Motion 162 - The abstentionist debate

Mitchel McLaughlin, Tom Hartley, Gerry Adams, Seán MacManus and Martin McGuinness at the ‘86 Ard Fheis

THE 2011 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis assembles 25 years after one of the most significant debates and one of the most momentous decisions made by republicans – the ending of the policy of refusing to take seats in Leinster House. That debate came to a head and the issue was decided at the 1986 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin.
Sixty years before that, Eamon de Valera had departed from Sinn Féin to form Fianna Fáil after he failed to persuade delegates at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis to allow republican TDs to enter Leinster House. Abstentionism remained in the Sinn Féin Constitution in the following decades. But this was a period when Sinn Féin played little part in electoral politics. In fact, it was largely former IRA Volunteers who abandoned abstentionism and entered Leinster House, whether through Fianna Fáil from 1926 or Clann na Poblachta from 1948.
The election of republican prisoner candidates in both the Six and 26 Counties in the 1950s put electoralism back on the republican agenda. The ending of the 1956-62 IRA Resistance Campaign provoked debate on republican strategy. Out of this came the decision of the IRA leadership under Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding to seek the abandonment of abstentionism — not only with regard to Leinster House but Stormont and Westminster as well.
Goulding’s efforts to force this change in a short space of time, as well as the outbreak of ‘The Troubles’ in August 1969 and the IRA leadership’s response to it, led to deep divisions. This culminated in the split in the IRA in December 1969 and Sinn Féin at the Ard Fheis of January 1970. The crucial issue at the Ard Fheis was abstention from the three parliaments. Goulding and Sinn Féin President Tomás Mac Giolla failed to secure the required two-thirds majority to change the party constitution but sought a pledge of allegiance to the IRA leadership which had already abandoned abstentionism. This was passed but a large body of delegates walked out and formed what became commonly known then as ‘Provisional Sinn Féin’.
Through the 1970s, the Goulding group evolved into the Workers’ Party, which combined unionism with Stalinism and a bitter enmity towards their former comrades.
Sinn Féin in the 1970s was focused almost exclusively on the crisis in the Six Counties and while it contested local elections in the 26 Counties it did not participate in Dáil elections. The election of two republican prisoners to the Dáil in 1981 highlighted the potential for republican electoral strategy in the 26 Counties. The poor performance of Sinn Féin in the Dáil election of the following year raised the question of abstentionism, as did the party’s participation in European Parliament election in 1984 and local election in 1985.
Increasing electoral participation and community involvement saw activists confronted with the question from supporters and potential supporters of why Sinn Féin would not represent them in Leinster House. This increased the pressure for change and in 1985 and 1986 the debate was conducted within Sinn Féin structures and in the pages of ‘An Phoblacht’.
On 14th October 1986, the IRA announced that it had held a General Army Convention for the first time in 16 years. Among the decisions taken was the removal of the ban on supporting successful republican candidates who take their seats in Leinster House.
Delegates assembled for the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin’s Mansion House on 31st October 1986. The crucial debate on abstentionism was held on the third day, 2nd November. Party president Gerry Adams put the debate in the context of the need to develop republican politics:
“The central issue is not abstentionism. It is merely a problematic, deeply rooted and emotive symptom of the lack of republican politics and the failure of successive generations of republicans to grasp the centrality, the primacy and the fundamental need for republican politics. This truth must be grasped. It is a difficult one for many to accept given the conspiratorial and repressive nature of our past, our distrust for ‘politics and politicians’ and a belief that ‘politics’ is inherently corrupt. But once it is grasped then everything follows logically, especially the need to develop our struggle at the level of people’s understanding.”
Adams said that Sinn Féin needed to change from “a party apart from the people, proud of our past but with little involvement in the present and only dreams for the future” to become “pioneers of republicanism in the 26 Counties, putting our policies before the people, confident of the logic of the alternative which Irish republicanism offers”.
Fifty-four speakers participated in the long debate on Sunday. Many of those who spoke against the proposed change to the Sinn Féin Constitution pledged to remain in the party whatever decision was made. Young activists generally supported the change and the case was boosted by the support of republican veterans such as Joe Cahill and John Joe McGirl. However, former Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh argued that the ending of abstentionism was contrary to basic republican principles.
When the vote was taken, the result was 429 for and 161 against, thus gaining the two-thirds majority required to change the Sinn Féin Constitution. Ó Brádaigh led a small group of delegates from the hall and at a pre-arranged venue established the group styling itself ‘Republican Sinn Féin’.
Gerry Adams had stated that the removal of abstentionism would not provide a magic wand solution to the problem of lack of political strength but would merely clear the decks and make the burden of struggle heavier on activists. So it proved to be and it was not until 1997, with the election of Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin as a TD for Cavan/Monaghan, that Sinn Féin entered Leinster House.
The historic Sinn Féin Ard Fheis which ended the policy of abstention from Leinster House met 25 years ago.