the subsequent referendum in May 1998. At the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 1998 the party topped the poll in terms of votes cast with 21.96 per cent but ended up in second place with regards to the number of seats won, with 24 in total. When power was devolved to the Assembly in November 1999 this performance allowed the party to claim four seats in the Executive, including that of Deputy First Minister. Following the Westminster general election of 2001 John Hume retired as leader of the party and was succeeded by Mark Durkan. In this role Durkan had to deal with the growing electoral challenge to the SDLP by Sinn Féin, which by then had emerged as the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. The party's decline was then further illustrated at the Assembly election in November 2003 when it polled badly winning only 16.99 per cent of the vote and securing only 18 seats. In November 2001 Mark Durkan succed John Hume as leader of the SDLP. In February 2010 Margaret Ritchie replaced Mark Durkan as leader. However, she in turn was replaced by Alasdair McDonnell on 6 November 2011. See: John Hume: Speeches, Statements, and Articles Reading: Murray, Gerard. (1998) John Hume and the SDLP: Impact and Survival in Northern Ireland McAllister, Ian. (1977) The Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party: Political Opposition in a Divided Society.