Where SDLP led, others followed

AS we study the contents of the St Andrews Agreement, it is important to reflect on the comments of Senator Maurice Manning who said in the Seanad a few years ago: “What we are witnessing is a victory for constitutionalism and peaceful democratic politics of the type practised by the SDLP for 30 long, difficult and unrewarding years. In a real sense, everyone is a victor today, but if there is an ideological or philosophical winner... it is the SDLP because its brand of politics has triumphed”.

The fact is that people who advocated physical force republicanism have yielded to democratic, constitutional nationalism and the non-violent and peaceful politics of John Hume and Mark Durkan.

The SDLP never had to budge or change its position. Everyone else had to change their minds, the IRA about violence and unionists about discrimination and a refusal to share power with nationalists.