NOTO ONE WAS more surprised than Sinn Fein in his first victory in the Irish parliamentary elections last month. After falling to 9.5% of the vote in local elections last year, near the supposed floor of support for what many still see as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, it rebounded to 24, 5% on February 8, making it, for the first time, the most popular holiday in Ireland. Since the election, its popularity has increased even more, with a recent poll placing it at an astounding 35%. That can’t do much, however: the other two big Irish parties, center-right rivals Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, are still trying to put in place a government that would continue to exclude Sinn Fein from power. Despite protests that it has gone from the violence of “unrest” in Northern Ireland to become a normal center-left party, it is still widely regarded with deep suspicion.
It is not the first time that Sinn Fein has been transformed by events. Founded in 1905 with the moderate aim of ensuring a double Irish-British monarchy in the manner of Austria-Hungary, the small movement was radicalized by the Easter uprising of 1916, which the British authorities incorrectly attributed to Sinn Fein rather than the secret Irish republican. Fraternity. As sympathy rallied to him after the execution of 14 leaders of the “Sinn Fein Rebellion”, the party won 73 of Ireland’s 105 seats in the Westminster parliament in the 1918 elections. then used this mandate to declare an independent Irish republic.
Is Sinn Fein, the great Irish shapeshifter, now a normal celebration? He has participated in power-sharing leaders in Northern Ireland since 1999. His manifesto promises a sharp increase in social spending and social housing, if he succeeds in negotiating a place in a new ruling coalition. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald is a middle-class Dubliner with no history of militant service, unlike her predecessor Gerry Adams, a central figure in Northern Ireland’s bloody turmoil and widely regarded as a IRA chief, that he denies.
But Ms. McDonald also has a history of approving the IRAThe bloody past. Skeptics note that supporters of Dessie Ellis, a former IRA prisoner who won a seat, sang “Come Out Ye Black and Tans”, a pro-IRA ballad, to celebrate his victory at the ballot. Another Sinn Fein candidate ended his victory speech with the IRA slogans «To the topRA“And” Tiocfaidh ar la “(” our day will come “). No wonder so many are worried IRA, although officially dissolved, can still pull the strings.
Irish police commissioner Drew Harris says he still agrees with a 2015 assessment by the Northern Ireland Police Service which declared the Army Council of the IRA oversees Sinn Fein “with a global strategy”, but that its objective is now political. Ms. McDonald replied that “the war is over and the IRA is off the stage. The only threat now is the so-called dissident elements who really threaten Sinn Fein because we support the police.
Declan Power, an analyst who served in Irish military intelligence, says that IRA Still maintains a loose organization to protect itself from dissident Republicans who refuse to recognize the peace process, and to deter recruitment from among them. One of these groups, the “New IRAIs accused of killing Lyra McKee, a journalist, in Londonderry last year. “In a way, there is some responsible thinking. You can’t just liquidate an entire private army and put it down, ”he says.
Aidan Regan of University College Dublin says the IRA-The relationship with Sinn Fein is more nuanced. “Does Mary Lou take orders from dark people in West Belfast[a[year[un[anIRA bastion]? I do not think so. But someone who was heavily involved in the Army Council in the IRA, who is still a member of Sinn Fein, of course, they are going to have a voice in the party. ” ■
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the title “Shape-shifters”