David Bowie RIP

Posted on January 11, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Strange day. Woke up to the news that David Bowie has died. Rest in Peace.

But I must be honest …I never liked him or his music.

As I have said before, the soundtrack of my high school years  (1963-70) was the Beatles, Beach Boys, Four Seasons, Animals, Hollies, Kinks, Hermans Hermits.

The Summer of Love (1967) somehow by-passed West Belfast….and Glasgow, Middlesbrough, St Helens, Swansea…and I daresay on the other side of the Atlantic, it meant very little in Des Moines, Iowa and Lawrence, Kansas.

We casually talk about Carnaby Street (1965), Haight-Ashbury (1967) and Woodstock (1969) as great watersheds in popular culture. But actually they were not. To embrace cultural change, you need cash in your pocket and all this style attached to Pop requires disposable income.

David Bowie came along in 1969 with a topical #1 “Space Oddity” and frankly most people would have thought that Bowie was a “one hit wonder” …no different from Norman Greenbaum, Napolean XIV and Whistling Jack Smith.

If you are looking up Wikipedia, you are proving my point.

As an avid listener to Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and Radio One, it might seem strange that I did not own a record player until August 1968…a reward for passing my O Levels. And I would like to say that I jumped right into the music of the time. But for several years, I was playing catch up buying 1960s hits in Mrs Moores Second Hand record shop in Smithfield.

At this time “Pop” became “Rock” as the schoolchildren from the 1960s became university students and tried to look more adult with glasses and LPs by Cream and the Moody Blues.

In truth, there was always an element of “style”. The puff pieces in the New Musical Express in the 1960s did not mention drug, groupies and cash bribing DJs to get certain artists on to a playlist.

We were of course…Stupid.

And curiously snobbish. The university students found kindred spirits in certain bands  …not the glam rock or later punk scene….but university students can be just as naive as the teeny boppers on the shop or factory floor.

And thats really were David Bowie comes in….the concept album and the front line of seeming cultural change.

The make-up, the clothes….the sexuality and the endorsement of Fascism ….all as phoney as the Man Himself.

So it is curious that so much of the News and Social Media are affected by Bowie’s death.David Cameron, Madonna and Ricky Gervais are all devastated. He has …we are told …influenced them. But is the influence Music, Fashion….or Phoneyness?

As I have said, Bowie was actually a creature of Poshness.

The Political and Journalistic classes….the chattering and twittering classes ….falling over themselves to identify with Bowie is remarkable.

David Bowie RIP.

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Honouring The Women Of 1916

Posted on January 10, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Many readers will be aware that I collect Irish stamps which have relevance to Irish History. The strange thing about stamps is that they not only tell the story of an event…for example the Rebellion of 1798…but how such events are commemorated in 1948 and 1998.
The same is very much true of the Easter Rising of 1916.
First commemorated in 1941, the 25th Anniversary during the Emergency (Second World War), war-time limitations meant it was actually commemorated twice…first with a temporary issue and later as a single stamp with a lone volunteer against the General Post Office.
There is something about 1966…the 50th Anniversary of the Rising which marks the beginning of modern Ireland…the eight stamps in the 1966 set featured one each for the seven signatories of the Proclamation and yet within a few years the (then) Department of Posts and Telegraphs became very subdued when issuing stamps to commemorate the War of Independence and the even more problematic Civil War….all against a background of the Conflict in Norn Iron.
Consequently the single stamp issues to mark the 75th Anniversary and 90th Anniversary were almost apologetic. Indeed in 2006, there was a degree of balance as a stamp was issued to commemorate the Battle of the Somme.

But two bicentenaries in 1998 and 2003 (the 1798 and Emmet Rebellions) were more whole-heartedly commemorated. And significantly the role of women was recognised. A generic stamp recognising Women in 1998 and the role of the heroic Anne Devlin in 2003.
As I said in the first paragraph, these commemorations are as much about the date of the commemorations as the events themselves.

At today’s date …10th January…the stamp programme for 2016 has not been published online. It will of course feature stamps relating to the Rising and its aftermath.
We can reasonably anticipate that the role of women will feature heavily. Not only is it right to honour them but our sensibilities in 2016 are different. We might also reasonably expect to see the suffering of civilians recognised and possibly pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington who was murdered in cold blood by the British.
It would be more controversial if the Dublin Metropolitan Police were honoured and outrageous if British Army was honoured.

Yet, I do not think that any individual woman can be held as representative of women as a whole.
The women of 1916 were a diverse group.
Madame Markievicz is of course the best known. She was in active combat with the Irish Citizen Army as a Leader…shot a police officer dead…and initially sentenced to death and later the first woman elected to the British House of Commons. She is already honoured on a stamp.
Probably the second best known woman in 1916 is Grace Gifford, a non-combatant of course, who married Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham, just a few hours before his execution. Yet her propaganda value in the days after the Rising cannot be under-estimated.
Or Elizabeth O’Farrell…the nurse in the General Post Office and in Moore Street …who would bring the order to surrender to the other garrisons.
Dr Kathleen Lyng was already well known for her work with the Dublin poor.
Maud Gonne was already well known as an outspoken reublican and estranged wife of John McBride who would be executed.
Winnie Carney and Eily O’Hanrahan (sister of Michael who would be executed) were among several others were despatch riders.
The women of Cumann na mBan who fought under Roisin McNamara at Jamesons Distillery and surrendered with the men rather than take the opportunity to melt away as the men wanted.
The only garrison without active women fighters was at Bolands Mills …and surely it explains much of Irish history that followed that the Officer in command at Bolands Mills was Eamonn de Valera. Cumann na mBan veterans never really forgave him for not allowing women within the garrison.
Or is suffragette Helena Sheehy-Skeffington an important figure in 1916.
After all the Proclamation was the first Constitution to guarantee universal suffrage. So it is totally logical that women are honoured.

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Alban …My Part In His Success

Posted on January 5, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

I think it has been assumed for some time that Alban Maginness would stand down from Politics in 2016.

He joins Joe Byrne, Dominic Bradley, Pat Ramsey, and John Dallat as SDLP “veterans” who are making way for younger colleagues at the Assembly election in May.

It is likely that one of two former “Lord” Mayors will succeed him…Nichola Mallon or Pat Convery but in generational and gender terms, the odds favour Nichola.

I first met Alban in early 1974. I had written an article in the first issue of “Social Democrat” and Alban was one of about ten people who attended a follow up meeting in a small terraced house, which SDLP Falls Branch used as an office and meeting place. It was about one hundred metres from Andersonstown RUC  Station.

He has/had a slightly patrician air, befitting a barrister but one of the most good natured and decent people I know.

During his term as “Lord” Mayor, he stopped to speak to me on the train to Dublin.  Mrs FJH was very impressed by this.

He was of course the first “nationalist” Mayor of the city and in 2015, many people may not see this as the history-making achievement that it was then.

Like many, I can testify to his decency. As I have said before, I voted Sinn Féin, initially for personal reasons from 1993 to 2009….and I have been voting SDLP since 2009, initially for personal reasons as it felt right to vote for Alban in the European elections. I value Decency.

And it is no coincidence that many SDLP veterans standing down are touched by Decency.

Joe Byrne would always mention my blog “still blogging away?” And Dominic Bradley would always say “still agitating?”

Pat Ramsey was the ultimate grassroots politician. Isnt it beyond a coincidence that Pat could reach parts of the electorate because of his advocacy for Disability Rights and that Dominic could reach parts of the electorate because of his advocacy for children with Autism.

Alban of course was SDLP Spokesperson for Justice.

All these men will be missed and as SDLP rushes to promote new names and faces like Connor Duncan, Margaret Anne McKillio, Roisin Lynch, Richie McPhillips, Justin McNulty and others….there will be a void.

When the new SDLP Assembly team meets after the Assembly Election, it is possibly going to be larger than it is now…but in terms of seniority it will have a different look….the three former Party Leaders are all semi-detached at Westminster…and without counting chickens, that puts Colum Eastwood,, Fearghal McKinney, Mark H Durkan, Patsy McGlone and Dolores Kelly firmly at the centre of things. And it suddenly promotes Claire Hanna to being a senior figure.

With respect to Sean Rogers (standing in a constituency where SDLP will take at least two seats from three candidates) and Karen McKevitt (moved to the Armagh-Newry seat as part of a challenge with Justin) they are not central Leadership figures…they are in the tradition of decent constituency representatives.

I have excluded Alex Attwood because I have not formally heard that he is standing again. I would not be surprised if another Attwood (Tim) is on the West Belfast ballot paper.

BY THE WAY, IN THIS POST, I AM NOT ENCOURAGING SPECULATION ABOUT THE NUMBER OF SEATS SDLP WILL HAVE AFTER MAY 2016. NO COMMENT WILL BE PUBLISHED IF THERE IS SPECULATION.

Yet, Alban …apart from being the SDLP member who was against Equal Marriage, made no real impact on the. Local Blogosphere. Neither did Pat, Dominic or Joe. The thing is …Blogging is an activity which mostly exists in Belfast metroplitan area. As David McCann (Deputy Editor at Slugger O’Toole) asked two months ago “is there anything to see in Armagh?”

But Politics is generational and SDLP has possibly bridged the gap between the successful Hume years and the unsuccessful Mallon years….to at least a place where there is little connexion to the past. The three subsequent Leaders played a part.

So this will mean the new Assembly team and those whizz kids with degrees in Politics (testimony to their brilliance) in the back rooms of Stormont are now all younger than me.

Perhaps the cult of Youth has gone too far in SDLP. The Party cannot get carried away with the whole “Youth is Brilliant” thing. It can alienate voters.

Politics should never be a career like any other. It is only a job that is in the gift of voters and for periods of five years. The mandate of a 70 year old is as valid as the mandate of a 30 year old.

It cant be a job that is taken aged 18 and given up at age 60.

After all a lot of older people vote.  Yes “Mól an Óige….” And all that. But it would be folly to ignore the wisdom of old people….especially me!.

Meanwhile SDLP has not selected a candidate for East Belfast. They have my number.

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I Wish It Was 2017

Posted on January 4, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

We are in the fourth day of 2016 and I already wish it was 2017. Later today I might take a very large sleeping tablet but I am not aware of any that will keep me asleep until 2017. Maybe if I walked into a local hospital and asked them to put me into a coma for twelve months….well that is still Plan B (too drastic???)

I was looking forward to celebrating (no weasly “commemorating” for me)  the centenary of the Easter RIsing and looking forward to ignoring the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

But Fate has dealt me a cruel hand. People will quite rightly talk about building a “shared future” and yet they will be obliged to talk shite about “our shared history”.

The logistics work against a genuine year….the key one in the so-called Decade of Centenaries. A Dáil Election…Easter (twice! ) as a part of the Christian Year in March…AND a calendar date commemorating the Rising in April….Assembly Elections in the North…the Somme in July.

And dont under-estimate the European Football Championships in France…which will give football fans from Norn Iron and West Britons in Dublin a chance to gather at memorials to commemorate the “Irish” Regiments. The LetsGetAlongerists will be heavily involved in this….William Cawley, Paul Clarke and Stephen Nolan might even be on the same plane to France with Martin McGuinness, Arlene Foster and Tom Hartley. At least the Irish Government has it own jet.

But….seriously expect a specially designed “joint” T-shirt, a football match among fans in no-mans land….an excellent photo-opportunity for a minor English “royal” like “Prince Harry”. The European Football Championships is too good an opportunity for LetsGetAlongerists to miss.

Pass the sick-bag. You know I am right. The Decade of Centenaries was the topic of discussion when I started commenting on Slugger O’Toole in early 2010. It was against that background that I first used the term “LetsGetAlongerism” and later in the year, we will see LetsGetAlongerism in all its disgusting reality.

The alternatives dont seem much better. The initial Irish Government plans “Ireland Imagines” were so risible that there has been a re-think. But the void is likely to be exploited by Sinn Féin seeking to portray themselves as the true inheritors of the legacy of Pearse, Clarke, Connolly and the rest.

Sinn Féin will have more luck convincing people in West Belfast than in South Dublin….but the more “official Ireland” re-thinks 1916, the easier it will be for Sinn Féin to convince people beyond its core supporters and in TWO Election Campaigns, they can benefit.

SDLP are in a position that I do not envy. As always, SDLP fights elections on two fronts…against Sinn Féin and Alliance. It can lose votes to these parties and gain votes from them. It is a delicate balance. If a SDLP candidate in (say) Armagh says something “too nationalist or republican”, it will be siezed on by the Alliance Party. If a candidate in say South Belfast says something which is “too LetsGetAlongerist” it will be siezed on by Sinn Féin. And perhaps, made even more difficult by the emergence of anti-austerity candidates and the Green Party.

I am not impressed by the SDLPs approach. Thru the Irish Governments planning with other organisations, SDLP is semi-detached thru a former MLA. But much of the plans are irrelevant …unfortunately. It would not be feasible for the Irish Defence Forces to deliver the National Flag to local schools and explain the protocol. “Catholic” schools even with a 99% Sinn Féin or SDLP parental support in Crossmaglen or Downpatrick will still be obliged to be nuetral in a divided society. And more so, it would be impossible in towns like Larne and Bangor where the parental support would be at best 50%….so the initiatives will come thru cultural and language organisations….GAA and Conradh na Gaeilige …and the political parties ….and Sinn Féin and SDLP are the only candidates. And once again Sinn Féin can take part whole-heartedly while SDLP will be handicapped by constantly explaining the nuance of their position.

SDLP has missed an opportunity to emphasise its republican credentials.

One of the great “what ifs” in Irish History is what would have happened if the Easter Rising had not taken place. It is a mistake to think that the Rising  was just between the British and Irish or Unionist and “Nationalist” …it was in some ways the temporary end of a struggle between “Home Rulers” (soft nationalists who would have been happy with an independent Ireland part of the (then) British Empire and “republican ultras” who sought an independent Republic.

Who won that struggle? Well, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had founder members in the GPO and the Republic was established…..but both owe their origins to the subsequent civil war and while British attrocities would have helped legitimise and increase Republicanism and enhance Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael benefitted from old “nationalism” and even latent “unionism”.

Nominally the Treaty that ended the War of Independence  was established an imperfect Free State …more imperfect thru Partition …and while 1937 and 1949 established the Republic in all constitutional sense….the dream of a true all-Ireland Republic is made more difficult by the legacy of the northern conflict, mmembership of the so-called European Union, the Good Friday Agreement conditions which re-wrote the Irish Constitution…and the Eurozone currency.

Of course it should be pointed out that unionists NEVER compromise. It would be a nice thought if a united Home Rule Ireland could have evolved into something better. But that overlooks the fact that unionists were as opposed to Home Rule as any notional Republic.

Of course the History of 1916 was written to a narrative which built the Irish Nation and the Northern Statelet and Easter Rising and the Somme…blood sacrifices. And there are revisionist historians who  will willingly re-write it all for the new LetsGetAlongerist narrative.

The LetsGetAlongerist victory in 2016….is the notion that both blood sacrifices are equally valid. Let us be clear …in the context of being an Irish citizen, only one of these events is part of the Irish ethos.

Republicans…such as myself within SDLP should have no problem with celebrating Easter 1916 but it is an unfortunate fact that there are people within SDLP too anxious to be seen in a photo-opportunity in France….wearing black and “look at me, I am so cool cos I am wearing a poppy”.

Some will of course argue that 2016 is a time for “reflection”, we must consider the words of the Proclamation and measure it against the failings in respect of children of the nation, women, petty corruption and banking scandals and “all together now…the post-nationalist reality (????) of a united Europe”. Bollox!

Of course it is right and proper that the role of women (not just Countess Markievicz) is acknowledged in the Easter Rising. And pacifists like Francis Sheehy-Skeffington murdered by the British …and civilian deaths (mostly at the hands of the British) and even the role of Irish police….but there should never be any sympathy for the British Army casualties. That goes too far.

Everyone….Fianna Fáil, Labour, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin will attempt ownership of the Rising 1916. The SDLP do themselves no favours by not embracing it whole-heartedly. The Party fears others taking ownership, especially in the North….but thats a challenge that cannot be met by nuance. Necessarily, the more “inclusive” the commemoration, the more compromises and nuance is needed.

A few months ago the Japanese were annoyed that the Chinese celebrated victory over Japan in World War Two. The triumphalism was “unhelpful” but how exactly can China be blamed for that.

Commemorating the Easter Rising is necessarily EXCLUSIVE. It is the key event in the (imperfect) foundation of the Nation of which I am a citizen. It can not involve those who (then and now) seek to limit Irishness to a mere ethnicity..

Therefore the Easter Rising is a stand-alone event….not to be associated with other events that are a contradiction.

In the case of 1916-2016….there is no need for lectures and seminars to re-write or second guess the intentions of 1916. No need for risible concepts about having a new Proclamation that sets out Irish values for the next centenary. For we actually already KNOW the intent lof the men and women who roae in Rebellion. The seven men (yes they were all men) who signed the Proclamation knew they would die or be executed and they left us (Irish citizens) with their intentions amazingly clear.

image It really is that simple. Read the damn thing.

It seems like its a celebration for Irish citizens. This is the crucial event that made the concept of Irish citizenship. So we should have a party without worrying that the wording on the invitation might offend some people who would not want to go to the Party anyway. SDLP should not be organising a BBQ and making sure that there is a vegetarian option for unionists and LetsGetAlongerists.

There is of course no necessity for SDLP to organise a party in the first place but if you are…do it right. Let others organise the Somme nonsense. And either attend or dont attend.

Just dont have this “joint history” nonsense.

As things stand…an Irish citizen can cherry-pick from the official celebrations and the wide range of unofficial celebrations organised by republicans (not exclusively Sinn Féin types) but there does not seem any viable alternative for republicans in the north, who are not Sinn Féin supporters. The initiative has been handed to Sinn Féin in the north.

What should SDLP have done? Well I am not able to be open about what SDLP actually DID do….so let me present a scenario.

1….it would have been a good idea for the former SDLP MLA who is on th Irish Governments panel to report back to the party. And while I cant be specific as to whether this did happen it would have been better to have it more than a month before the Party Conference.

2….SDLP HQ might have invited and selected people to attend such a presentation. The presentation might have included SDLP members with a an interest in the subject, who have blogged about Conflict Resolution and even lectured on it. Someone like (random thought) ….me.

3….If such a meeting took place and I am not saying that it did, it might have been apparent that the old duffer warning against LetsGetAlongerism and making a case for the Easter Rising as a stand alone event…was actually making a damn good case.

4….that the meeting (if it took place) seemed to agree that there should be a follow up BEFORE the SDLP Conference.

5….that no second meeting took place before or after Conference.

So…did those people who may or may not have attended a meeting that I cant say took place have any real purpose?

For me the case for Easter Celebration to be a unique event is clear. As Robert Ballagh put it in Augusr at An Féile….try to commemorate everything and we commemorate nothing.

For me, the Easter Rising is an event that lasts less than a few weeks. From Good Friday and the arrest of Roger Casement thru that weekend of decision-making, from printing the Proclamation, thru saying those last goodbyes thru reading the Proclamation, thru the fighting, thru surrender, thru court martial thru the executions and the final execution of James Connolly.

The Proclamation “does what it says on the tin”. The sovreignty of Ireland, the ownership of the land, universal suffrage (the first such statement of female suffrage), the rebuke to the social engineering that divided the nation.

Necessarily it excluded the British…they can have no part in the celebration. Necessarily it excludes those who were fighting for the British in France and Turkey….for it proclaims that the Germans!!!! are allies of the Republic of Ireland. More logical to invite the President of Germany than the “Queen of England”. It condemns those that sought to divide the Irish people….yet hard to see a more blatant example than the IRA Campaign of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Yet Sinn Féin claim to be the direct descendants of Pearse, Connolly, Clarke and the others. And for non-violent republicans there is the incomfortable truth that the men and women of 1916….DID resort to armed revolution. If you believe they were wrong to do so…then dont be a hypocrite. …dont honour them.

Obviously the Proclamation states that theIrish Republic is entitled to and claims the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. It is simple enough…the Irish Republic has my allegiance. If you are not Irish…no problem. Nobody expects you to compromise yourself. If you are one of those wierdos who would say “its complicated….I am defined by so much more….I am Irish/British/both/ northern….and I define myself by my age,gender and sexuality” then plainly a celebration involving the Proclamation is not for you. Just move along and let the rest ….Irish citizens from four provinces, our new citizens who have chosen to live here, and regardless of race, creed, gender or sexuality geton with it.

Me? I want to play a full part…here in the north….and that means GAA organised events and hopefully SDLP events but please spare me the hand-wringing angst about “shared history” shite.

Is there an alternative in the north? Well only Sinn Féin organised, promoted or influenced events. Do I stand with them? ….hmmm doesnt it say something in Proclamation that a noble cause should not be dishonoured by “cowardice and rapine” …..so the people responsible for Bloody Friday, Birmingham bombing, Claudy, La Mon…..they have little right to celebrate Easter 1916.

 

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MBEs …And Stuff

Posted on January 2, 2016 by fitzjameshorse

Isn’t it funny how you discuss a subject frivilously and end up having a row. Mrs FJH and I only row twice a year…at the “Queens” Birthday Honours and “New Year Honours”.

Basically I have told Mrs FJH that she can never accept a MBE, OBE or whatever. If she did, I would never be able to hold my head up among my socialist, republican and nationalist friends. Mrs FJH takes the view that if she is offered  “an honour”, she will grab it with both hands.

I have told Mrs FJH that I will not go to Buckingham Palace  with her…Mrs FJH says that I will do what I am told. As far as I can make out, getting  “an honour” involves wearing a hat…and Mrs FJH likes wearing a hat.

When you work in the public sector …as I did for 32 years, there is the twice-yearly problem that someone you work with might get a bauble. This is a bit awkward. It seems like good manners to say “congratulations” but it also seems principled to say nothing or say it thru gritted teeth.

In my experience two kinda people get “honours”….your boss (in which case you might get a chocolate eclair) or a junior filing clerk with forty years experience (in which case you will get nothing).

But lets be honest ….for every midwife who has driven thru snow drifts in the Scottish Highlands for forty odd years who is thrilled to get a MBE, there is a former politician who gets a peerage. And for every elderly man who gets a OBE for running a charity shop in Southampton, there is a billionaire banker in the City of London who is getting a knighthood.

The Brits need the human interest stories to justify the corruption.

But how exactly is it done? Well, there is a section of the Cabinet Office who filter the suggestions made by the Health Authority in the Scottish Highlands or the Charities or the Political Parties or the Sports Organisations.

Thus there are celebs who loiter with intent of a knighthood…and there always seems to be a headline grabber every year….Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench….all Dames of the Realm. Bruce Forysth, Cliff Richard, Elton John, Mick Jagger ….all knights of the Real ….Somehow Jimmy Savile got thru.

For Barbara Windsor the wait is over. David Beckham is being held back for a while.

As it happens, I know more about this kinda thing than most republicans but I have signed the Official Secrets Act and I cant actually tell you.

So basically…in mid November a letter from the Cabinet Office drops thru your letter box. “Would you like a MBE?….RSVP…..Dont Tell Anyone!”

i reckon that having seen “Honours Lists” for over forty years, I have known someone on the list…(say) once  every four years. Catholic. Protestant. ….and I have known at least four people (non-politicians) who have said “no thanks” or “shove it up your arse”. The thing that unites the recipients is not so much Politics or even Nationality….it is just that they like that kinda thing. People who like to order headed notepaper with “MBE”. Surely we all know someone like that “Fur Coat…No Knickers”.

But really it is the political parties who submit one or two names to be honoured.In the House of “Lords” we have among others, “Lord Morrow” and “Lady Paisley” (DUP) and “Lord Rogan” and “Lord   Kilclooney” (John Taylors fanciful title) (UUP). “Lord All-Too-Nice” (Alliance now Liberal Democrat) and “Lord Trimble” (UUP now Conservative). I assume most or all of them were nominated by their Parties.

While SDLP sends elected representatives as MPs to Westminster, there has never been a SDLP “Lord” or “Lady”. While the daily attendance fee and the expenses are potentially a nice little earner, SDLP rightly regard an unelected Assembly as a farce and an insult to Democrats. It is undoubtedly true that John Hume and Seamus Mallon were sounded out by the British Govvernment to take a peerage…and probably Eddie McGrady and Joe Hendron….but SDLP are at heart believers in Democracy. My readers may mention Gerry Fitt…but….you are  wrong.

Only a handful of SDLP councillors have been offered and accepted MBEs and OBEs. Mostly not for direct political activity. It has not always endeared recipients to party members and one or two have indicated that colleagues have marginalised them. One former SDLP member has his headstone engraving “XXXX XXXXX MBE”.which is a  variation on getting your name on headed notepaper  but it seems like a rebuke to the SDLP colleagues who thought he was wrong to accept it.

This year Sinn Féin are enjoying the fact that Pat McCarthy, former SDLP Mayor of Belfast has accepted an honour. McCarthy was interned in 1971 and is a committed socialist. In fact he is responsible for the City Hall window which commemorates the Belfast men who fought for the International Brigade against Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

Leaving aside the specifically Irish dimension I can never understand why English republicans and socialists accept these gongs….take “Sir” Patrick Stewart of Star Trek.

But I digress…Pat McCarthy MBE. Not a serving SDLP councillor , he lost his seat in 2014 Super Council Elections.

The reaction is interesting. Sinn Féin mock….SDLP reaction is muted. Yes I have seen a defence that Pat Mac has honourably served the people of Belfast but more significantly an SDLP spokesman has said that Pat McCarthy has a right to accept it….but I have not seen any official congratulatory statement on SDLP website. The Party seems to be distancing itself.

But….there does seem something odd about Danny Morrison of Sinn Féin making so much of it.

I mean….just how many people did SDLP nominate to get a MBE?  And how many people did Sinn Féin nominate to get a Royal Pardon?

A sense of proportion would make sense.

 

 

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So…2016

Posted on December 31, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise!

2016…big Centennial Year but I will not dwell on that in this post.

Also Assembly Elections and you can bet your life that the European Football Championships will provide a LetsGetAlongerist love-in and we will be treated to fans from Republic of Ireland and Norn Iron doing all that “we will remember” stuff at the Somme. Pass the sick-bag.

The year ending in a few hours time was pretty good in terms of Blogging. I had a few sick weeks in late summer which affected the number of posts I published.

No doubt in 2016, I will apply for yet another job in SDLP. I might lie about my age…or possibly grow a pony-tail. This is the last way a wee baldy man can look trendy. Basically I need to be more dynamic….so that I can blend in with the SDLP whiz-kids up at Stormont.

I have often been described as being an independently minded SDLP member and this makes this Blog more credible.

Readers will expect me to be part of the election campaign. Well….yes and no. If I am asked, I will do so. But frankly I dont expect to be asked.

I am a socialist, republican and a nationalist. SDLP represents me better than any other Party but Id like to see Colum Eastwood spell out reasons to vote SDLP rather than have its supporters go to polling stations to vote SDLP “in spite of manifestos”.

The Blog is at its best when it gets comments from fellow socialists/republicans/nationalists. And respect that there is more than one choice.

I fully respect the opinions of unionists. People I described as “LetsGetAlongerists” (2010) have nothing to add to any discussion. There are enough outlets for their views.

My own priorities for 2016 is my Family. Which is probably the same for you.And Health…I have got my health back and I intend to keep it.

I daresay I will get a sudden burst of political energy around Easter and the Assembly Elections. But the reality is that on a day-to-day basis, Politics does not seem particuarly important.

And yet we will have Dáil Elections, Assembly Elections, US Presidential Elections.

In terms of Blogging, “Keeping An Eye on the Czar of Russia” is just one Blog with which I am involved…either on my own or as a collective.

I intend to travel a lot in Ireland…and blog about it. For over three years, I have used my Translink pass to travel free within Norn Iron….but for the most part, the travel has been linked to Politics. It might be nice to travel for its own sake.

I guess I have done the equivalent of four or five trips all over Ireland. Making trips to (say) Galway in five different decades is interesting.

The next decade is the last one. And from May 2017, I will be able to travel round Ireland for free. So that means that for a year and a half, I will be getting around Norn Iron and getting acquainted with Newtownards, Newtownbutler, Newtownstewart and Newtownabbey.

Anyhow I intend to grow old disgracefully.

Happy New Year.

 

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SDLP…Not Good With Its Own History

Posted on December 30, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

I really do wish I had been born in a different place and time.

In 1952 of course, I did not know I was being born into a “second class” life in termsof housing and jobs…in West Belfast.

In 1963, I was glad that I had passed the “eleven-plus” which as my parents knew that Education was the best way out of the ghetto. On a more personal level, it was the start ofthe Beatles Years, which finished in 1970, my A Level year. It seems almost unique that my high school years run exactly parallel to John, Paul, George and Ringo. Whatever I did…had a familiar soundtrack from “She Loves You”, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” all the way thru “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” to “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be”.

We feared nothing…except of course nuclear war. Because we were on “The Eve of Destruction” (Barry McGuire) and the answers were “Blowin In the Wind”.

The thought of going to San Francisco with Flowers in our hair made us more optimistic in 1967 as our hair grew longer and the world became more colourful.

August 1969 ….same weekend….and I always find it ironic….Woodstock in USA and the Troubles breaking out in the streets of West Belfast. And within a few years, I learned I had nothing to fear from Russians dropping the bomb and much more to fear from being abducted and tortured to death in a romper room on the Shankill Road.

1970….the Battle of St Matthews and the Falls Curfew and the quick slide into Chaos and Conflict. And voting for the first time…for Gerry Fitt…as an 18 year old.

Each day brought something new…a roller-coaster. Like all young folks, my political thoughts were unsettled. I do not like some of the things I thought back then. It was a time of turmoil. People made decisions that would affect their own and others lives for generations.

I have written before about the arc of events in 1971/72 which shaped who I am….Ballymurphy Massacre (August 1971), McGurks Bar (December 1971) and Bloody Sunday(January 1972) …..and the LIES….the fucking lies….and the Fall of Stormont (March 1972) and the IRA massacres on Bloody Friday and at Claudy.

Arguably, Bloody Friday was the worst. I was a junior civil servant, working in a multi-storey building in the Stormont Estate in East Belfast. From the seventh floor we saw and heard the bombs go off across Belfast.

Sam McAughtry (the writer) was my boss. He had to negotiate with a very unwilling co-worker to give me a loft down the Newtownards Road into central Belfast. Clearly that man did not want the likes of me in his car. Neither he or his regular passenger acknowledged me in any way, not even when I thanked them as they left me in the City Centre.

The Conflict SHOULD have ended with the Fall of Stormont. It should have been a game-changer. The door was already open and the IRA kept pushing. It got worse…and worse.

Part of the post-Stormont deal was new elections. Council Elections in April 1973 and Assembly Elections in May 1973. The Mandate from the O’Neill Crossroads Election (late 1968 or early 1969)  was long out of date….new political parties…DUP, Vanguard, Alliance, SDLP had been founded in the years since.

So before the Council Elections, a friend of my father, Paddy Wilson , a former Senator who would win a council seat…visited our home and was encouraging me to vote SDLP and there I was ….20 going on 21 ….and telling Paddy that Id be boycotting the Election…because Fr Dennis Faul, the Dungannon priest said it would help the men in Long Kesh. And that is one of just two occasions I have not voted. …I spoiled my vote rather than vote for Bobby Sands when I lived briefly in Dungannon  in 1981.

Anyway Paddy Wilson won his council seat and  almost immediately I regretted not voting SDLP. Indeed I was so guilty that I actually joined the party and canvassed in the Assembly Elections, a few weeks later.

One regret…Paddy Wilson never knew that I had joined his Party because a few days before the Assembly Elections, he was murdered …tortured and had his throat cut by loyalists at Cavehill.

But that was SDLPs breakthru.Nineteen seats in a 78-person Assembly which would lead to Sunningdale.

The six founder MPs were all elected…Fitt, Devlin, Hume, Currie, O’Hanlon and Cooper….supplemented by political rookies and local politicians like Eddie McGrady. But surprisingly some were recruited to stand for election just days before nominations closed.

Really only McGrady and Seamus Mallon became well known outside their immediate locality. In part thats a testimony to inability of SDLP to bring on new faces but also to the absence of a local Assembly thru the late 1970s to the late 1990s.

Who were those nineteen?

North Belfast (Gerry Fitt MP at Westminster for West Belfast and SDLP Leader). i saw him for first time in 1967 on the back of a coal lorry in a parade celebrating Celtic winning the European Cup. Only ever saw him once at a Falls Branch meeting. He had been “Republican Labour” and was pretty much semi-detached and really saw himself as clubbable at Westminster. I think he “went native” at Westminster…clearly becoming detached from the Party and people who had elected him. Not helped by the intimidation that he and his family suffered in his home.

West Belfast (Paddy Devlin former Norn Iron Labour Party), who himself had been interned in an earlier generation. And a victim of Sinn Féin intimidation which would later cause him to move home to North Belfast). Falls Branch meetings were…lively. Desmond Gillespie, a dapper local publican never intended to be elected in 1973 (he was the sweeper) ….was a publican who later retired to Bangor. As Fitt and Devlin were ministers in the first Executive , all the constituency work fell on Desmond. I mentioned him to a senior SDLP figure in West Belfast…shamefully he had never even heard of him.

South Antrim. (Vincent McCloskey…the Silver Fox)….died some months after being elected. Vincent lived in Andytown…in those days South Antrim stretched from Andytown to Lough Neagh.

North Antrim (John O’Hagan lived in the Glens and was only recruited at the last minute).

Derry (John Hume, Michael Canavan, Hugh Logue). Never really knew any of them but as far as I know Hugh Logue is still a Party Member.

Mid Ulster (Ivan Cooper, Paddy Duffy, Aidan Larkin). Ivan still attends SDLP Conferences. Paddy was a solicitor in Cookstown and Dungannon. Aidan Larkin was from the Loup in South Derry. I think he was also a solicitor who went to work in European Union. (EDIT….a senior SDLP person tells me that Aidan worked in Brussells but later became a priest).

Armagh (Paddy O’Hanlon, Seamus Mallon, Hugh News). Paddy was a founder member who lost his seat at Convention Election but had a successful Law Career in Dublin. Hugh News was still a Party member when he died a few years ago.

South Down (Eddie McGrady, Paddy O’Donoghue, Frank Feely). McGrady went on to be MP for South Down. A photograph of Education Spokesman, O’Donoghue has a place of honour in the Newcastle SDLP Office. Frank was a veteran councillor in Newry and still an active member.

Fermanagh-South Tyrone (Austin Currie, Tom Daly)….I knew Austin Currie briefly in Dungannon before he went on to join Fine Gael in Dublin. Tom Daly was a brother of Fr (later Bishop) Edward Daly.

So why is it that these names are largely unknown, even within SDLP? Why is it that the 1970s are written out of SDLP History? How can a Party that made History be so callous about its own?

I can only answer in three anecdotes.

1….in 2008/09 ….my Dissertation at QUB was about Electoral Politics in West Belfast from 1964. In conversation with my sons, it was really the first time they became aware I was a member of SDLP in 1970s. And I told them about writing an article in the very first issue of the Social Democrat, the Party newspaper. As I thought it would be fun to show it to them, I called at the SDLP HQ and asked if I could photocopy it…or even if they had a spare copy. Alas the Party holds nothing like that. All sent to the Linenhall Library.

2….in 2013, I read an article on Wikipedia about “SDLP Youth” and I edited to show that there were attempts (following the article in the SDLP newspaper) to form a SDLP and I went with a colleague to Dungannon to present my case. And the Party showed no interest…..later the wikipedia entry was edited again and all reference to me was deleted….I was airbrushed out of SDLP History…which is near enough the only worthwhile contribution I ever made to Anything in my life.

3….just a few months ago, I was at a meeting in Party HQ attended by about sixteen people including some councillors from across Norn Iron. I pointed to the portraits…and asked if anyone knew the man in the picture. Some did. Some did not….it was Paddy Wilson, murdered in 1973. Nor did some people including councillors know the circumstances of the murder (or the name of the murderer).

Now let me be clear. The fact that some councillors had never heard of Paddy Wilson is not a reflection on the councillors. They were appalled at not knowing. But this is an indictment of the way SDLP deals with …or doesnt accept its own History. Can you imagine Sinn Féin treating its “heroes” like this?

Needless to say, people thought that these people….the original nineteen should be honoured by SDLP. Perhaps a small exhibition at SDLP Conference or referencing them at the launch of the 2016 Election Manifesto Launch. Would it be instructive to all those young members…and hot-shot whiz kid staffers at Stormont to know this stuff?

The SDLP cant lose its heart and replace it with a load of kids with degrees in Politics and Media.

Of course, all of this wont happen but wouldnt it be better to see this at a SDLP Conference than Quintin Oliver’s Coffee Club and Manifesto Mash Up (Jesus wept!!!!).

SDLP is a Party which wonders why nobody loves it….but plainly has not learned to love itself….which is always the first step.

Why do people vote SDLP? I am inclined to think that Decency is the unique selling point. But at the end of the day a lot of people are voting SDLP IN SPITE OF Policy rather than BECAUSE of Policy.

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Seamus Mallon …Again

Posted on December 29, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Over forty years ago, the late Paddy Devlin told me that Seamus Mallon would one day be the Leader of SDLP. It seemed very unlikely but apart from Eddie McGrady, Mallon was the only MLA from the 1973 Assembly “intake” who really joined the original six SDLP MPs at the top table.

I do not know if a three-pound trout is a big fish or a small fish and I dont speak homespun rhetoric the way that Mallon does ….but presumably saying that John Hume was “played by Sinn Féin (Gerry Adams) like a three pound trout is not exactly flattering.

I dont really understand why Mallon needed to appear with William Cawley the LetsGetAlongerist broadcaster on Radio Ulster to say that. But it seems as much about establishing his own legacy as damaging Humes.

First of all….Sinn Féin “playing people” is what they do. At one time or another, everybody has been “played” by Gerry Adams. iT is what he does.

Way back in 1973….Fr Dennis Faul was played. He was an assistant chaplain at Long Kesh and he called for a boycott of the 1973 Council and Assembly Elections to show support for the internees. Of course SF dropped Fr Faul less than a decade later when he disagreed with them over The Hunger Strike.

in 1974, Desmond Gillespie MLA for SDLP was approached by a woman whose son was arrested. He drove her to Springfield Road RUC  Station. The woman was grateful and tearful…but not that much because less than two weeks later, she was part of a Sinn Féin picket outside Desmond’s house.

A couple of years ago, I was at an Féile event at St Oliver Plunketts Church at Lenadoon. i heard a phalanx of “ex-prisoners” stand up in the audience and say “I am a republican ex-prisoner and an athiest and the Catholic Church did nothing for me when I was in Long Kesh”.

A blatant lie.

And Dr John Brewer, from QUB was there and he was talking about the importance of listening to ex-prisoners.

So what have we? Well John Hume was played. Desmond Gillespie was played. Fr Dennis Faul was played. And all those Conflict Resolutionists will be played.

There is a pattern …Sinn Féin plays people. If a member of Sinn Féin talks to you, there is a reason.

But yet again, I put on record that I voted Sinn Féin from 1993 to 2009. Initially at least, it was for personal rather than political reasons. But I know they are a bunch of con-artists. In part I dont really mind…I am an old school con-artist myself.

But I dont suppose that it is much different in Markethill. After all, other people have played Seamus Mallon. In just about every speech he has made in recent years, he has referenced that the British and Irish governments sold out the SDLP and UUP.

So I dont really get the difference. If John Hume was played by Sinn Féin, then surely Seamus Mallon was played by….Blair, Ahearn, Mandelson, Mowlam, Hain, Murphy and Reid….to name just a few.

As I have said in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement, I perceived that SDLP Leadership was hopeless. Whatever the individual talents of Mallon, Brid Rodgers, Sean Farren and Carmel Hanna and Mark Durkan….not to mention their Special Advisors, I remain totally unimpressed by the collective leadership. Mark Durkan took over a disaster from Mallon.

All of which makes the “grandees” a curious bunch to be pushing Conall McDevitt (an advisor to Brid) and latterly “Anybody But Alasdair”.

Of course those Derry wans who welcomed Mallon’s intervention to back Colum Eastwood might not welcome this intervention which paints John Hume in a poor light.

There is a lazy attitude within SDLP that Seamus Mallon is some kinda visionary. He is not.

Memorably he said that the Good Friday Agreement was “Sunningdale for Slow Learners”. That backfired …..the next Agreement twenty years ahead of us will be the “Good Friday Agreement for Slow Learners”.

I am reasonably optimistic about SDLP prospects but there needs to be an appreciation that SDLP politicians, including Mallon got it hopelessly wrong. hE cant blame the British and Irish GOvernments forever.

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Ballymurphy Massacre

Posted on December 29, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

It took nearly forty years for the families of Bloody Sunday (Derry, January 1972) to get at least a measure of Justice.

And yet it happened in the full glare of the Media.

Of course nobody will ever be brought before the Courts. Those Paras will never go to jail. There is a trade-off. Nobody…British Government, IRA, Loyalists will be going to jail for anything.

We tacitly accepted that in 1998 when we voted YES in the Referendum on the Good Friday Agreement. We kidded ourselves that Victims would not be forgotten.

Actually they have not been forgotten. They have been marginalised and ignored.

The Peace Process is too important …we are told.

A few months before Bloody Sunday, another massacre occurred. In Ballymurphy where I lived. I saw it happen…or at least some of it.

Internment had been introduced in the early hours of 9th August 1971 and that night, all hell broke lose.

 

John and Brid (in the photograph) search for Justice for their family members. They have support from SDLP and other groups but its a long hard fight. The Truth IS known. The Community needs the Truth to be acknowledged. But really the British Government has been digging in.

The second worst feeling is KNOWING what happened. Look at the second photograph… at #8 and #9….thats a few metres from where I was living.

But there is actually a worse feeling. I was 19 years old and we had all seen the situation deteriorate thru 1971…but the memories of that few days wont go away. It changed me as a  person….it made me fear and it made me hate. And I resent being afraid. And I resent that I hated….and I resent that I cannot fully get over it.

Nobody has the right to come into my life…uninvited…and change me.

The Truth will set me free? Well like I say…I know the Truth and so do the British Government. So its really only a question of the Truth being acknowledged.

The real victims here are John and Brid. Their family members were murdered and routinely  slandered for forty years.

 

 

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SDLP and SNP…Natural Allies

Posted on December 28, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

One of the most interesting aspects of Colum Eastwood’s campaign launch to become SDLP Leader was the speech by Claire Hanna MLA.

Claire recalled going with Colum to Inverness in Scotland to speak at a fringe meeting at the Scottish Nationalist Party Conference. This was more than a decade ago when SDLP was still enjoying the fall-out from the Good Friday Agreement and SNP was in a bad place politically.

It goes without saying that rank and file members of SDLP identify strongly with SNP. We are after all fellow nationalists who seek the end of the “United Kingdom”.

Alex Attwood MLA is a known admirer of Nicola Sturgeon and Alec Salmond, often referencing them as the most able politicians “in these islands”.

More than a decade on from Colum and Claire visiting SNP, it is maybe long past time that SDLP learned something from SNP.

In September 2014, SDLP members were cheering on SNP in the Scottish Referendum. Obviously the support ranged from responsible discretion of senior people to outright enthusiasm of the “rank and file”.

The extremes of fear-mongering that the British unionist parties went to, to ensure a NO vote shocked many…indeed it shocked many Scots into rejecting the unionist British Labour Party in 2015….and a rejection that will last for much longer than just one electoral cycle. The British Labour Party is finished in Scotland…and by extension in the “United Kingdom”.

All future “British” elections can consider Scotland a lost cause and are now effectively a head-to-head in England. And Labour cant win.

As always the parallel is in HISTORY. In the late 19th century, there was a three-party system at Westminster. Conservatives…Liberals and….around eighty Irish Nationalists.

The irony was that the Irish wanted “out” of the “United Kingdom” and the Liberals were more friendly to the Irish….and the Irish Nationalists would tend to vote with the Liberals.

It presented a dilemna for the Liberals. They NEEDED the votes of Irish Nationalists. The Tories despite being the Party of “Constitution” never needed the Irish.

It was NOT a Tory-led Government which suppressed the 1916 Easter Rising or sent in the Black and Tans or held a gun to Michael Collins head during the Treaty negotiations. Dont under-estimate the extent to which Liberals went to, to suppress Irish nationalism. Dont under-estimate the extent to which the British Labour Party will go to suppress Scottish nationalism.

The BIG LIE at the heart of the 2014 “Better Together” Campaign of unionist parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat) and that curious posse of celebrities including J K Rowling and Stephen Fry was that we live in a post-nationalist age, where England and Scotland are almost obsolete terms. The reality is that there is competing nationalities. The British Labour Party is every bit as nationalist as SNP or Plaid Cymru and SDLP. The British Labour Party is a BRITISH nationalist party.

In the 20th century, the British Labour Party took Scotland for granted. For the most part, bankbench Labour MPs have gone from the Red Clyde and the mines of central Scotland to be lobby fodder at Westminster and having fist-fights in the bars. Several times, Scottish MPs held important posts in British Labour…a point not missed on English voters.

Labour does have one (perhaps) advantage. It is the franchise holder in Britain for the Party of European Socialists, a Europhile social democratic party. The Irish Labour Party holds the franchise in the Republic of Ireland and SDLP holds the franchise in the north of Ireland.

All of which leaves the fantasists in the tiny Labour in NI Party a bit miffed. They are disowned by their own parent party in London, who will not foeld candidates in Norn Iron. Jeremy Corbyn is more sympathetic to Irish Nationalism than his nominal Party members in Belfast.

But as Labour finds itself unelectable for several electoral cycles, more reality is needed. Who exactly are the real socialists?

Well, earlier this year as Labour dithered over Welfare Reform…SNP, Plaid Cymru and SDLP marched into the lobby together. And later over Syria, Labour divided and the nationalists all voted NO to Bombing. And as SNP voted against nuclear weapons in Scotland, it emphasised the fact that the national interest of Scotland is a very different thing from the national interest of the “United Kingdom”.

So SNP seems to hold all the cards.

What does Labour do? Well frankly, I cannot see Labour ever being a government of the “United Kingdom” without being in some form of coalition with SNP, PC, SDLP (all of whom want the country to fail) and ….the Greens.

Has the process already started as Jeremy Corbyn is seen to reach out to Britain’s solitary Green MP…Carolyn Lucas. In May, this year, left-leaning voters in Brighton would have understood that the best placed candidate to keep out the Tories was Ms Lucas, the sitting MP. But to make any real progress, Corbyn has to surrender ground in other parts of England. Persuading historic local Labour parties to stand down in (say) ten or twenty constituencies in favour of a Green would seem a radical step but Labour voters are a very different demographic ….where are the miners? Where are the steel-workers? Where are the car workers?

Wales….effectively Plaid Cymru is a left of centre party which only exists in Welsh speaking areas. Thirty years ago, Welsh comedian Max Boyce defined his politics as “Plaid Labour”.

Despite the protestations of the jokers in the LabourNI, British Labour will not be sanctioning any candidates in Norn Iron. SDLP hold three seats…none will be taken in by Labour …but concievably South Belfast might be vulnerable to a third party.

So we had this peculiar situation at the Election Night counts in Belfast (four constituencies were counted at the Kings Hall) where SDLP people like myself rejoiced at the news filtering thru from Scotland….and groaning at the news coming out of England.

So how does SDLP react?

Well SDLP and British Labour are “sister parties” in the PES “family”. But as I have said before, SNP is  the “girlfriend” party. Some families are pretty dysfunctional. There is no relationship between SDLP and its sister parties. It is really no more than sending a couple of fraternal delegates to Conferences in England and the Republic and hosting some fraternal delegates at our Conference.

Traditionally the Labour Shadow Norn Iron Secretary visits us while the office junior in British Labour HQ gets to visit Labour NI. But what exactly have British Labour ever done for SDLP? Anybody in SDLP who felt happy about Labour winning the 1974 British General Election was soon disappointed…Merlyn Rees, Stan Orme, Don Concannon….and the nasty little bastard Roy Mason tore up Sunningdale and “power-sharing”, pandered to unionists and the very worst elements in the Security Services. And post-Good Friday Agreement, Mo Mowlam, Peter Hain, Peter Mandelson, John Reid….also happy enough to sell-out their sister party.

Not that Irish Labour are any better. In the 1970s, several SDLP members including myself walked out on a “fraternal greetings” speech by that old phoney, Conor Cruise O’Brien.

Basically thats how Politics works. You can only sell out your friends.

So just six weeks ago, Vernon Coaker, the British Labour spokesperson on Norn Iron was a guest at the SDLP Conference in Armagh. And a week later, Coaker walks into the House of Commons lobby to vote for bombing Syria. That’s friends for ya.

And yet these arent the only people from other parties who show up at SDLP Conferences. In keeping with SDLPs position to maintain good relations with all parties in the Republic, there is always a person from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

So surely SNP would be a welcome sight at SDLP Conferences. More reliable and consistent allies than British Labour.

At the end of the day, not many people want a selfie with Vernon Coaker….but who wouldnt want a selfie with SNP?

 

 

 

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