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Template:Infobox Irish Political Party

Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) is a political party operating in Ireland. It formed in 1986 as a splinter from Sinn Féin and represents what is often described as 'fundamentalist republicanism'.

Formation of party

The decision to form a new party was taken in response to Sinn Féin's decision at their 1986 ard fheis to end their policy of abstaining from taking seats won in Dáil Éireann. RSF viewed this as an acceptance of the legitimacy of the partition of Ireland into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Supporters of RSF claimed that the decision to end abstention was invalid under Sinn Féin's constitution and walked out of the ard fheis. According to RSF, those delegates who voted to participate in Dáil Éireann had by their vote left the party , leaving RSF as the only legitimate Sinn Féin. Provisional Sinn Féin point out that the 1983 ard fheis amended the constitution so that "no aspect of the constitution and rules be closed to discussion"; this was done to enable the ard fheis to debate a motion to allow Sinn Féin candidates to stand and take seats if elected to the European Parliament.

Republican Sinn Féin was led by the former President of Provisional Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and much of the older, largely Southern based membership of the movement who disagreed with Gerry Adams and his largely Northern based backers. The Continuity IRA, founded in 1986 but which emerged publicly in 1994, in opposition to the ceasefire declared by the Provisional IRA, is believed to have links to RSF. Both RSF and the CIRA have been proscribed by the United States State Department as terrorist organisations.

Claim to legitimacy

RSF claims to be the true inheritor of a tradition of Irish republicanism that includes the original Sinn Féin of the secessionist Irish Republic declared in 1919, and the 'Old' Irish Republican Army that fought the 1919-1921 War of Independence. It claims:

• the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 was incompatible with the Irish Republic and hence null and void.
• all Irish elections subsequent to the Second Dáil election in 1921 were based on the Treaty and hence illegitimate.
• The 64 TDs who voted for the Treaty in 1922 had violated their oath to the Irish Republic and abdicated their legitimacy.
• in entering the Dáil of the Irish Free State in 1927, the anti-Treaty TDs who had joined Fianna Fáil had done likewise.
• the 7 "faithful" TDs of the Second Dáil had transferred their authority to the Army Council of the IRA in 1938.
• the last remaining of the seven, Tom Maguire, had in 1969 recognised the IRA 'provisional Army Council' (rather than the Official IRA).
• Maguire subsequently switched to recognising the Continuity IRA in 1987.

These claims are rejected as fanciful by many republicans. Senator Martin Mansergh, a prominent figure in Fianna Fail (the largest Irish republican party), has described as 'preposterous nonsense' the 'concoction of a sort of pseudo-apostolic succession from Pearse to the Second Dail to the IRA to the Sinn Fein party' to the small irredentist movement currently claiming that it, not the elected government of the Republic, is the true government of Ireland. RSF refused to recognise the validity of the Good Friday Agreement even though it was accepted by the electorates on both sides of the Irish border.

Electoral participation

RSF remains a fringe party and continues its policy of abstentionism, thus meaning they have not stood in elections to either the Commons, the Dáil or the Northern Irish assembly. They also opposed the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly as they felt this further entrenched a British presence in Ireland claiming that "those nationalists who took their seats in the new Stormont" were "guilty of treachery to the Irish Republic." . They have therefore not participated in elections to the Assembly either.

The party occasionally stands in local elections in Republic of Ireland howver they do not contest elections in Northern Ireland. They did initially plan to contest the 1989 local government elections in Northern Ireland and had planned to run 23 candidates in that year, with three of those being sitting councillors elected for Sinn Fein in 1985. However shortly before those elections, the British Government introduced a requirement that all prospective candidates must sign an anti-violence declaration. RSF refused to do so on the grounds that such an oath "calls for the public disowning of the Irish Republican Army, Cumann na mBan, Fianna Éireann and a repudiation of the right of the Irish people to use force of arms to end British occupation." Consequently their candidates became ineligible.

They stand on a platform of the establishment of social justice based on what they describe as the principles of Irish Republican Socialism, based on the 1916 proclamation of an Irish Republic. They also have a policy named Éire Nua ("New Ireland"), which would see the establishment of a 32 county Ireland completely independent of the United Kingdom and set up as a federation of the four Irish provinces.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is RSF's President.

Continuity IRA Prisoners

In September 2005, a number of cumann (or branches) and individual members of RSF left the party in protest over the party's treatment of Continuity IRA prisoners held in Portlaoise Prison. During 2005, some Continuity IRA prisoners in the prison left the Continuity IRA, some moved to the INLA, but the majority are now independent and on E4 landing. Those that stayed with the Continuity IRA have moved to E3, the Real IRA landing.

Those that left RSF formed the Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners to raise funds and provide moral support for the prisoners on E4.

Footnotes

1. Although an active movement, RSF is not registered as a political party in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.
2. Abstentionism: Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, 1-2 November 1986 — from the CAIN project at the University of Ulster
3. Section 1b of the Sinn Féin constitution: "No person....who approves of or supports the candidature of persons who sign any form or give any kind of written or verbal undertaking of intention to take their seats in these institutions, shall be admitted to membership or allowed to retain membership."
4. Sinn Féin 100 years of unbroken continuity 1905-2005 — from the Republican Sinn Féin party website
5. This claim was made based on a letter released in 1996; Maguire had died in 1993 aged 101.
6. It is claimed by the IMC that there are two breakaway groups from CIRA, Saoirse na h-Eireann and Oglaigh na h-Eireann (not to be confused with RIRA). IMC Paramilitary report

External link

• Official web site

• All-Ireland political parties
• Political parties in Northern Ireland
• Republic of Ireland political parties
• Sinn Féin