FORMER Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said that only the SDLP is to blame for their recent electoral failures.
The Louth TD made the comments in a wide-ranging blog post where he addressed recent claims that the former MP for Foyle and one time SDLP leader, John Hume ,sacrificed his own party’s electoral success in an attempt to achieve a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
“An emerging narrative in recent weeks as the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was celebrated is the spurious notion that the SDLP’s electoral decline is because it set aside its own political self-interest in the interests of the peace process,” Mr Adams wrote.
“Apart from John Hume the SDLP leadership has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to think strategically or to plan for the long term. It thinks in the here and now, in the short term.
“In the beginning the SDLP was an amalgamation of a number of political personalities led by Gerry Fitt. The strongest of these personalities ran independent fiefdoms with little effort outside of their own constituencies to build a political party.”
Mr Adams said that the SDLP’s recent failures were due to policy mistakes.
“Sinn Féin is an Irish Republican party with progressive social and economic policies and is for a United Ireland. We have a strategy to bring that about.
“Republicans believe that British government involvement in Ireland is at the heart of centuries of conflict and division and reject the view that the British are neutral. No one believes this – not even, despite their protestations, the SDLP.
“The SDLP hold an aspiration for a United Ireland, but has no strategy and no methodology to achieve it.
“And finally, the SDLP take the Oath of Allegiance to the British Monarch and sit in that Parliament when they have MPs to send there.
“But last year the electorate in seven nationalist seats voted for Sinn Féin candidates. They turned their backs on Westminster and the SDLP.”
The former Sinn Fein President said that since Mr Hume’s retirement his party had become irrelevant.
“In 2001 John Hume stood down as party leader. No one of his stature has emerged since as SDLP leader. I have no doubt that over the years many SDLP stalwarts were motivated by a desire to serve the public good. But unless you are relevant you will fail. Nothing is surer in politics.
“So, despite efforts by some of its loyal and dedicated members there is little evidence of any serious attempts to regenerate the party or to find a real role in the changing politics of recent time.
“But let’s be clear. The electorate that the SDLP represents will not go away. The anti-Sinn Féin core of its support is diminishing and aging but like Seamus Mallon it is as trenchant as ever. ”
Mr Adams added that the SDLP had “a small cadre of young and likeable MLAs” but they are unlikely to change the fortunes of the party.
“Its leaders are now contemplating being absorbed by Fianna Fáil. This explicit acknowledgement that the party has no future of its own ignores the role it could play with Sinn Féin and others in building a progressive Consensus for Change and Rights for everyone.
“Far from sacrificing itself for the peace process the SDLP, particularly in the absence of John Hume, simply became less relevant, especially to younger voters. They failed to plan for the future.”
The SDLP has yet to respond to Mr Adams’ statement.
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