Colum Eastwood: Apprentice Boys parades an example of how British tradition can be protected in united Ireland
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00:00 We have to have the concerns of the British tradition in Ireland at the heart of everything
00:04 that we do.
00:07 Coming from where I come from in Derry, where since 1973, when the new Derry Council was
00:14 formed after the civil rights movement, a year after Bloody Sunday, we were insisting
00:18 when we had nearly all the seats of doing power sharing.
00:21 You look around the Guildhall in Derry, we have all of the symbolism of unionism and
00:28 Britishness still there.
00:30 We didn't strip it away, we were determined that that would stay.
00:34 Because we understand, and it's in the same vein why we insisted that the Apprentice Boys
00:39 could march around the city centre.
00:43 And that isn't popular sometimes, but because we understand.
00:47 And when I stood as a 17 year old at the top of Shipley Street with John Hume watching
00:55 the Apprentice Boys go past, and some of those bands aren't very nice.
01:00 Musically or?
01:01 Some of the music's fantastic.
01:03 All the music's fantastic.
01:04 I brought my two daughters up last year, Jim, and they were five and seven at that stage,
01:15 and we stood and we watched the bands.
01:17 A guy goes, one of us would say, a guy goes like that to me.
01:22 And my youngest said, what's that about, daddy?
01:26 I said, that's just how they say hello.
01:28 So I was standing with John Hume, I was 17 years old, and I was doing the usual angry
01:35 thing.
01:36 Why are they able to just close down the whole town and listen to some of those chants and
01:39 songs and the way they're looking at us?
01:42 And John said, are you serious?
01:44 I said, I'm serious.
01:45 He said, well, if you believe in a united Ireland, and you look at the demographics
01:50 of Derry, how can we have a united Ireland if we can't even accommodate letting these
01:56 people march around this town twice a year?
02:01 And that stuck with me forever.
02:03 So that is what is going to drive us.
02:07 We are not pretending when we say that.
02:09 We are deadly serious that the protection of the British tradition, the unionist tradition,
02:15 on the island of Ireland, in a constitutionally changed Ireland, will be, if I have anything
02:22 to do with it, will be protected and enhanced and looked after.
02:25 In short, the place shaping mission which Hume gave to the SDLP is still alive and well.
02:37 It is the driving force of everything we do and think about.
02:41 And do you know what?
02:42 Sometimes we get it wrong.
02:43 Sometimes we make the wrong call.
02:44 We will do that.
02:45 We will do that.
02:46 And sometimes somebody will be in a council chamber and they will say something and I
02:49 will go, that doesn't fit.
02:51 But in the main and in the round, that is the driving ambition of the SDLP.
02:56 And I've said this before, if the united Ireland doesn't accommodate the unionist
03:00 tradition, it's not worth having.
03:03 No finer voice of the unionist tradition could be found than Mr James Shannon, to whom we
03:08 now turn.
03:09 I actually agree with that, Chairman.
03:12 Thanks very much.
03:14 On the subject of the—I was glad you brought it up because I was going to bring it up myself.
03:18 As a Prentice boy, I've been a member for 45 years.
03:20 I've walked the streets of London Derry every year.
03:24 I've seen John Hume there when he was about.
03:26 I didn't see you this year, Colin, by the way.
03:28 You were conspicuous by your absence.
03:32 Just to say that what always—I've said it lots of times to my own tradition in that
03:38 London Derry is one of those places where they agreed to a parade, the historic part
03:45 of it, the history of it that we all love.
03:48 I've been a member of that for 45 years.
03:51 For me, that's an example of what can happen.
03:54 And that's down to the Prentice boys themselves who made sure they came to an accommodation
04:03 with the nationalist parties.
04:05 It's one that I point to as an example of where you can do better if you accept the
04:12 traditions from both sides and understand that.
04:15 It's a wonderful event this year as well, which it is every year, I have to say.
04:19 Just to say, I love all the music, by the way, but that's probably no surprise to
04:23 you either.
04:24 You are tone deaf, aren't you?
04:25 A lot of them are old traditional Irish tunes.
04:30 Not just yet.