Dr John Coulter ✒ even our ardent Royalist Monday columnist has had to admit that Sinn Fein outfoxed Unionism in its welcome for King Charles III in Northern Ireland and its attendance at Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral. 

But what is the real agenda behind the republican movement’s ‘fluffy bunny’ attitude to the Monarchy?

In football terms, Sinn Fein ‘played a blinder’ in its approach to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the visit to Northern Ireland of King Charles, but is the real reason for the republican movement’s seemingly new found respect for the Monarchy really preparing the ground for Sinn Fein to cross the final democratic hurdle - abandoning its historic abstentionist policy on Commons MPs taking their seats at Westminster?

In terms of how the period of mourning and state funeral for Queen Elizabeth was played politically, Sinn Fein left Unionism - of whatever shade - in the shadows.

Indeed, for Sinn Fein, it was a double-edged sword. Firstly, it earlier kept the hardline republican element on board with a speech stating there was no other alternative to violence in terms of the IRA’s campaign of terror, murder, bombing and mayhem (my words!)

But with political jungle drums now warning of a December Stormont election, next year’s Northern Ireland local government elections, and a looming Dail election in the Republic, Sinn Fein also needed to mop up more SDLP voters as well as lure Catholic votes away from the Alliance surge in recent elections - and convince Southern Irish voters that Sinn Fein could be a competent party of government and not simply a youthful protest movement.

In the 1918 Westminster General Election, when Ireland was still united under British rule, Sinn Fein won the majority of the 105 Commons seats, but its MPs did not take their seats.

This makes you wonder what could have been achieved in the Treaty negotiations had Sinn Fein been a truly democratic party and its MPs had taken those Commons seats in the aftermath of the ending of the Great War.

Abstentionism has been a key political plank in Sinn Fein policy since the party was formed in 1905. It would be just over 80 years later that Sinn Fein would vote to end abstentionism, allowing its TDs to take their seats in Leinster House.

Who can forget the carefully choreographed conference when then Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in 1986 applauded hardliner Ruairi O Bradaigh and publicly clapped him on the back and shook hands with him in an apparent show of ‘unity’ over the ‘drop Dail abstentionism’ vote.

O Bradaigh lost the vote and promptly walked out to form the fringe Republican Sinn Fein party. Sinn Fein abstained from taking its seats in the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly and the 1986 Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, but following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein took its seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly.

Indeed, in spite of being a euro skeptic party for years, Sinn Fein MEPs from both sides of the Irish border took their seats in the European Parliament.

The late Queen will always be remembered for her Christian attitude of peace and reconciliation. Her visit to Croke Park, her laying a wreath in memory of those killed fighting for Irish independence and her historic handshake with the late Martin McGuinness, the former Derry IRA commander and then Stormont deputy First Minister, all paved the way for Sinn Fein to gradually, step by step, get sucked into the British establishment.

The ‘not a word out of place’ policy by Sinn Fein’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill and Stormont Speaker Alex Maskey during the visit of King Charles prior to the state funeral has further laid the groundwork for two major steps for the republican movement - Sinn Fein taking its Commons seats and even accepting peerages in the House of Lords.

On reading this last paragraph, some may be tempted to sneer at such concepts. But Irish politics is often the politics of the impossible.

As a young cub BBC freelance journalist in 1981, I covered the Fermanagh South Tyrone Westminster by-election caused by the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands MP.

The winner that day was Owen Carron, Sands’ election agent, who eventually lost the Westminster seat two years later to the Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis.

But after Carron made his victory speech that day in Enniskillen, if I’d told him or his supporters that one day Sinn Fein would sit in a partitionist parliament at Stormont and become ministers in a power-sharing Executive with the DUP, I would have been soundly laughed at. But it happened.

So when I see Michelle O’Neill and Alex Maskey greeting the new King Charles III like a long lost friend and Sinn Fein sitting in the congregation at the Queen’s state funeral service, I have to ask - what is the rank and file of the republican movement being prepared for?

Many years may have elapsed since the former West Belfast Westminster MP, the late Gerry Fitt, took his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Fitt. In this modern political era, taking seats in the Commons and Lords has always been the domain of moderate nationalist politicians from the SDLP.

However, if King Charles can pick up the diplomatic baton from his late mother and chat cordially with Sinn Fein representatives in spite of Sinn Fein’s military wing, the IRA, murdering his beloved grand uncle - Lord Louis Mountbatten - then the republican movement leadership can reciprocate those Royal Kingly handshakes by getting even more deeply involved with the British political establishment.

After all, given the infiltration of the republican movement by the British intelligence community’s network of spies, agents and informers, surely someone of influence within the republican movement can start the whisper of ‘time to take our Commons seats!’

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online

Could King Charles Encourage Sinn Fein To Abandon Abstentionism?

Dr John Coulter ✒ even our ardent Royalist Monday columnist has had to admit that Sinn Fein outfoxed Unionism in its welcome for King Charles III in Northern Ireland and its attendance at Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral. 

But what is the real agenda behind the republican movement’s ‘fluffy bunny’ attitude to the Monarchy?

In football terms, Sinn Fein ‘played a blinder’ in its approach to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the visit to Northern Ireland of King Charles, but is the real reason for the republican movement’s seemingly new found respect for the Monarchy really preparing the ground for Sinn Fein to cross the final democratic hurdle - abandoning its historic abstentionist policy on Commons MPs taking their seats at Westminster?

In terms of how the period of mourning and state funeral for Queen Elizabeth was played politically, Sinn Fein left Unionism - of whatever shade - in the shadows.

Indeed, for Sinn Fein, it was a double-edged sword. Firstly, it earlier kept the hardline republican element on board with a speech stating there was no other alternative to violence in terms of the IRA’s campaign of terror, murder, bombing and mayhem (my words!)

But with political jungle drums now warning of a December Stormont election, next year’s Northern Ireland local government elections, and a looming Dail election in the Republic, Sinn Fein also needed to mop up more SDLP voters as well as lure Catholic votes away from the Alliance surge in recent elections - and convince Southern Irish voters that Sinn Fein could be a competent party of government and not simply a youthful protest movement.

In the 1918 Westminster General Election, when Ireland was still united under British rule, Sinn Fein won the majority of the 105 Commons seats, but its MPs did not take their seats.

This makes you wonder what could have been achieved in the Treaty negotiations had Sinn Fein been a truly democratic party and its MPs had taken those Commons seats in the aftermath of the ending of the Great War.

Abstentionism has been a key political plank in Sinn Fein policy since the party was formed in 1905. It would be just over 80 years later that Sinn Fein would vote to end abstentionism, allowing its TDs to take their seats in Leinster House.

Who can forget the carefully choreographed conference when then Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in 1986 applauded hardliner Ruairi O Bradaigh and publicly clapped him on the back and shook hands with him in an apparent show of ‘unity’ over the ‘drop Dail abstentionism’ vote.

O Bradaigh lost the vote and promptly walked out to form the fringe Republican Sinn Fein party. Sinn Fein abstained from taking its seats in the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly and the 1986 Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, but following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein took its seats in the new Northern Ireland Assembly.

Indeed, in spite of being a euro skeptic party for years, Sinn Fein MEPs from both sides of the Irish border took their seats in the European Parliament.

The late Queen will always be remembered for her Christian attitude of peace and reconciliation. Her visit to Croke Park, her laying a wreath in memory of those killed fighting for Irish independence and her historic handshake with the late Martin McGuinness, the former Derry IRA commander and then Stormont deputy First Minister, all paved the way for Sinn Fein to gradually, step by step, get sucked into the British establishment.

The ‘not a word out of place’ policy by Sinn Fein’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill and Stormont Speaker Alex Maskey during the visit of King Charles prior to the state funeral has further laid the groundwork for two major steps for the republican movement - Sinn Fein taking its Commons seats and even accepting peerages in the House of Lords.

On reading this last paragraph, some may be tempted to sneer at such concepts. But Irish politics is often the politics of the impossible.

As a young cub BBC freelance journalist in 1981, I covered the Fermanagh South Tyrone Westminster by-election caused by the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands MP.

The winner that day was Owen Carron, Sands’ election agent, who eventually lost the Westminster seat two years later to the Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis.

But after Carron made his victory speech that day in Enniskillen, if I’d told him or his supporters that one day Sinn Fein would sit in a partitionist parliament at Stormont and become ministers in a power-sharing Executive with the DUP, I would have been soundly laughed at. But it happened.

So when I see Michelle O’Neill and Alex Maskey greeting the new King Charles III like a long lost friend and Sinn Fein sitting in the congregation at the Queen’s state funeral service, I have to ask - what is the rank and file of the republican movement being prepared for?

Many years may have elapsed since the former West Belfast Westminster MP, the late Gerry Fitt, took his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Fitt. In this modern political era, taking seats in the Commons and Lords has always been the domain of moderate nationalist politicians from the SDLP.

However, if King Charles can pick up the diplomatic baton from his late mother and chat cordially with Sinn Fein representatives in spite of Sinn Fein’s military wing, the IRA, murdering his beloved grand uncle - Lord Louis Mountbatten - then the republican movement leadership can reciprocate those Royal Kingly handshakes by getting even more deeply involved with the British political establishment.

After all, given the infiltration of the republican movement by the British intelligence community’s network of spies, agents and informers, surely someone of influence within the republican movement can start the whisper of ‘time to take our Commons seats!’

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online

3 comments:

  1. " Had Sinn Fein been a trully democratic party and its MPs had taken their seats in the aftermath of the Great War." By seats it is meant Westminster. The reason, or a major factor involved, in Sinn Fein winning a "majority of the 105 seats" for Ireland, the actual number was 73 seats, was their abstentionist policy. That rule on refusing to take seats in a foreign parliament is why Sinn Fein retain their popularity in the six counties today. Lets face it they have dropped so many former policies, if they drop abstetionism they may well be redundant. Of course John knows that which is why he'd love to see it.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Lets face it they have dropped so many former policies, if they drop abstentionsim they may well be redundant."

      What's the big deal? They've clearly dropped Republicanism in practicality.

      Delete
    2. Steve - I agree. I doubt very much that it will cause any hemorrhaging of the vote. From a constitutional nationalist/reformist/non-republican perspective, it can even be seen as a wise move by them.

      Delete