Is Fianna Fáil heading North?

SDLP sources say party plans to leave political stage... making way for the Soldiers of Destiny

FIANNA Fáil is maintaining an official silence on new reports it could replace the SDLP in the North.

Senior sources in the SDLP have told the Belfast Telegraph that 80% of members support the party ‘leaving the stage’ to make way for Fianna Fáil.

The main Opposition party in Dublin was making no comment last night. But a senior source said there had been numerous contacts between the two organisations in recent years.

A well-placed Fianna Fáil source told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Things have crystallised in the minds of leading SDLP members in more recent times. They realise that if they want a constitutional nationalist party in Northern Ireland as an effective rival to Sinn Féin, then it has to be Fianna Fáil.’

There were reports that Fianna Fáil could contest the by-election in West Tyrone caused by the recent resignation of Sinn Féin MP Barry McElduff, but in the end they Visitor: Micheál Martin came to nothing. An SDLP statement said: ‘Comments from unnamed sources amount to no more than speculation.’

The SDLP holds its annual conference in Belfast this weekend. In an interview ahead of the conference with the Belfast Telegraph, party leader Colum Eastwood acknowledged that the loss of the party’s three Westminster seats at the general election last year had been a major blow. In terms of finances, the SDLP was ‘up against an opponent with a seemingly endless war chest,’ he added, in reference to Sinn Féin’s robust fundraising.

Party sources separately said members ‘from the upper echelons to grassroots’ had been involved in talks with Fianna Fáil. A Fianna Fáil source said: ‘Micheál Martin is up in the North regularly. He is much more engaged that any other leader [in the South]. He has a strong issue, apart from the obvious questions, in socio-economic issues like unemployment in both communities and ways to address levels of poverty in Northern Ireland.

The Northern party said officially: ‘The SDLP has and will continue to work with all parties across the island in pursuit of the best solutions to protect the interests of all people here. As we have always said realignment across the island cannot be ruled out in the future.’

Many SDLP members are said to want the handover to Fianna Fáil to happen swiftly so it can contest next year’s council elections in the North. But privately, Fianna Fáil sources in the Republic doubt it can organise so quickly.

Mr Eastwood confirmed: ‘We are having a conversation with other parties about the new political context as a result of Brexit. Our immediate focus is on responding to that change. Is there a possibility of change that leads in future to political realignment? Yes, there is. But that is a conversation for another day.’

But sources added that a merger between Fianna Fáil and the SDLP was not on the cards as it would be ‘unfair’ to those in the latter party who identify more with the Irish Labour Party.

‘If this process happens, it would be a case of the SDLP leaving the stage. That would then create the space for Fianna Fáil to announce it is organising here,’ a source said. ‘Those former SDLP people who wish to join a 32-county party working for a new Ireland – which isn’t tarnished with a 30-year campaign of violence – could do so.’

An SDLP insider said some in the party wanted this process to begin as soon as possible, adding: ‘The 2019 council elections is the perfect time for Fianna Fáil to enter the political field here. The stakes would be too high in Assembly or Westminster elections.’

‘A conversation with parties’