What was the past thirty years all about?
Speaking as the Assembly election campaign enters its final week the SDLP’s North Antrim Campaign Manager Seán Farren said:
“One of the main messages on the doorsteps is that voters want the Assembly to work and to deal with the day-to-day issues that confront everyone.
“But one of the key points also being made is that if the Assembly and the North-South arrangements work, then why was it not possible to have them working for the past thirty years?
“People are now seriously asking what the violence was all about. What, for example, did the IRA ever hope to gain that was not available in the Sunningdale Agreement 1973? Why the so-called war to achieve a ‘British withdrawal’, a war that cost so many lives?
“People are also asking why the DUP and other unionists who brought down the Sunningdale Agreement are now settling for an agreement that is essentially the same.
“While we cannot turn back the clock we can regret that so many lives were lost, so many people injured and so much destruction done and we can resolve to never again let such madness happen.
“That is why many voters are turning the SDLP, a party that has never had recourse to violence and has always looked for a positive way forward.
“The SDLP will do very well in this election, particularly
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