Colum Eastwood says SDLP was ‘squeezed’ after GFA as ‘extremes were indulged’

Transcript

00:00 we are seeing in Northern Irish politics, not I think probably unique in Northern Ireland,

00:07 a sort of squeeze on the centre as things move to the wings. What's the role now of

00:18 your party in the development of the political institutions of Northern Ireland?

00:25 So what's the role of the SDLP? Well 25 years on, yes we have been squeezed, the Ulster

00:31 Unionist Party have been squeezed. I think, and there's no point in rehearsing all of

00:36 this, but there was a period after the Good Friday Agreement where I think the extremes

00:40 were indulged too much, where you would have Seamus Malin and David Trimble sitting in

00:46 the First Minister's office trying to run the place, turning on the TV and there's

00:49 Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams walking up Downing Street all the time. So the oxygen

00:55 for the democratic centre was taken away and given to those people who continued to use

01:01 issues like decommissioning and other things to keep the attention on them. And that had

01:07 an electoral outcome that I think we're still suffering from. But regardless of all of that,

01:13 25 years on, I think we've spent an awful lot of time over the last year and it was

01:17 great to have all the presidents and senators and everybody here. But I think for my generation

01:24 and generations that are coming on now, I think we're very grateful that there's peace.

01:32 But they're also saying now, what's next? And just talking about it as some sort of

01:38 – 25 years ago for a 20 year old is the same as 100 years ago. It just doesn't matter.

01:44 And we kind of have to bank that and move forward. It was never supposed to be like

01:48 a static thing.

01:50 It was a process, not an event.

01:52 Exactly. So you have to keep moving forward. From my perspective, I think we are in a period

01:59 now where we will begin, if it hasn't already begun, a very live conversation about constitutional

02:05 change. So from the SDLP's perspective, I think we're the only party that are interested

02:11 in building a New Ireland, but also anti-sectarian and social democratic. I think that is a unique

02:18 role that we will play in the future conversation about constitutional change. I think we've

02:23 always been the persuaders and I think we'll be the persuaders again in that conversation.

02:28 So we've already begun that work.

02:30 I actually see this conversation about a New Ireland as a process of reconciliation, as

02:35 the next stage in the peace process and in the development of the Good Friday Agreement.

02:39 agreement I think more and more people are coming to that position today.