Republican policies in practical politics : placing contemporary Sinn Féin in a European context

Revised text of a paper presented to the IBIS conference “The future of republicanism: confronting theory and practice in contemporary Ireland”, held at University College Dublin on 7 May 2004.Sinn Féin, the party most associated in public discourse with the term “republican” in Ireland, is a party undergoing a process of development. It has been suggested that its recent electoral success would result in Sinn Féin moving to the centre and abandoning the civic republican focus on equality, political participation or activism, and a national political project with a strong internationalist context with which it has identified. However, while aspects of Sinn Féin policy remain fluid and can lack clarity the evidence surveyed for this paper suggests that the party is not moving to the political centre on issues of social and economic equality, but is retaining a strong leftist, pro-equality agenda. Post-Good Friday agreement Sinn Féin is in its rhetoric keeping the issue of Irish unity strongly to the fore, in its manifestos both North and South. In an era of globalisation it has placed itself with the anti-corporate globalisation groupings and against right-wing nationalist parties with an anti-immigration platform. Finally, in an era of media politics it is retaining its tradi-tional focus on high levels of activism and participation among party members.Not applicableke - AL 8/7/201