Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism

Eoin Ó Broin

Description

Sinn Fein is a growing force in Irish politics. Now the country's third largest party, Sinn Fein have been one of the central architects of the peace process and are increasingly setting the terms of political debate in Ireland north and south. Despite this, the party remains much misunderstood and often misrepresented.



Sinn Fein and The Politics of Left Republicanism explores the ideological and organisational origins of the party, charts their history and recent political development and assesses their possible futures.



Eoin O Broin argues that Sinn Fein is part of a distinct left-republican tradition in Irish society whose future lies in the globally resurgent radical democratic left.
Introduction

1. The Origins of Left Republicanism

2. The Arrival of Left Republicanism

3. Left Republicanism on the margins

4. Sinn Féin & the politics of left republicanism

5. Conclusion

History Lesson - Eight theses on the future of Sinn Féin

Appendix 1: Sinn Féin election results 1982 - 2007

Appendix 2: Sinn Féin policy documents

Recommended reading

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Political Parties
• Political Process
• Political Science
• Ireland
• Stephen Ireland

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849642897
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism

Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism

EOIN Ó BROIN

PLUTO PRESS www.plutobooks.com

First published 2009 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

www.plutobooks.com

Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Distributed in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Gill & Macmillan Distribution, Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12, Ireland. Phone [phone]. Fax [phone]. EMail: [e-mail]

Copyright © Eoin Ó Broin 2009

The right of Eoin Ó Broin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN ISBN

978 0 7453 2463 0 978 0 7453 2462 3

Hardback Paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70% post consumer waste.

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Sidmouth, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne

Dedicated to Ihintz Oliden ... for everything

Thanks to ...

Inaki Soto for sarcasm, support and long walks by the sea

Roger van Zwanenberg for patience

Laurence McKeown for suggestions and corrections

David and Conor Kennedy for all the bad jokes

Catherine Ó Broin for interest and support

Sara Burke for West Cork and other encouragements

Robert Ballagh for The History Lesson

and to Sinn Féin for thirteen years of comradeship, empowerment and the opportunity to play a small part in one of the most important periods in modern Irish history

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 The Origins of Left Republicanism  Republicans – The United Irishmen – Nationalists – Young Ireland – The Fenians – Socialists – Conclusion

2 The Arrival of Left Republicanism  James Connolly and the Irish Socialist Republican Party – After the Irish Socialist Republican Party –  Connolly’s Socialism – Connolly’s Republicanism – Connolly and Unionism – Connolly and Gender –  The Connolly Paradox

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3 LeftRepublican Interventions113  Left Republicanism on the Margins: 1916–26 –  Political Radicalism and Partition – Left Republicanism After Partition – Left Republicanism and the Rise of  Fianna Fáil – LeftRepublican Retreat: the Republican Congress – A New Departure: Clann na Poblachta –  Discarding the Republic: From Official Sinn Féin to Democratic Left – Conclusion

4 A Century of Struggle174  Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin – Sinn Féin After the Rising –  Sinn Féin During the War of Independence – Sinn Féin  After the Anglo–Irish Treaty – Sinn Féin on the Margins –  Sinn Féin Reorganises – Sinn Féin in the 1960s – Unionist  Hegemony and State Crisis – Civil Rights and Conflict –  Provisional Sinn Féin – Political Expansion – Changing Dynamics – Adapting to Changing Political Conditions –  Towards a Lasting Peace – The Peace Process –  Agreement – Building the Future – Conclusion

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viii SINN FÉIN AND THE POLITICS OF LEFT REPUBLICANISM

Conclusion The History Lesson – Eight Theses on the Future of Sinn Féin – 2016: The Prospects and Risks of Success

Notes Appendix 1: Sinn Féin Election Results 1982–2007 Appendix 2: Sinn Féin Policy Documents Recommended Reading Bibliography Index

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312 325 327 331 333 340

INTRODUCTION

This book is not a history of but rather a critical engagement with the past, present and future of Sinn Féin and left republicanism. I am neither a historian nor a political scientist. I am, first and foremost, a political activist, committed to a particular political project. That project is based on a certain critique of the existing order of things, and a set of values about what is right and wrong, what is just and unjust, in today’s world. On the basis of this critique and these values, I have consciously become part of a broader political struggle for change, in Ireland and the wider world. That struggle provides the context in which this book is written and in a small way its writing is part of my activist contribution to that struggle. More specifically I am an Irish republican socialist. I believe that the best form of democracy can be achieved in Ireland today through the ending of partition, the withdrawal of the British state from the north of Ireland and the building of a political system in which all the people who inhabit the island of Ireland are sovereign. My conception of sovereignty is neither insular nor anachronistic, but a genuinely radical democratic one, in which selfdetermination is vested in people in a plurality of ways – individual, communal, local, national, international – while recognising the complexity of life in today’s internationalised world. The challenge for Irish republicanism at the start of the twentyfirst century is to articulate forms of sovereignty and self determination and to build institutions of governance that are open, democratic, plural and just, in meaningful and materially effective ways. Central to this articulation has to be a sociopolitical and economic critique of contemporary society that recognises the structural inequalities embedded in the very fabric of our

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