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How could there be an electorally successful Labour Party in Northern Ireland in 2016? One that could appeal to both unionist and nationalist communities? Either from a home grown party, from the UK Labour Party, or from the Labour Party in the Republic?

Home grown Northern Irish Labour Party

1) The Northern Ireland Labour Party continues it's successes from 1958 to 1965. Probably the best method to achieve this is to prevent the rise of Paisley, whose parties ate into a lot of the NILP's working class unionist supporter base. Preventing the Troubles entirely would also allow the NILP's successes to continue.
2) Labour '87 has successes. A very difficult one to pull off, given how polarised and over-saturated the Northern Irish political scene was at the time. Perhaps if they were able to build links with the UK Labour Party as they had hoped, but this is likely to come to nothing without changes in the UK Labour Party at the time. Neil Kinnock having enough on his plate to worry about without making in-roads in Northern Ireland that would probably serve to alienate the Party's left wing even more.
3) After Good Friday and the rise of Sinn Fein as the main nationalist party perhaps the Social Democratic and Labour Party starts to focus more on their red side than their green side in an attempt to get cross-community appeal. Difficult to see them get enough soft-unionist left votes to make up for their loss of nationalist votes though.

From the Labour Party in Ireland

1) Gerry Fitt never forms the Republican Labour Party and remains a member of Stormont for the Irish Labour Party. This also has the potential to butterfly the SDLP and have the Irish Labour Party become the main nationalist party throughout the 1970s.
2) After the Irish Labour Party's merger with Democratic Left in 1999 the former would not allow members of the latter in Northern Ireland to organise. Allowing them to could have created inroads in Northern Ireland to allow them to eventually contest elections.
3) A merger between the SDLP and Fianna Fail has been rumoured for a few years (to the constant denials of the SDLP), could a merger between the SDLP and the Irish Labour Party happen instead?

From the UK Labour Party

1) After the Good Friday agreement and the Labour Party's decision to allow people in Northern Ireland to join the Party in 2003 (although they have never contested elections) it would be interesting to see the Labour Party organise to contest elections in the late 00s in Northern Ireland. They would be helped by STV in the Assembly elections, we might also see Sylvia Hermon join the party. As with any other time the Labour Party has had flirtations with Northern Ireland this is likely to draw the ire of the Party's left wing, but in the mid-00s they were in a real nadir and unlikely to have much of an effect.
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