Sinn Féin policing Ard Fhéis a witnesses account

national | crime and justice | news report Monday February 05, 2007 11:40 by Red Wedge.

Witness account by Red Wedge.

There are two small protests outside Sinn Féin’s special Ard fhéis. One is made up of a small number of men who hold up a poster saying “No Terrorists in government”, they belong to the Love Ulster campaign. The other is made up of Republican Sinn Fein members (mainly young men). They distribute leaflets with the message “True Republicans say: No British police, no British laws, no British courts” and re-iterate their call for Eire Nua and a full British withdrawal from Ireland.

There are two small protests outside Sinn Féin’s special Ard fhéis. One is made up of a small number of men who hold up a poster saying “No Terrorists in government”, they belong to the Love Ulster campaign. The other is made up of Republican Sinn Fein members (mainly young men). They distribute leaflets with the message “True Republicans say: No British police, no British laws, no British courts” and re-iterate their call for Eire Nua and a full British withdrawal from Ireland.

The Ard Fhéis has its eyes on a much bigger picture. In Gerry Adams opening address, he tells delegates “This is bigger than Sinn Féin, bigger than Gerry Adams”. It is a theme returned to by Gerry Kelly, Martin McGuiness and Mary Lou MacDonald in their opening addresses.

Only McGuiness is willing to get gritty. He has harsh words for The Irish Government, the British Government, and the RUC. The SDLP comes in for stiff criticism, and criticism for the SDLP is to become another reoccuring theme of the Ard Fhéis. With the pan-nationalist font in tatters, McGuiness goes for the jugular and hits out at the Republicans that greeted him with abuse at the gate. “I come from a tradition that fought the RUC and the British to a standstill-others didn’t fight them to a start” he tells the delegates to huge applause.

As the debate gets into full swing, a very visible pattern quickly emerges. The delegates speaking in favour far outweigh the delegates speaking against. Speakers from Dublin like Daithí Doolan and Brendan Fearon put the decision to be taking in the context of Sinn Féin’s overall political strategy. Alluding to the previous policy, Fearon tells the delegates “Those days are gone folks”. Speakers argue that the change of policy on policing at the juncture will bring a united Ireland closer.

The dissenting voices proceed carefully. Every no speaker either starts or finishes with a firm reminder to the delegates that they are against the policing policy change not the approach of the leadership or the general direction of Sinn Féin. With an eye on the history books, a speaker from Cork tells the delegates that the practise of accepting state structures as a strategy has a tendency to become something more permanent. Perhaps the best-received speaker on the no side of the debate is a delegate from Galway West. He concentrates mainly on poling problems in the South of Ireland and discrimination he has witnessed in the recruitment into the Guards of applicants who are Republican or Working class. It goes down like on a house on fire. His contribution is the closest to a challenge to the leadership from the floor I witnessed. He wonders why Bertie Ahern and Mark Durkan were more prominent in their reaction to the O’Loan report in the days after its release than members of the Sinn Féin leadership and wonders whether or not this has anything to do with the change of policy on policing. A speaker from Ogra Sinn Féin asks delegates to look towards Ogras’ document on a an alternative strategy for policing and argues that a yes vote will strengthen “Britain’s Imperialist hold on the North East and re-enforce the capitalist system”. Similar arguments are made in the material being distributed by the Socialist Workers Party outside the event.

Some of the speakers are making similar arguments but on different sides of the debate. Some argue for a Yes vote because a Yes vote will seriously wind up and undermine Unionism. Other delegates suggest a no vote will seriously wind up and undermine Unionism. Things being the way they are in the DUP, who is to say but that both arguments are correct?

Gerry Adams is visible at all times on the two big screens from his spot just behind the speaker’s rostrum. Speaker after speaker-on both sides of the debate are congratulatory towards the leadership for boosting Sinn Féin’s political strength. You have to go outside the front gate of the RDS to find any substantive criticism of the Sinn Féin leadership. A small group of former Sinn Féin members hold a banner urging delegates to “Vote no to Collusion”. Ger, a former SF member form Inchicore, says that he has never seen so many Sinn Féin members admire a footpath and contends that his former comrades steer clear from the protestors at the gate for fear of reprisal from the party leadership. He argues that the leadership has the debate all sown up and that those who mount a serious challenge to the SF leadership on the policy of policing or anything else will either be formally expelled or informally excluded from any real influence within the organisation.

When a vote is called, the delegates return a Yes vote of about 9-1. The policing ball, for now at least, is firmly out of the Sinn Féin court.