I knew this would happen. I said this would happen:
"Among those milling around Templemore Sports Complex after last Friday evening's count were figures such as Ian Doherty, a leading Derry businessman and long-time associate of Mark Durkan's well-heeled clan. Mr Doherty was one of those who signed Mr Durkan's nomination papers.
Nearby stood Ivan Cooper, another prominent figure in Derry's business and political circles. Mr Cooper, a founding member of the SDLP, is well known for his background as a rural Waterside Protestant. In symbolic terms, the supportive presence of both men points to the real success of the SDLP in getting Mark Durkan elected. It was the middle classes of Culmore and the Protestant punters of Waterside who made the numerical difference in Mr Durkan's 6,000 majority last Thursday."
Jarlath Kearney, May 10th 2005
I predicted that the Sinn Fein (SF) mouthpieces, such as the one which employs Mr. Kearney, would try to discredit any SDLP victory in the recent election in Foyle by pointing out that some of those who voted for the party were (gasp) Protestants! However Durkan's victory was so comfortable that, in all likelihood, he beat McLoughlin among Catholic voters. So a second line of attack has been added. Some of the people who voted for Durkan on the 5th of May were (wait for it) middle-class!
Well, I suppose we should all just pack up and go home, if we're going to get votes from people who've never been to confession and people who have more than one type of pasta in their kitchen. Come to think of it, some SDLP voters in Derry are even (gasp, wait for it) middle-class Protestants! How such people can look at themselves in the mirror every morning, I'll never know.
As a member of the SDLP, I very much welcome the fact that our support in Derry is so diverse. No political party refuses votes, whether they come from Catholics or Protestant, middle-class or working-class. An "X" next to the letters SDLP is good news for me. I only wish we were as popular elsewhere in the North as we are in Derry.
But, while I welcome the breadth of our support on the banks of the Foyle, I must point out that many of our voters there are both Catholic and working-class. The SDLP has been the largest party in Derry for several decades. As well as the Westminster seat, we have 3 of the 6 MLAs and 14 of the 30 councillors. Given that most people in Derry are either Catholic, or working-class, or both, it would be impossible for a party to achieve such a strong position in the city without significant support from these sections of society.
To argue that somehow the SDLP's recent victory in Foyle is less valid than it could have been, by making reference to the religion of some of the party's voters, is implicitly sectarian and completely contrary to any concept of "republicanism". The SDLP was founded on the principle that all of us should have the same number of votes - one - regardless of our background. If Protestants want to use their single vote to support the SDLP, that doesn't invalidate the party's mandate one iota.
The Neanderthals who complain about Durkan's recent victory on these grounds are the exact moral equivalent of the Likudniks in Israel who sneered that Ehud Barak didn't have a "Jewish majority" when he had to rely on the votes of Arab MKs. Such people are bigots, pure and simple.
Any Protestant who chooses to support my party is the cause of profound joy to me; whether it's a Protestant who votes SDLP in Derry to keep out the Provos, or a Protestant who votes SDLP in South Down because they like Eddie McGrady, or even, horror of horrors, a Protestant in East Belfast who votes SDLP because they actually agree with the party's stance. Any sensible person who claims to want the re-unification of our country should welcome each and every one of these votes for a party which is "100% for a united Ireland."
All but the most ostrich-like in the Provisional movement have now accepted that partition can not be ended at the point of a bayonet. Victory in a divided society is not a solution, as I may have heard John Hume say once or twice. The best way to bring about unity is to persuade Protestants that it is in their best interests. This is a tall order but the SDLP, unlike SF, have at least started this process.
Rather than wail against the injustice of those dirty Stoops getting the Huns to support them, the Provos would be better reflecting on why it is that they can't do likewise. You only have to look at a map of the North to find one of the main reasons that SF can't attract any support from Protestants. Enniskillen, Darkley, Teebane, Kingsmill: all places where the IRA murdered Protestants simply for being Protestants.
This is not to say that all IRA violence was sectarian. After all, the Provos were rather adept at murdering Catholics too. But some of the IRA's actions were undoubtedly motivated by base sectarian hatred. These atrocities hardened Protestant hearts against unity. The damage caused by these events will take years to undo. The Enniskillen bomb was despicable, it was also very stupid.
In some ways today's IRA is not the IRA of old. Gone are the days of daily bombings and shootings. But in other ways the Provos haven't changed a jot. The attempt to discredit the SDLP by referring to the religion of some of the party's supporters shows that, underneath the bonhomie and the Armani suits, the bigotry is still there.