By Micheal MacDonncha
"Republicans are the leading advocates for change — political, constitutional, social and economic — in the Ireland of 1997. Achieving lasting peace and real change requires increased political strength for Sinn Féin. That is our task in the year ahead."
These were the concluding words of the political report adopted by the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis [convention] in Monaghan town in April. Little did the delegates realise how fully that goal would be achieved — and 1997 is only just half over. In three successive elections — Westminster, Six County local government, and now Leinster House — Sinn Féin has greatly increased its political strength. This week's breakthrough in Cavan-Monaghan is as important as the two successes in the Six Counties.
For complex historical and contemporary political reasons, Sinn Féin has always been weaker in the 26 Counties than in the Six. The 1970 split out of which the present Sinn Féin emerged left the organisation relatively weak outside Ulster.
Failure to engage in active electoral and community politics compounded the problem, and it was not until the early 1980s that an effective political party began to be built. By then Section 31 broadcasting censorship of the Sinn Féin voice was over a decade in force and a generation had been prey to revisionism.
The dropping of abstentionism with regard to Leinster House in 1986 was preceded by four years of Sinn Féin electoral growth in the Six Counties which had left the rest of the country in the shade. The general election of February 1987, the first the party contested with a policy of taking seats, was the beginning of the long haul for the party in the 26 Counties.
Finally last week, years of effort were rewarded with the key success which was needed to open many more doors for republicanism.
No longer can the political establishment and the Dublin-based media write Sinn Féin off as irrelevant in the 26 Counties on the grounds that they have no Leinster House representation.
That the success has come after the party increased its mandate in the Six Counties to just short of 45% of the nationalist population there, emphasises the truly all-Ireland challenge which Sinn Féin represents.
These successes have dashed hopes that the British government and certain Irish political elements have had of sponsoring a pseudo-settlement brokered exclusively between the SDLP and the UUP.
The increase in the Sinn Féin vote in every constituency where it stood and the Cavan-Monaghan breakthrough coincided with a decline in the vote for Labour and Democratic Left.
The voters punished Labour for going into coalition with Fine Gael. As for Democratic Left, their loss of two seats reduced their Leinster House representation to four and the same applies to them. Their opportunism made them a mere adjunct of Labour, whose rivals they once were.
Ironically, Fine Gael lost power but increased its number of seats by seven. Labour revived Fine Gael at their own expense, as they have done so often in the past.
While the combined parties of the Rainbow (Fine Gael, Democratic Left and Labour) failed to get a majority, the people did not vote for a Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats government either. Voters resented being forced to choose between these two camps, and resented even more the job-cutting, lone parent-bashing threats of the PDs.
For the first time the smug circle of power in Leinster House will be dented by the presence of Sinn Féin. This has positive implications both for the peace process and for the struggle for social and economic justice in the 26 Counties.
Having fought the election on a progressive platform, Sinn Féin will be bringing its progressive policies into the legislature. Already Caoimhghín O Caoláin has said that he will be a people's TD, his representation a resource for the people of his constituency and for all those seeking justice and equality.
All those who assemble on 26 June, including those who will form the new government, must recognise the rights of Sinn Féin voters on both sides of the border. Only on that basis can the peace process be rebuilt.
Another new phase of struggle has begin.
[Abridged from An Phoblacht/Republican News.]