Colum Eastwood is right. The SDLP cannot stay the same, and we must change radically to confront the challenges of the 21st century. He is right to say that there is a new political context on these islands, and that the organisational and political decline of the SDLP has to be stopped – out of respect for the giants whose shoulders we stand upon, and more importantly, so that we can shape the future of this place in the pioneering, positive way we have done before.

But I don’t think Fianna Fáil is the answer. As much as I respect Colum, I disagree with him that an exclusive ‘partnership’ with FF can save the SDLP. I cannot accept that the answer to changing times and changing values is to formally tie ourselves to one political party alone. The SDLP has been at its best when we have worked alongside everyone with an interest in this island – not just other Irish political parties, but civic society, unionists, and our colleagues across Europe and the United States.

I joined the SDLP two years ago, motivated by the anger that followed the RHI scandal. I’m not a long-standing member, but I hope I have been an active one who deserves to have their point of view heard.

One of the key reasons I joined was our focus on progressive nationalism and European social democracy, unshackled from the bloody and divided chapter in Irish history that characterised nationalism here in the early 20th century. The SDLP is a party that was forged in the white heat of the Civil Rights movement, which completely recast what it means to be an Irish nationalist. The emergence of this party in 1970 created in an instant a new space in our politics – a space allowing an aspiration for a united Ireland to be divorced from so-called cultural nationalism, a space where finally the dream of uniting Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter could become reality.

This hole punched in the political consensus all those years ago by the SDLP has allowed people from a unionist background like me to sign up to a united Ireland – a New Ireland – where the ultimate goal is not assimilation of unionists in a Free State 2.0, but rather a brand new state on this island, where unionism and its unique culture is celebrated and where people are united by the principles of equality and social justice.

It is with nothing but fear and frustration that I say that I believe the ‘partnership’ proposal designed by the SDLP leadership threatens not just to damage this legacy, but to kill it entirely. The sad truth is that Fianna Fáil do not have the same positive record we do when it comes to building bridges between our communities.

It has become common within all shades of northern nationalism now to talk about how unionists at the time of partition were, in the end, justified in their fear of Rome Rule. That is a welcome development, and one that will allow us to never make the same mistakes again when the time comes to build something new with our neighbours. The lesson we take from this reckoning with Irish history should not be to cosy up to the party that made these mistakes in the first place.

Those supporting this new relationship with FF will have to account for partnering with the party that built the conservative, religious, and narrow-minded Free State that has thankfully begun to be dismantled in the last decade. It seems to me unlikely that a party which exemplifies almost all unionist fears about a united Ireland, from being forced to accept a narrative of Irish history they disagree with to being written out of the symbols and fabric of a unified state, would ever be able to credibly reach out to this community, even in partnership with the SDLP.

Brexit is often cited as the rationale for this arrangement, but I would suggest that any partnership with Fianna Fáil damages rather than adds to our strength and credibility in this area. Not only would it weaken our relationship with Fine Gael and the Irish government at a time when they are standing up for our interests, it would also harm, not help, our desire to tap into the growing number of unionists who are warming to the idea of a united Ireland in order to escape the chaos of Brexit. Loudly telling people that Brexit has changed everything and that unity is surely on the way is not good enough. We must continue to make the argument – the SDLP argument – that unity can only be delivered by the borders in our hearts and minds being broken down, not by demographics or inevitability.

Our party’s unique past within the non-sectarian strands of recent Irish history – the Civil Rights movement, the European movement, and the Labour movement – could, if utilised correctly, allow us to extend a hand of friendship to unionists in the North. This should be at the heart of our efforts to reassure unionists as we attempt to bring them on board with the task of building a new Ireland. It is this history we must draw upon to establish new principles, new values, and new policies for the 21st century.

I do not have all the answers, and I admire the SDLP leadership for trying to find some way out of the sorry state we find ourselves in as a party. But I cannot support this proposal as being the solution. The possible short term hit of attention, money, and organisational capacity will not be worth it when the SDLP ceases to be a unique political vehicle, and becomes another nationalist party trying and failing to chase our opponents up the flagpole.

An SDLP fit for the 21st century must recapture the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, whose success lay in its ability to advocate for a new type of non-sectarian politics in Ireland, based not on historical wrongs, but on concrete, contemporary political issues: rights, equality, and social justice. My view is that the first step to doing this is getting back our sense of self-belief. We can and will change this country again. And we can do it on our own two feet.