On 21 August 1970, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was formed in Belfast. The party was founded as a new political force dedicated to advancing Irish nationalism through constitutional means, while advocating socioeconomic justice and civil rights.

The SDLP emerged from a coalition of nationalist politicians, socialists and civil rights activists. It brought together six Stormont MPs, including Gerry Fitt (formerly Republican Labour), John Hume, Ivan Cooper, Paddy Devlin, Austin Currie, and one senator.

Fitt, the MP for West Belfast at Westminster, became the party’s first leader. Hume served as his deputy.

At the party’s inaugural press conference, Fitt recognised the “need in Northern Ireland for a strong political alternative to the Unionist Party”.

He added: “We recognise that many people have been frustrated over many years, and we will set about immediately to stomp the country to involve particularly the younger people in our community. We want direct popular participation in the policies which we put before you today.”

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The formation of the SDLP marked a significant development, consolidating constitutional nationalism into a single party structure. It was committed to working through parliamentary institutions and campaigning against discrimination faced by Catholic/nationalist communities.

Hume had proposed that the party be known as the “Social Democratic Party”. But Fitt and Devlin had insisted on the inclusion of the word “Labour”.

The SDLP quickly became the dominant electoral representative for the nationalist community, displacing the older, abstentionist Nationalist Party.

But the radicalisation of nationalist thinking in Northern Ireland in the early to mid 1970s raised questions about the SDLP’s positioning. The party had initially sought to privilege socioeconomic policy over and above the constitutional question.

In 1971, SDLP MPs withdrew from the Northern Ireland parliament in response to the shooting dead of Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie in Derry on 8 July. On 15 August, following the introduction of internment, the party promoted a civil disobedience campaign.

The SDLP held its first annual conference on 23 October. Its constitution, therein adopted, committed its leaders to “organise and maintain in Northern Ireland a socialist party… to co-operate with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in joint political or other action… to promote the cause of Irish Unity based on the consent of the majority of people in Northern Ireland”.

The SDLP played a crucial role in subsequent political developments, participating in the short-lived Sunningdale power-sharing executive in 1974. Fitt served as deputy chief executive, while Hume was appointed as minister for commerce.

The party faced its first Westminster election in February 1974. Fitt was the only pro-power-sharing MP returned, with the unionists having formed an anti-Sunningdale electoral alliance. Fitt retained his seat in the October 1974 election.

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Hume took over the leadership of the party in May 1979 – though he had arguably established himself as the party’s predominant figure sometime before. He was elected as the MP for Foyle in 1983.

Hume is generally seen to have led the SDLP in a ‘greener’ direction; Fitt’s political profile, meanwhile, was associated with Northern Ireland’s labourite and socialist traditions.

The SDLP founder left the party in 1979, standing as an independent socialist at the 1983 general election. Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin secured his Belfast West seat ahead of both Fitt and the SDLP candidate.

Hume’s consummate advocacy for power-sharing and a North-South ‘Irish dimension’ culminated with the SDLP’s its key contribution to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.