Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein Rise in Irish Republic: The Success of a Peace Process

In a noteworthy political breakthrough, Gerry Adams has been elected to the parliament of the Irish Republic and the party he leads, Sinn Fein, has tripled its representation in a realignment of Irish politics. Adams could conceivably become the opposition leader in the elected government.

The scandal-marred collapse of the Irish economy and the humiliating submission of the Dublin political elite to European lenders are background to the rising relevence of Sinn Fein’s nationalism and republicanism. But organization and leadership have been central elements in Sinn Fein’s evolution from supporting a 30-year armed struggle in the North to the negotiated Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and from there to its emergence as the largest nationalist party in the North. Having established power-sharing institutions in the North, Sinn Fein seemed to stall in its more recent efforts to carve out an electoral presence in the southern Republic. The peace process, so vital to the North, seemed more remote to southern voters caught up in issues of the economy, church and state, women’s rights and the transition to the Facebook world.

The North and South, for many, were two different worlds. The Dublin government, and public in general, were hostile to Northern republicans for reasons going back to the Irish civil wars. Sinn Fein leaders were censored in the southern media, excluded from the political process, derided as terrorists, and perceived as a serious threat to the tranquil development of the south. Essentially, a permanent partition of the island was accepted by generations of Dublin governments. Fear of Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army was the equivalent of Cold War anti-communism.

But the movement itself never stalled or divided, as often happens in transitions from war to peace and domestic issues. In recent years, Sinn Fein won several elections in traditional republican strongholds in the south. The party became more acceptable, while still appearing anachronistic to the mainstream parties, media and voters.

Then Adams, who had transitioned to electoral politics in the north, becoming the MP for West Belfast, made a bold historic move. Months ago, he announced he was leaving his safe parliamentary seat to cross the traditional border and campaign for a Dail seat in Louth. Twenty years before, this would have been perceived an invasion by Satan. Adams never swerved from Sinn Fein’s progressive platform, began shaking hands, and the party’s volunteers went into action on the ground.

The result: with over 15,000 votes, Adams led with the highest vote total in Louth, and Sinn Fein has picked up a projected ten seats across the south in addition to the five it holds, while making gains in conservative midlands constituencies. Click here for an excellent video account of election day in Louth.

In a world of many failed peace processes and splintered progressive movements, the Irish experience is an exception worth examining. For greater analysis of the dynamics and hurdles, see Tom Hayden, "The Fate of Revolutionaries: Northern Ireland”, an excerpt from The Long Sixties [Paradigm, 2009].

Related: Please read a Note from the Irish Peace Movement.

Comments

[Colum McCaffery]

This is romantic fiction and is already being used in Ireland by socialists who would abandon the possibility of progress in favour of fantasy. They are swallowing carefully prepared SF bait and they should know better. Rather than face up to a coalition struggle with liberals, they want to run away with the latest “real” socialists and forget that while they were active for decades, SF/IRA were killing workers.

The article seeks to portray SF as victims rather than the political wing of tyrannical militarists. Here are a few of its bizarre claims: i) “Sinn Fein leaders were censored in the southern media.” This refers to a ban on broadcast interviews only. The ban did not extend to print and placed no ban whatsoever on what broadcasters could say and report. ii) SF were “excluded from the political process”. They most certainly were not; they have always been free to stand for election. iii) SF were “derided as terrorists”. While they maintained that they were not the same as the IRA, SF also claimed to be the political voice of the IRA and supported the bloody campaign. Perhaps with delicate hair splitting it might be said that anyone who derided SF as terrorists should have derided SF for supporting terrorism. iv) SF were “perceived as a serious threat to the tranquil development of the south.” In hindsight they were never much of a threat to peace and stability in the south, but they did support IRA murders south of the border. v) It is simply not true to say that, “Essentially, a permanent partition of the island was accepted by generations of Dublin governments.” Indeed it would be more accurate to say that Dublin governments by maintaining the status of partition as a great national issue bear at least some responsibility for creating successive generations of nationalist killers – including the current crop of “dissident republicans”. vi) If the claim that, “Fear of Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army was the equivalent of Cold War anti-communism” has any meaning, it may be a reference to non-jury courts. It is as true that IRA violence and threats to witnesses prompted non-jury courts as it is true that they are being considered once more today as a response to gangland killings.

Provisional SF/IRA was initiated to return violent Irish nationalism to the straight and narrow, and away from its 1960s socialist radicalism. They murdered, maimed and incinerated to achieve a united Ireland. When that failed, they stopped. They now govern the catholic/nationalist half of an institutionally divided Northern Ireland. They have ambitions south of the border. They now adopt socialist positions while operating a clientilist service for potential voters and use street tactics forged in NI which they hope will appeal to Ireland’s growing tendency to counter-democracy.

The family of one of those “disappeared” by the IRA, whose body was recovered recently, campaigned against the election of Gerry Adams and wants him investigated by an international court. Despite this, he was elected. Throughout the world democracy has thrown up shocking results and Ireland simply cannot be singled out as the one place on earth where election purifies.

There are two ways of glossing over the horrors. One is to be dispassionate to the point of being inhumane and dismiss atrocities as merely to be regretted in a time of trouble. Another is to go “WAWWA”. This refers to the outgoing Fianna Fáil government’s refrain, “We Are Where We Are” and the past should be ignored; they ask that their creation of a bizarre building racket be forgotten and that they be given a clean record. Sinn Fein is trying the same dodge in expecting their grisly association with the IRA to be forgotten. Sensible people look to someone’s record when coming to judgment; they who don’t go WAWWA over everyday decisions and they shouldn’t do it over political decisions.