by John Coulter
THE Dublin-based Irish Labour Party looks set to formally contest elections in Northern Ireland. The move is almost certain to be ratified at the party’s 62nd annual conference in Wexford this weekend (November 16-18).
Irish Labour – which has 20 out of 166 MPs in the Dail – would become the fourth all-island party to field candidates in both Northern Ireland and the Republic after Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the Greens.
Earlier this year, the party formed a Northern Ireland Labour Forum to recruit members and set up a constituency council. The party’s first electoral foray north is likely to be in the Northern Ireland local council elections in 2009.
That is the same year as the European elections as well as the date of a possible general election, but the real poll prize would be to win seats in the 118-member Stormont Assembly.
Although the Irish Labour Party, founded in 1912, is one of the few pre-partition parties in the Republic, it has only been since Eamon Gilmore took over as leader earlier this year that organising in Northern Ireland became a realistic possibility.
Like the Greens, who have one Northern Assembly member, the main electoral hurdle facing Irish Labour will be to jump the traditional sectarian voting patterns in the north. Irish Labour’s best chances of electoral success will be in urban working class Protestant and Catholic constituencies.
However, like Fianna Fail, Irish Labour may conclude that the only practical way to win seats is to merge with smaller left-wing parties.
