Sir, - Dr Dennis Kennedy has made a useful contribution to our understanding of modern Irish history (Opinion, January 5th). He mentions three major phenomena of 1970: the beginnings and development of a long-overdue Northern reform programme; the emergence of the Provos; the Arms Trial.
There was a fourth: the establishment of the SDLP in August, 1970. Like the other phenomena, it did not suddenly burst forth. It sprang from a long and deeply felt need among Northern "non-unionists" (admittedly a cumbrous nomenclature but one which fitted the bill) to take their place in the governance of their home place with dignity and effectiveness - and with neither sacrifice of principle nor loss of identity.
Dr Kennedy is not the only one to overlook the SDLP's birth as a key event of 1970. I have noticed the absence of any major evidence in the 1970 State Papers that Dublin, Belfast or London had either realised the importance of the then near-vacuum in the North's political spectrum or the significance of the SDLP's arrival. Had the SDLP or something like it existed from, say, the early 1960s, I doubt if matters would have become as grave as they subsequently did. The SDLP was about 10 years too late. When trouble began it would have been a hugely helpful circumstance if there had been a credible Northern party with perhaps 12 to 15 Stormont seats, an open, card-carrying membership, a democratic structure and a sensible programme incorporating the "consent" principle. Such a body did not exist at the crucial time and those who declined to assist in its creation have much to ponder. If it were not so serious, one would have to laugh at the protestations of the Provos then and now that there was no alternative to violence. There was - but, regrettably, there was and is an arrogant, brutal streak in what passes for Irish republicanism which sees acts of violence as somehow creating their own justification.
History does not have to repeat itself. Late as it was, the SDLP did manage to struggle into life in 1970. It was and remains not a stalking horse for Sinn Fein/IRA, but a clear alternative. That lesson, at least, can be learned from 1970. We will fail to do so at our peril. - Yours, etc.,
John Duffy,(General Secretary, SDLP, 1973 - 1975),Lucan, Co Dublin.