Social Democratic and Labour Party

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Northern Ireland political party, established in 1970 to represent left-of-center opinion by members of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, the Republican Labour Party, the National Democratic Party, the old Nationalist Party of Northern Ireland, and civil rights campaigners. The SDLP rejected violence and aimed to end all forms of discrimination in Northern Ireland. It also presented a socialist platform and advocated Northern Ireland’s reunification with Ireland through the assent of the majority of the citizens of both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The SDLP became the main parliamentary opposition at the Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont, urging the dominant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) to introduce reform and civil rights concessions. In response to dissatisfaction with the unionists, who supported the continued union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in the United Kingdom, the SDLP withdrew from this parliament in 1971. After the imposition of direct rule by the British government from London in 1972, the SDLP called for a policy of cooperation with the secretary of state for Northern Ireland. The party won 19 seats in the 1973 election for the new Northern Ireland Assembly and supported power-sharing between the province’s loyalist and nationalist communities. John Hume, cofounder of the SDLP, replaced Gerard Fitt as party leader in 1979.

The SDLP has played a major role in the Northern Ireland peace process, and has worked willingly with the London and Dublin governments. It was consulted about the terms of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, which gave the government of the republic a formal voice in policy formulation for Northern Ireland, and welcomed the Downing Street Declaration of 1993, which set up a framework for a peace settlement in Northern Ireland. Although John Hume came under some criticism for participating in a series of talks in 1988 and again in 1993 with Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the SDLP continued to condemn violence and support the involvement of Dublin in the peace process.

In 1997 and 1998 Hume represented the Social Democratic and Labour Party during the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland chaired by former United States senator George Mitchell. Hume’s efforts, along with those of the heads of the other major political parties in Northern Ireland, contributed greatly to the signing of the historic power-sharing accord between Northern Ireland and Ireland on April 10, 1998, and to the accord’s ratification by popular referendum on May 22. Hume and UUP leader David Trimble were subsequently awarded the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the accord, known as the Good Friday Agreement.

Elections were held in June 1998 for the 108-member Northern Ireland provincial assembly created by the Good Friday Agreement. The SDLP won 24 seats, making it the second-largest party after the UUP. The UUP, led by David Trimble, won 28 seats, although three UUP members later defected and created their own party, the United Unionist Assembly Party. The antiagreement Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Ian Paisley received 20 seats, and Sinn Fein received 18. Trimble was elected first minister (prime minister) of the new assembly, and SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon was elected deputy first minister. However, the assembly was suspended in February 2000 because of the failure to formulate a precise deadline for IRA weapons decommissioning. Direct rule from Westminster was temporarily reimposed until the assembly was reconvened in the late spring. In March 2001 the SDLP failed to reach an election pact with Sinn Fein to maximize the nationalist vote, partly over the continued impasse over IRA decommissioning.

The 2001 general election was a disappointment for the SDLP, with voters moving away from the centrist parties that had dominated the 1997 general election. Although the party retained its three seats in the British Parliament, it lost votes to Sinn Fein, which in turn took two seats from the UUP to increase its representation to four seats.

Hume, citing his declining health, resigned as leader of the SDLP in October 2001. He was succeeded by finance minister Mark Durkan. In late 2002, with sectarian violence escalating, the assembly was again suspended amid allegations of continuing IRA involvement in paramilitary activity, further throwing the peace process into doubt. The November 2003 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, held despite the fact that the body remained suspended, were a disappointment for the SDLP, which lost six seats. Nevertheless, in the 2005 general elections the SDLP held onto three seats in the British Parliament. Although the party lost one seat to Sinn Fein, it gained another from the UUP and retained two of its existing seats.