SDLP proposes Forum on a United Ireland

Within nationalism there is a permanent competition about which party, Sinn Fein or the SDLP, is the greener and which can deliver a united Ireland faster. This is a false debate. If nationalism cannot agree on the shape and structure of a united Ireland then how can it ever hope to convince the million or so British people on this island of the merits of one?

Sinn Fein have sought to make political capital out of the fact that they, and only they, have a ‘strategy’ for a united Ireland. This is a central part of the SF message and was repeated at nauseam during the party’s Ard Feis in Dublin earlier this year. Despite this the party is yet to produce a single policy document on unity. Nor has it been able to use the issue to grow the vote in either jurisdiction. The truth is SF want to hijack unity from the rest of Ireland as some sort of bizarre political Unique Selling Point.

This is why Mark Durkan’s call today for a Forum on Unity is important. What I believe he and the SDLP is seeking to do through the Forum is to elevate the issue beyond partisan politics.

The Forum from Unity, like the New Ireland Forum, should bring together representatives of all the people of Ireland to debate and agree a model for unity which would be deployed whenever the principle of consent was exercised and a referendum occurs.

It could have a basic objective of reaching agreement on the structures, rights and systems of a united Ireland. My own personal opinion is that it should work to a definite timescale, concluding its work by 2015. This would allow all the parties to coalesce around an agreed vision and strategy for unity and elevate the issue beyond party politics before the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

By creating an all party, process to agree a model for unity – which may well include a parliament at Stormont – the Assembly would be unburdened of its ‘transitional’ status in the mind of some republicans.

This is important if we are ever to grow politics in this region which is about real issues being tackled by a local Assembly and not simply the perpetuation of old hatred punctuated by occasional coming together at times of crisis. Way back in the 70’s the SDLP created a process. It transformed Irish Nationalism and ultimately brought about peace. It is good to see the party again setting out a road map for the rest of Ireland to follow.