Political Affairs Division Document on SDLP and The South Armagh By-Election
The above statement, issued by the Political Affairs Division of the Northern Ireland Office in Great Britain, provides a comprehensive summary of the British stance on Sinn Féin’s electoral successes in Northern Ireland especially as Republicans turned to using candidates associated with the hunger striking movement. As indicated by this memorandum, in South Armagh, the father of a former hunger striker won the by-election on September 30th, 1981.
Although this document was written on behalf of the British government, it effectively captures the position of the SDLP concerning the recent Sinn Féin victories. Especially in its noting that while the SDLP tried to feign indifference towards the Republican advancements, they were more concerned than they let on.
This document also makes references to the failure of the SDLP to take a firm stance on the H-Block prisoners and thus, how this may have cost them some electoral support. This is not to be the only example of SDLP’s moderation resulting in loss of support within the nationalist community. For instance, there is some evidence to suggest that following the Good Friday Agreement, the SDLP failed to be aggressive enough with pursuits of police reform and thus, lost votes, especially that of the young nationalist bloc, to Sinn Féin (Mitchell, O’Leary, and Evans 2001). Moreover, SDLP was thought to perhaps be too “pliant” in its relationship with Great Britain, again resulting in decline in support (Mitchell, O’Leary, and Evans 2001, p. 730). This same thinking is reflected by this artifact.
This document lends credence to the idea that Sinn Féin was making verifiable gains in electoral politics to the point that SDLP began to fear possible future competition.
Artifact Source: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni/1981/proni_CENT-1-10-86A_1981-10-02.pdf
