by Cathal McCarthy

The reaction of the media and southern political establishment to the increase in support for Sinn Féin, north and south, has been nothing short of hysterical, panic-stricken and unscrupulous. And in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. they have plumbed new depths of vulgarity. Enniskillen, Le Mons and Warrington; the accidental killing of Garda Special Branch Detective Jerry McCabe; The Columbia Three; decommissioning and many more… reasons why we shouldn’t vote Sinn Féin.

This is what the newspapers and media in general are constantly telling us. The attempts to compare Sinn Féin with Osama Bin Laden’s organisation were nothing short of vulgar. The assault on Sinn Féin reached contemptible levels on RTE’s Primetime (27/9/01), with Labours spokesperson for finance, Derek McDowell T.D., saying that Sinn Féin was "… a party that has spent the last 30 years murdering Protestants!…" While the reconciliatory aspects of the Belfast Agreement are been whittled away, the major political parties in the South seem to have nothing better to do than denounce Sinn Féin. Simply put, the National interest is being usurped by the selfish party political concerns of the major parties whose fear of losing even a single vote to Sinn Féin has sent them into hysterics.

Such hysteria is not new to Irish politics and has always been concerned with republicans. In 1926 when De Valera emptied the Sinn Féin coffers and led a majority if its members to form Fianna Fáil there was a similar reaction. In 1932 the Free State government took out full-page advertisements on the front page of all the broadsheets for every day of the week leading up to the general election. Warning people that "the gunmen and communists" were voting for Fianna Fáil, the advertisement on the day of the election contained the following quotes:

"It is said we killed people. We did kill. Killing is a hard thing and we make no apology for what we have done, and if circumstances arose WE WOULD KILL AGAIN. It is said we took money from the banks. There were millions in the coffers of the Bank of Ireland, and who had a better right to it than the men who were fighting for their country?"

– MR.DAN BREEN, Fianna Fáil candidate, at Borrisoleigh, last Sunday.

Despite this, Fianna Fáil won the majority of seats and formed a government, declared a general amnesty and promptly released all the republican prisoners. Dan Breen, the veteran IRA man, went on to represent the people of Tipperary as their T.D. until he died in 1967. Fianna Fáil maintained links with the IRA until 1934 and in 1936 declared them an illegal organisation. 1936 saw Sean McBride resign of as chief-of-staff of the IRA to form a new party, Clan na Phoblachta, similar hysterics ensued, this time from Fianna Fáil. Victorious in the next two elections, Fianna Fáil was to hold power for 16 years. During its time in office it had removed the oath of allegiance to the crown; established a written constitution and expelled the British from the naval ports they still occupied. They had also banned the sale of the Easter lily, outlawed the annual Woulfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown and executed several republican prisoners.

The general election of 1948 saw Clan na Phoblachta win 10 seats and form a government with that Government Party, Fine Gael, strange bedfellows indeed. The government fell in 1951 and Fianna Fáil returned to power. Clan na Phoblachta faded into obscurity, but Sean McBride went on to form Amnesty International and become the only person in history to win both the Lenin and Nobel peace prizes. When he died the headline in the Sun read: "DEATH OF AN EVIL MAN" – some things will never change.

However, what does seem to change, as history demonstrates, is republican policy when a republican party becomes part of the establishment. At present the majority of political parties, north and south, have a vested interest in maintaining partition. Ending partition would upset the political landscape.

The largest republican party in the south, Fianna Fáil, no longer has a united Ireland as one of its main objectives. The recent hysteria over Sinn Féin hasn’t dented its rise and an IMS poll published by the Sunday Independent (30/9/01) showed an increase in support for them in the south, up 2% to 6%. The possibility that, in the not too distant future, Sinn Féin might enter government in the south as part of a coalition is a real one.

The question then will be whether Sinn Féin, holding positions of power north and south, will see the ending of partition as contrary to their party political interests, whether they change the establishment or the establishment changes them – only time will tell.

FOURTHWRITE, PO BOX 31, Belfast BT127EE