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Conference tallis::celt

Title:	Celt Notefile

Moderator:	TALLIS::DARCY

Created:	Wed Feb 19 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1632
Total number of notes:	20523

1029.0. "Sinn Fein back off from IRA campaign" by MACNAS::TJOYCE () Tue Mar 31 1992 04:38

    
    "Adams says old phrase is out of date"
    
    Mark Brennock, Northern Editor, Irish Times, 31/3/92
    
    The famous phrase about the Armalite and the ballot box is out of date,
    Mr. Gerry Adams explained during yet another heavy questioning session
    about his and his party's attitude violence yesterday.
    
    The occasion was the launch of Sinn Fein's election manifesto. Two 
    dozen journalists and technicians gathered in West Belfast for the
    familiar jousting and tortuous intellectual gymnastics about the
    support (or otherwise) given to the IRA and the right (or otherwise) 
    of Sinn Fein to be involved in talks.
    
    Those press conferences follow a familiar circuituous route. 
    The only unfamiliar sight was the plethora of microphones and 
    cameras. The broadcasting ban is lifted in NI and Britain for 
    the duration of the campaign. For these 3 weeks, Sinn Fein gets
    to be seen and heard.
    
    After brief introductory remarks from Mr Adams and Mr Martin
    McGuinness, the journalists settled down to the usual line of
    questioning, and the usual line of answers:
    
    Q:	Does Sinn Fein support the IRA?
    
    A:	We believe that Irish people have the right to resort to armed 
        struggle in the circumstances that exist in Northern Ireland, but
        we do not advocate violence.
    
    Q:  Does Sinn Fein want the IRA to stop its campaign of violence?
    
    A: 	We want to see the end of all violence whatever its source.
    
    Q: 	What about the barman in Robinsons' who lost his job as a result
        of an IRA bomb attack?
    
    A:	That's regrettable, but our voters or Sinn Fein can't be made
        accountable for IRA actions.
    
    Q:	But would you like to see such actions stop?
    
    A:	We would like to see an end to all violence, whatever its
        source.
    
    And so it goes on. And so it went on for over 45 minutes.
    
    Mr Morrison's phrase about the Armalite and the ballot box,
    uttered some 10 years ago, is thrown at the party every time
    it tries to distance itself from IRA violence.
    
    It was, Mr Adams declared, out of date. "It wasn't and expression
    of Sinn Fein policy. It was a Sinn Fein Ard Fheis. We were going
    there to argue the need to be involved in electoralism.
    
    "That phrase wasn't voted on. The important thing is that the party
    took an historic decision to get involved in electoral politics."
    
    But after that we went back to the usual stuff. Sinn Fein does not
    support IRA violence, it does not condemn IRA violence. Round
    and round we went while the party's manifesto with policies on 
    nursery education, centralisation of maternity units in NI,
    the European Social Charter, the elderly and other issues remained
    unopened.........

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1029.1	Comment	MACNAS::TJOYCE		`Tue Mar 31 1992 04:46`	30
	While we could get cynical about the above note, I see it as a sign of hope. After all, 10 years ago people like Adams and McGuinness were loudly proclaiming unequivocal support for the IRA campaign. They also regularly call on splinter group like the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) to cease from violence because they have "no mandate". What mandate has the IRA? A couple of years ago, Martin McGuinness transmited two messages which he said came from the IRA high command: there would be no more "punishment beatings" in Catholic areas, and no more bombings on "economic targets". McGuiness has been made look a fool on both counts, as the IRA has stepped up bombing shops, pubs and factories, and punishment attacks ahve not abated. Personally, I think Adams is on the "two steps forward, one step back" road to condemning the IRA. After all it is an honourable path in Irish politics, being trod by such men as Michael Collins, Eamon De Valera, Sean McBride, and Thomas Mac Giolla. The sooner the better. The carrot for Sinn Fein is to be involved in talks. Toby
1029.2		WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_F	Tempus Omnia Vincit	`Tue Mar 31 1992 07:46`	6
	re .0 It seems as though the press are making utter fools of themselves, focusing on old inciteful words instead of substantive issues.
1029.3	Hmmm, look at the U.S. election .....	MACNAS::TJOYCE		`Sat Apr 04 1992 08:55`	12
	The press in Northern Ireland are more to the point that those graduates of the School of Negative Journalism who peddled the Gennifer Flowers story about Bill Clinton. Whether or not you support a violent organisation is a lot more relevant that who you slept with. So I wouldn't think too badly about Mark Brennock and his peers. It could be a lot worse. Toby
1029.4		EPIK::HOLOHAN		`Mon Apr 06 1992 11:00`	6
	re. .3 As regarding the British controlled press in northern Ireland being to the point (the British point that is) they sure are toby. Mark
1029.5	!~!!???	MACNAS::TJOYCE		`Mon Apr 06 1992 11:53`	7
	WHAT! The Irish Times, Press and Independent, as well as RTE, Irish News, Cork Examiner, Belfast Newsletter etc........ British controlled? Is this another bout of paranoia a la Reverend Des Wilson? Toby
1029.6		WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_F	Tempus Omnia Vincit	`Mon Apr 06 1992 15:09`	16
	re .3 Sorry Toby, yer full of crap. Justifying stupidity by juxtaposing it with ANOTHER stupidity is flawed logic. And since when did ANYONE claim the American press is any less adept at making fools of themselves than their Irish counterparts? While surely Bill Clinton's paramours are an integral part of the American approach to achieving global economic parity, the press might miss the link and make the story into a lurid tabloid headline. :) Anyway...I'd be far less inclined to go for sensationalism in the north of Ireland than a serious attempt to achieve some lasting peace. There's no shortage of lurid headlines there.
1029.7	Farther away than ever ....	MACNAS::TJOYCE		`Sun Apr 12 1992 12:53`	52
	Now that the dust has settled and Gerry Adams has to set about re-gaining his seat, it must be asked whatever did happen to Sinn Fein? Ten years ago in the bitter aftermath of the Maze Hunger Strikes, Sinn Fein were able to garner 40% of Nationalist votes, something like 14-15% of all votes cast in Northern Ireland. Since then their votes have just about halved ........ In retrospect, it can be seen that Sinn Fein needed the emotional high of the Hunger Strikes to get off to a flying start. Since then it could only go backwards. The strategy of Adams and his lieutenants was to capture seats in the Republic's parliament and hold a balance of power there. Danny Morrison said "The Free State will be decisive ........". Unfortunately, citizens of the Republic don't like hearing their country misnamed ("Free State" is often used in a derogatory sense by self-styled "Republicans"). They also disliked a party which condoned the IRA - unlike some correspondents to this topic, who seem to think this matter irrelevant. HOwever, when two recruits to the Irish security forces were killed trying to free a business executive who had been kidnapped by the IRA, Adams clearly signalled his position by saying that the IRA were "doing their duty", implying somehow that the Irish security forces should turn a bling eye to kidnappings for the IRA cause. To be fair to Adams, it was a real dilemma for him. But he made a wrong choice ... perhaps he was ignorant of the attachment that the Southern people now have to the institutions of the Irish Republic. Since then Sinn Fein was a major loser in the Republic, and in election after election its vote has shrunk. Groups like New Consensus challenged its authority to speak for Irish people anywhere, it is now somehwere on the outer fringe of political acceptability. As the party's strategy in the South failed and morale slumped, so also in the North morale inevitably suffered. By its strategy committed to abstention, Sinn Fein was vulnerable to a party like the SDLP who could actually get benefits for their constituents. Hence the desperate posturing of Adams in the last weeks in sending letters to the UN and the EC, in an effort to show progress outside local affairs. But cut off from Inter-Party talks by its support for the IRA, and carring the ball and chain of IRA atrocities, Sinn Fein has neatly painted itself into a corner. The motto of Sinn Fein has been "Tiocfaidh ar la" - " Our day will come". Come it may, but at the moment it seems farther away than ever. Toby