An article of mine from today’s Sunday Business Post. Unfortunately the article didn’t turn up in the online version, but it’s available in the print edition (scan here), and I’ve transcribed it below:
Former SDLP members — including the party’s former vice-chairman and a former Lord Mayor of Belfast — are setting up an unofficial Fianna Fáil organisation in the North.
Eddie Espie — who resigned as vice-chairman of the SDLP in March, and Martin Morgan, who was Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2004 — are involved in the recently-formed Fianna Fáil Tuaisceart.
Espie said the formation of the group was in response to Fianna Fáil’s failure to fulfil its promise to become involved in Northern politics.
“In Mid Ulster, we’re ready to form our own cumann, which of course won’t be recognised by Fianna Fáil,” he said. “We have to form our own policies and structures to be able to bring Fianna Fáil – or a Fianna Fáil-type party – into the North, rather than waiting for this never-ending line: that they’ll do it when the time is right.”
The issue of organising in the North has been brought up at numerous Fianna Fáil ard fheiseanna in the past, most recently last year.
Residents of the North can become independent members of the party, and more than 100 are believed to have signed up, despite having no voting rights on party issues.
“We have a person from Derry who has been travelling back and forward to Fianna Fáil for 26 years and hasn’t got anywhere,” said Espie.
“There are 60,000 people who stopped voting for the SDLP and who are unrepresented – 20,000 of those sit very uncomfortably within Sinn Féin and they need an alternative.”
Espie said there was not enough time to contest the elections planned for next March, but the new party was aiming to be ready for the proposed “super council” elections in 2009.
This would mean registering as an independent political party.
“We’re not looking to go on a collision course with Fianna Fáil here,” said Espie. “If we do register as an independent party, it would only be a temporary measure before an amalgamation with the main party.”
A Fianna Fáil representative said: “The current focus of the party is its organisation in the Republic of Ireland and the campaign for the next general election.
“As regards the North, we have a Northern Ireland committee on our national executive and they’re reviewing the situation.”