Abstract
The election of Bobby Sands as the MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone in May 1981 ushered in a new era for Sinn Féin and the broader republican movement. It marked the point at which republicans embraced a new, electoral-driven approach to politics. This reality was confirmed by the announcement, following the death of Sands, that his election agent, Owen Carron, would stand for the again vacant seat. Given that republicans had previously claimed that Sands’ intervention represented a once-only ‘borrowing’ of the seat for the prisoners’ cause, Carron’s candidacy indicated that republican involvement in politics would be more enduring than first imagined; all the more so, as Kevin Rafter has noted, because Carron declared, when subsequently elected (as he was in August 1981, on the same ‘National H-Block/Armagh’ ticket as Sands), that he would stay on beyond the end of the hunger strike, but now as a Sinn Féin MP.2 In becoming the modern Sinn Féin party’s first elected representative at national level, Carron (despite the fact he was displaced at the subsequent 1983 British general election), set the stage for the 1981 Sinn Féin ard fheis, at which Danny Morrison made his proclamation of the ‘Armalite and the ballot box’ strategy.3
‘The development of an open, popular and relevant political party, which transcends partition and is based in all 32 counties, is as important as the continued resistance of the IRA.’
Gerry Adams1
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Notes
‘Republicanization’, as described by Adams, encapsulates the message put across by ‘Brownie’ in his numerous articles. See, for example, ‘Brownie’, ‘Agitate, Educate, Liberate’, Republican News, 22 May 1976; G. Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom (Dingle, 1986), pp. 86–7.
S. O’Callaghan, The Informer (London, 1999), p. 425.
Thompson, cited in P. Dixon, ‘Counter-insurgency in Northern Ireland and the Crisis of the British State’, in P. Rich (ed.), The Counter-insurgent State: Guerrilla Warfare and State-building in the Twentieth Century (London, 1997), p. 196.
Sinn Féin, Republican Lecture Series No. 9: Loyalism (1984) (LLPC).
D. Morrison, ‘Danny Morrison’, in M. Collins (ed.), Ireland after Britain (London, 1985), p. 92.
G. Adams, ‘Scenario for a Socialist Republic speech: Article first printed in An Phoblacht/Republican News April 1980’, in Signposts to Independence and Socialism: Recent Papers by Gerry Adams (Dublin, 1988), p. 31.
The IRA informer, Freddie Scappaticci, confirmed that this was the term used by republicans when he was interviewed by a team from a TV programme, The Cook Report. Cited in M. Ingram and G. Harkin, Stakeknife: Britain’s Secret Agents in Ireland (Dublin, 2004), p. 80.
See, for example, J. Sluka, Hearts and Minds, Water and Fish: Support for the IRA and INLA in a Northern Irish Ghetto (London, 1989), p. 131.
J. Hejlesen, ‘“… And a Ballot Paper in this Hand…”: A Review of the Political Strategy and Policies of Sinn Féin in the 1980s’, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Odense, 1994, p. 54.
Sinn Féin, Republican Lecture Series No.7: Social Agitation (1985) (LLPC).
J. Noonan, ‘Education Department Background Reading Document’, Iris Bheag, 3, October 1987, p. 19.
F. O’Connor, In Search of a State: Catholics in Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1993), p. 18.
Mellows, cited in C.D. Greaves, Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution (London, 1971), pp. 363–4.
For more on this see M. Frampton, ‘“Squaring the Circle”: The Foreign Policy of Sinn Féin, 1983–1989’, Irish Political Studies, 19(2) (Winter 2004), pp. 47–9.
Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin Policy Document (Dublin, 1986) (LLPC), pp. 2–6.
For example, during the 1984 Ard Fheis, the section on ‘women’s affairs’ saw nineteen motions submitted by the various cumainn (branches of Sinn Féin) for discussion, as compared to just two during the 1981 Ard Fheis. See, Sinn Féin, Ard Fheis Clar agus Ruin 1984 (Dublin, 1984) (LLPC), pp. 18–22;
Sinn Féin, Ard Fheis Clar agus Ruin 1981 (Dublin, 1981) (LLPC), p. 8.
Sinn Féin, Ard Fheis Clar agus Ruin 1984 (Dublin, 1984) (LLPC);
Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin Policy Document (Dublin, 1986) (LLPC), p. 18.
Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin Policy Document (Dublin, 1986) (LLPC), p. 19.
Sinn Féin, The Politics of Revolution: The Main Speeches and Debates from the 1986 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (Dublin, 1986) (LLPC), pp. 41–2.
E. Collins, Killing Rage (London, 1997), pp. 222–6.
Sinn Féin, Republican Lecture Series No.1a: Where Sinn Féin Stands (1979) (LLPC), p. 3.
P. Bolger, ‘Which way forward in the Free State?’, Iris: The republican magazine, 7, November 1983, p. 7. Paddy Bolger was a southern republican who was, nonetheless, a close ally of the Adams-McGuinness leadership.
S. Delaney, ‘Building Community Confidence: Sinn Féin and Housing in Belfast: Interview with Sean Keenan’, Iris: The republican magazine, 9, December 1984, p. 47.
Sinn Féin, Republican Lecture Series No.7: Social Agitation (1985) (LLPC).
M. O’Flannagain, Practical Steps Towards a Socialist Republic: Sinn Féin Internal Lecture (Dublin, 1980) (LLPC).
P. Bew, E. Hazelkorn and H. Patterson, The Dynamics of Irish Politics (London, 1989), p. 121;
see also T. Brown, Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922–2002 (London, 2004), pp. 316–20.
Adams on Brass Tacks, BBC Radio 2, July 1984, cited in P. Bew and H. Patterson, The British State and the Ulster Crisis: From Wilson to Thatcher (London, 1985), p. 125.
Morrison, cited in G. Kerrigan, ‘“The IRA has to do what the IRA has to do”. Interview with Danny Morrison’, Magill, September 1984, p. 11; H. MacThomas, ‘Elections strategy outlined’, AP/RN, 2 May 1985.
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© 2009 Martyn Frampton
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Frampton, M. (2009). Building the Political Party and ‘Republicanization’, 1981–5. In: The Long March. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-59471-5_2
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