FIRST was West Belfast. Then for the SDLP came Foyle in 1983. Then, in 1986, came Newry and Armagh. And then, after a long tussle with Enoch Powell, came South Down in 1987. Eddie McGrady has held the seat against all comers since then and barring an act of God should do the same on May 1st.
The Downpatrick man could be called Steady Eddie, because that's how he won the seat from Mr Powell, first challenging him in 1979 and subsequently and painstakingly in three elections whittling away an 8,000 majority for Powell to nose past the "Wolverhampton wanderer" 10 years ago.
And what Eddie had he held. He's the least public of the SDLP's four MPs. When he took South Down he focused on looking after the concerns of his supporters, building up the SDLP base to a position where he romped home in the last general election, over 6,000 votes ahead of the Ulster Unionist Party and relegating Sinn Fein to a position where it posed no threat.
Then in January 1994 apparent disaster struck. The constituencies were carved up, slicing away South Down and creating the new seat of MidDown, where unionists would speedily do to Mr McGrady what he had gradually done to the UUP's Mr Powell.
But, assisted by his able constituency head Margaret Ritchie, Mr McGrady and the rest of the SDLP fought that decision relentlessly. One year later there was a triumph, and Mr McGrady could change his nickname to Lucky Eddie.
Not only was South Down retained but three wards of mainly unionist voters, about 6,000 of them, were removed from the constituency. In the Forum poll of last May, based on the new boundaries the SDLP polled over 20,000 votes in South Down, more than the combined vote of the UUP, the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Mr McGrady's main opponents are Queen's University lecturer Dermot Nesbitt for the UUP and former republican prisoner Mick Murphy for Sinn Fein. They'll do their best, as will Alliance, but Mr McGrady knows the only possible difficulty he may face is a highly unlikely bout of nationalist complacency.
