Ahern plan puts SDLP in middle

Ahern made his proposals to the party leaders last Thursday. By the following morning all of them had flatly rejected the plans. Sinn Fein and the SDLP meanwhile welcomed the idea — calling it a “step forward.”
Northern nationalists, not for the first time, look south and scratch their heads.
Is it true? they wonder. Do people in the Republic really have such an aversion to “nordies” that they become apoplectic at the mere suggestion that Northern political representatives be allowed into “their” parliament?
They need not fret. The president of Ireland is still from the Ardoyne. Instead they should examine the words of those opposed to the plans.
A Labor party spokesperson is quoted objecting on the basis that it will give “Gerry and the boys” some added publicity and standing among those of a nationalist bent.
According to Michael McDowell of the Progressive Democrats, his party opposes it because it would “reward Sinn Fein abstentionism because they wouldn’t go to Westminster and [yet] they [would] come South and participate in sessions in Dail.”
Fine Gael is meanwhile concerned about the sovereignty of the state and the impact such a move might have on unionists.
The general feeling among the parties crystallized around a particularly strident editorial in the Irish Times on Saturday.
Attacking the taoiseach, it stated: “the overwhelming democratic imperative is that the institutions of this State should represent and serve the people of the State.”
Bolstering its argument against allowing Northern MPs into the Dail chamber it referenced unionist opposition and quoted the British Conservative party’s belief that it constituted a “32-county D_il in shadow form.”
“What is the taoiseach playing at?” asked the leader. “On Thursday, Mr. Ahern shocked the main opposition parties and unsettled his partners in Government by proposing that MPs from Northern Ireland should be invited to address the Dail on matters concerning the North and the Belfast Agreement.”
Mentioned in the Irish Times editorial, and cited by the party leaders, has also been the contention that to allow Northern MPs (including unionists) into the Dail and Seanad would undermine “community relations” in the North.
The basis of such a suggestion is far from clear. For years, unionism has turned a blind eye to the “internal” politics of the Republic. Ian Paisley, in line with unionist orthodoxy, has described the 26-counties as a “foreign country.”
While unionists have long questioned the Republic’s right to state territorial claim to the North, (putting aside some quirky extremists) they do not question the fact that the southern state remains a sovereign and independent one.
The DUP and Ulster Unionists have always denounced the Republic’s “meddling” in the internal affairs of the North. Yet this issue, one that is solely in the lap of the taoiseach, provokes ire and opprobrium from those same parties.
Just what impact the appearance of Gerry Adams in the Dail might or might not have on the unionist community is also unclear. Nationalist observers pour scorn on the idea that such a move would damage unionist confidence in the stability of the Northern state.
Loyalists, going on the basis of last weekend’s ‘Love Ulster’ rallies, have so far failed to mention the issue as being one that matters to them.
Instead, the opposition from both North and South emanates from a desire to inhibit any potential benefit that Sinn Fein may derive from Northern representation in the Dail.
The comments of the Southern parties make this abundantly clear.
The whole affair meanwhile leaves the SDLP in a difficult position.
After having been feted by the entire political establishment in recent times it now finds itself on the wrong side of the fence. Fine Gael, Labor and the Progressive Democrats have long applauded the party’s policies.
In the run up to May’s general election in the North, all three parties sent emissaries across the border so that they could endorse the SDLP to the Northern electorate.
Just what SDLP leader Mark Durkan is to make of the fierce reaction to Ahern’s proposals is not yet known. If anything, they could conceivably benefit the SDLP just as much as Sinn Fein.
With no southern structure, the SDLP has always been open to the accusation from Sinn Fein that it is not an All-Ireland party. Many within the party see this as a core weakness in the SDLP’s profile.
Were Durkan able to address the Dail, his strategists could make great hay of the television images. No doubt such pictures would be used in subsequent election campaigns in the North.
However, the plight of the SDLP is of little real concern to the Southern parties. The battle for the nationalist soul in the North has been concluded. In the South, it has only just begun.