Sir, - I have picked up a feeling of irritation among SDLP sympathisers since the signing of the agreement - irritation that credit for it has gone in the media to everyone but those who most deserve it: Mowlam made the running until Blair flew in and saved us; Ahern heroically bore his private pain and did not flinch from his public duty; Trimble stood up to Thompson and company; Adams managed not to put a spanner in the works, etc. The irritation is that Hume, Mallon, McGrady and Hendron have been so neglected.
Maybe it is because their message seems dull: it is about reason, slow progress, calm, peace, nobody else getting killed. I think it is also because their calm, reasoned progress has won in the end. They have won not because they have gained political objectives at the expense of their opponents, but because they have converted their political opponents - at least the sane ones - to their mode of practising politics.
Look at those who have joined the SDLP thinking process over the years:
Fianna Fail - once championed in Northern affairs by Blayney the bellicose - and the rest of the significant Dail parties
Large parts of the old unionist community - in Alliance, in the Faulknerite UUP which became the short-lived UPNI, in Trimble's UUP. Even the loyalists have adopted the characteristic tones of the SDLP - understanding, reason, patience, forbearance, confidence, frankness, willingness to consider compromise
Parts of the Republican movement, where first the Stickies and latterly the Provos have grudgingly, ungraciously and ungratefully purloined the language and logic of Hume as the roar of guns and the prejudice of self-righteous, navel-gazing sectionalism were proved to be getting them nowhere
The main British parties which have come to use the intellectual and constitutional tools which the SDLP forged - often in the face of governmental obstructionism, galling indifference and ill-informed, patronising grandeeisms.
All these parties and groups accepted a document with SDLP thinking at its heart: recognition of the rights and aspirations of both communities; recognition of the faults and biases of both communities; recognition of the limits to which each community can be expected to travel at present on the road to reconciliation. One hopes that all these signers-up also accept the SDLP perception that such limits may be pushed back in due course if the trickle of mutual civic respect which will begin to flow from this well of realism is allowed to broaden into a river of political interaction and development. All we need is courage, says Hume; there is nothing to fear from agreed progress. What have they all agreed to if not agreed progress? Which of them has not at some time sneered at Hume for saying so?
So who has got all the attention, then? First, the ones who want to destroy what has been achieved - Paisley, McCartney, and in a small, mean way to reflect their small, mean politics, O Bradaigh and others of that sort.
Second, the governments: what chance has there ever been that the British media would let slip an opportunity to lionise a British Prime Minister in matters involving foreigners? Similarly, was it not inevitable that the Southern press, TV and radio would make much of Bertie Ahern's contribution?
After the big politicos the media give us the local gauchos: what unites David Trimble and Gerry Adams, and distinguishes them from the SDLP leadership, is that they are both riding political bucking broncos and could end up on their backsides at any time. While such a spectacle is more exciting than the measured dressage of the SDLP, it is less edifying and testifies as much to the potentially fatal skittishness of their mounts as to their skills as horsemen.
The drama since Good Friday has been about how Hume's edifice will stand up to the rages of those still unable to reach his standards of political engagement. As the action gets closer to the denouement of May 22nd we will need to hear more of the leading players - if the media will allow us to hear their voices above the muttering, sneering, barracking, guldering and futile threatening of minorities on both sides who think their cherished petulances matter more than the will of the people. Let's break the habit of hanging on the lips of stuntmen and listen to the serious actors. - Yours, etc.,
Manus O'Boyle
Chairman, Newcastle Branch SDLP, Newcastle, Co Down.