Bob White

Social scientists like Robert Michels (1962) and Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward (1977) argue that organization leads to conservatism. For them, when radical social activists become organized their leaders become more concerned with their own position than with the original goals of their activism. Inevitably, the once radical goals of the movement or organization are muted and former social activists become part of the system. At the extreme, once they are part of the system former radicals work to bring former comrades into line. A key point is that involvement in the system leads to compromise, rather than individual character flaws.

Among many Irish Republicans there is a subtle twist to this argument; it is argued that participation in constitutional politics leads to conservatism, co-option, and ultimately the persecution of former comrades. Republican history is loaded with evidence to support this view. Joe McGarrity, a native of Tyrone living in the United States and a key figure in Clan-na-Gail, once wrote to Eamonn de Valera, suggesting that Fianna Fail work with the IRA to achieve political goals in Ireland. McGarrity’s suggestion:

To be frank, it is apparent that an agreement between your forces and the forces of the IRA is a national necessity...You both profess the same goal. Why in god’s name do you hesitate to sit down and try to find a working agreement?....

De Valera replied that, "I do not think I ever got a letter which required such patience to read through...." He continued:

How can you imagine for one moment that I don’t realise what division in the Republican ranks means at a time like this. But is this need and desire for unity to be used as a means of trying to blackmail us into adopting a policy which we know could only lead our people to disaster? It has taken us ten long years of patient effort to get the Irish nation on the march again after a devastating Civil War. Are we to abandon all this in order to satisfy a group who have not given the slightest ability to lead our people anywhere except back into the morass? (See Cronin, pp. 156-58).

If you replace the reference to the Civil War with a reference to the 1975 IRA-British bilateral truce, McGarrity’s letter might have been written any time after 1994 by someone in Irish Northern Aid, and de Valera’s response might have come from Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness. At the time of the exchange, October 1933 and January 1934, it is doubtful that either McGarrity or de Valera envisioned a Fianna Fail government allowing IRA prisoners to die on hunger-strike, or executing such prisoners.

In 1986, at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, Martin McGuinness stated, "First of all, I would like to give a commitment on behalf of the leadership that we have absolutely no intention of going into Westminster or Stormont...Our position is clear and will never change. The war against British rule must continue until freedom is achieved....."

When he said this, McGuinness did not know that he would one day sit as a Minister in a Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. He also could not have known that former internee Michael Donnelly, of Derry, would be assaulted by Republicans because he opposed Sinn Fein’s participation in the election that led to McGuinness becoming a Minister.

Given the evidence, it’s tempting to conclude that the above is proof that, at least for Irish Republicans, parliamentary, constitutional politics are indeed corrupting, and that it is inevitable. Yet, there is an exception.

Consider Sean MacBride, former IRA Chief of Staff, and founder of Clann na Poblachta. He served as Minister for External Affairs in the 1948-51 Coalition Government, and throughout the 1950s he was a T.D. in Leinster House/Dail Eireann. Was he corrupted by participation in parliamentary, constitutional, politics? The answer to this probably depends on one’s perspective. However, a case can be made that the answer is "no," in that both in government and out MacBride did not condemn those who employed physical force methods to bring about a united Ireland. Indeed, he defended Republicans in court both before and after he entered Leinster House.

Currently there are comments on large houses and new suits for leading members of Sinn Fein, and that socialism has been dropped from Sinn Fein’s program. These are presented as evidence that the Provisionals’ leaders have become reform minded, rather than revolutionary. This evidence may be valid. However, although MacBride did not return to the IRA and Sinn Fein, his post-Republican activities suggest that a "sell-out" by those who become involved in constitutional politics is not inevitable. Time will tell if MacBride was simply an exceptional individual, or if this generation of Republican leaders can be true to Republican ideals and also be involved in constitutional politics.