All Sinn Féin needs to do to succeed is stop being a Republican Party!

[SeamusNapoleon]

The Irish Times seem to be doing a bit of a special on Sinn Féin today.
A piece by Paul Cullen analyses the party [the Provisional's] past, and foretells a bright future for them. So long as they continue the jettisoning of their former principles.

Hard to disagree with much of this, in fairness:

All political parties are power-hungry but few have had to jettison so many core beliefs as Sinn Féin along the journey. Abstentionism from the Dáil and the boycott of policing boards in the North were just two of the party’s central policies overturned as the peace process developed.

The article isn't an attack on Sinn Féin, I must stress. It writes of their broad successes in February

Last year’s general election gave the party in its modern incarnation its best result in Dáil elections. By adding 10 seats to the four it held at the start of the previous Dáil, Sinn Féin finally entered the big time in politics in the Republic ... All its sitting TDs were returned, there were victories in Dublin constituencies that had long been targeted, as well as unexpected gains in places like Cork and Sligo-North Leitrim.

A gain of three seats in the Seanad elections was icing on the cake.

Party must come out of the ghetto if it wants to replace Fianna Fáil as national political movement - The Irish Times - Tue, Jan 10, 2012

The nub of the article, however, is about supplanting Fianna Fáil as 'a national political movement'. This put me in mind of something - overly simplistic, mind - written by Seán Swan on an earlier incarnation of Sinn Féin:

What gave it its distinctive nature was Abstentionism and the IRA. Take those away and Sinn Féin would have been indistinguishable from the ‘greener’ wing of Fianna Fáil or the Nationalist Party.

Swan, S., Official Irish Republicanism, 1962-72, p.116

Just thought I'd start the thread before any potential flamers or outright party-lauders get in

[Tomas Mor]

who ever said this extreme nationalist reactionary out outfit was Republican. Bit like Nazis claiming to Socialists !

[SeamusNapoleon]

Just thought I'd start the thread before any potential flamers

Love you too, Tom x

[stakerwallace]

The phrase "coming out of the ghetto" may be derogatory but it has resonance. To be a political entity with success now, SF would need to garner middle class votes in considerable numbers, much like ILP and UK LP have done respectively. I suspect SF is shied away from and still has bogey man status in urban mc perceptions down south.

[turdsl]

True, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and now Labour lost all their core values down the years, It seems it is necessary for success.

[stakerwallace]

True, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and now Labour lost all their core values down the years, It seems it is necessary for success.

Core values: not the zeitgeist nowadays really. SF has probably lost a few too over the century. Didn't Arthur Griffith favour some sort of joint monarchy with UK, much like Austria and Hungary had?

[Plebian]

There are already three FF type parties, why would SF making themselves be a fourth one be a road to long term success. There is a lazy analysis of SF that sees them as being a new FF, that merely suits the pretence that FG/LAB are somehow different than FF. We wont know what SF in the Republic are going to be until they actually enter power.

[Aristodemus]

Their main problem is having people in leadership roles who carry too much "baggage" as was seen with Martin McGuinness in the Presidential election. His candidacy may have been seen as a clever ploy at first but it backfired in the long run because of his past. They will continue to be dogged by questions of what happened 40 years ago until people like Adams et al are replaced. There was a time when it was necessary to have people like him in control but the hardliners are onside and the party should be reaching out beyond its natural bailiwick if it wants to move forward. The reality is that in politics in the Republic of Ireland the whiff of sulphur is not an alluring smell. The future for Sinn Féin is people like Pearse Doherty, not Gerry Adams.

[SeamusNapoleon]

Core values: not the zeitgeist nowadays really. SF has probably lost a few too over the century. Didn't Arthur Griffith favour some sort of joint monarchy with UK, much like Austria and Hungary had?

Provisional Sinn Féin.

[SeamusNapoleon]

Their main problem is having people in leadership roles who carry too much "baggage" as was seen with Martin McGuinness in the Presidential election. His candidacy may have been seen as a clever ploy at first but it backfired in the long run because of his past. They will continue to be dogged by questions of what happened 40 years ago until people like Adams et al are replaced. There was a time when it was necessary to have people like him in control but the hardliners are onside and the party should be reaching out beyond its natural bailiwick if it wants to move forward. The reality is that in politics in the Republic of Ireland the whiff of sulphur is not an alluring smell. The future for Sinn Féin is people like Pearse Doherty, not Gerry Adams.

But what future is it? Is it merely a new Fianna Fáil, or less union-tied Labour Party?