Another week, another Troubles related maelstrom for Sinn
Féin to deal with. Austin Stack, the son of Brian Stack, a prison officer in
Portlaoise prison, who was murdered by the IRA in 1983, is alleging that Gerry
Adams is failing to cooperate fully with the Garda investigation in relation to his father’s
murder. In 2013, a meeting was arranged by Adams between Austin Stack, his
brother Oliver and a senior IRA commander who supposedly knows Brian Stack’s
killer. Stack wants Adams to go to the Gardaí with information regarding the IRA commander. Adams claims he's told the Gardaí all he knows and that he and Stack entered into a confidentiality agreement when he agreed to help Stack discover his father's murderer and find closure. The controversy took a dramatic turn when Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell in
the Dáil claimed Martin Ferris and Dessie Ellis, two Sinn Féin TDs, had knowledge
relevant to the case and that they were two of four people named by Adams in an email he sent to Garda commissioner Noirin O Sullivan back in February. Adams claims these names were provided by Stack while Stack denies this. The whole thing has quickly descended into a 'he said, he said' farce, culminating in Stack directly confronting Adams at a Sinn Féin media event last week.
Sinn Féin might protest that these scandals are manipulated
by the other parties to score political points against Sinn Féin and that
certain journalists and newspapers would use any excuse to throw dirt at Gerry
Adams. And they’d be correct. But that doesn’t mean there’s never any substance
to the stories nor does it change to damage it does to their image. The fact remains that as
long as he’s there, as long as he’s the president of Sinn Féin hostile elements
within the press and in other political parties are always going to take
advantage of similar situations.
The problem Sinn Féin have is that they’re not a normal political
party. That’s not meant to be an insult, it’s just a fact. Less than two
decades ago they were the political wing of a paramilitary organisation waging
war against the United Kingdom. While their transition to constitutional
politics has been remarkable – and something which Adams and Martin McGuinness
both deserve great credit for – the Troubles and its discontents still have a
sizeable impact on how the party is governed and how it operates. A good
example of this in action was the Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy case at the beginning of
the year. Slab was a senior IRA commander in South Armagh during the Troubles.
In December last year, he was convicted of tax evasion. Gerry Adams refused to
condemn Slab and infamously referred to him as a “good republican” when pressed
by the media for a comment. The press harangued Adams for weeks over his tepid
response to a former IRA commander being convicted of a very serious offence
and this flew into overdrive as the general election campaign began in
February, just as Slab was due to be sentenced. Still, Adams was unmoved. The
issue wouldn’t go away and it dominated the headlines as elements within the media ratcheted up
their anti-Sinn Féin rhetoric. The reason Adams couldn’t condemn Slab, of course,
was because Slab was instrumental in bringing the South Armagh brigade of the
IRA to a ceasefire and convincing them to sign up for the Good Friday
Agreement. He remains a respected figure in republican circles in the North
today. Adams knows he cannot turn his back on those people as they still wield
quite a lot of power and influence in Sinn Féin.
After the election ended and Sinn Féin didn’t do quite as
well as was anticipated, many of their supporters pointed to the vindictive
coverage they were subjected to by the media, particularly the Irish
Independent which railed against Sinn Féin with a series of hostile and exaggeratory
front pages. They do have a point. The Irish Independent’s behaviour throughout
the campaign was shameful and a taster of the incendiary political
reporting British tabloids dabble in. But it seemed to work. Sinn Féin did not
do as well as they perhaps should have and the front page headlines and damning
editorials certainly played a part. Government ministers were able to echo the
commentary in the press to attack Sinn Féin and the party’s candidates found it
incredibly difficult to worm itself out of questions about the party’s past.
Gerry Adams’ “legacy issues” were brought up by Joan Burton, Enda
Kenny and Micheál Martin at the leaders' debates and he was challenged on them
in radio and television interviews. While Sinn Féin wanted to focus on their
vision of a “fairer republic” they kept being pegged back to the past. Sinn
Féin and their supporters can complain about this all they want but this isn’t
going to change; the hostile media aren’t going to disappear tomorrow morning
and as long as Adams remains there will always be a Maria Cahill or an Austin
Stack.
The party is very much at a crossroads and it’s difficult to
know how they’re going to navigate it. They’ve made great strides in the last
decade – both in terms of candidates elected to the Dáil and members recruited –
and there is potential for them to continue to grow as Ireland’s largest left
wing party. But they seem to have plateaued and the popular theory suggests
that Adams might be the reason for it. Many posit that a sizeable chunk of the
electorate – particularly those over the age of 40 who lived through the worst
years of the Troubles- will never vote for Sinn Féin as long as Adams is their
leader as he is indelibly associated with one of the darkest chapters in recent
Irish history. Whether they’re right or wrong to think that doesn’t really
matter to Sinn Féin but it does matter if it continues to hurt them
electorally.
The legacy linked crises Adams and the party continuously have
to navigate also impacts upon the younger politicians, such as Mary Loy McDonald and Pearse
Doherty, as they’re forced to row behind their leader and toe the party
line. While it’s understandable that they do this, it does seem to undermine
their credibility in the eyes of the public. Adams remains popular with the
Sinn Féin base and the constant barrage of media criticism has fostered a sort
of siege mentality among Sinn Féin supporters but they’re not the people who
Sinn Féin need to convince to vote for them.
Adams stepping down – and if he is to leave it will be by
stepping down rather than being pushed – would not be an easy transition and
how the party deals with his legacy will be challenging. The republican aspect
of their identity is still naturally strong but it is their left wing platforms
and policies – rather than any rhetoric about reunification or border polls –
that has helped bolster their expansion in the last decade. That expansion
could be further bolstered with either McDonald or Doherty at the helm. As a
duo, they complement each other very well; McDonald is the firebrand politician
with a gift for oration while Doherty is the policy wonk who revels in catching
out other parties on their facts and figures. They’re both very popular with
the public and, crucially, they have no Troubles related baggage that hostile
elements within the media can throw at them. They’ll still try, of course, but
the shit won’t stick nearly as much as it does with Adams. While they may still be compelled to be deferential towards unsavoury figures from The Troubles - as Adams was with Slab Murphy - they would help ease Sinn Féin's transition to a more conventional political party, which seems to be what the party wants.
It’s said that the party is undertaking a ten year strategy
in order to properly prepare itself to enter government in the South over the
next decade. A leadership transition, with Adams and Martin McGuinness both
stepping aside, is a part of that strategy. No timeframe is being provided,
however. It’s in the party’s best interests that Adams steps aside sooner
rather than later. His legacy and his achievements as well as his shortcomings will
be scrutinised by commentators and historians for decades to come but if the
party wants to be pragmatic about its future it requires a new lease of life at
the top. While it can never totally abandon or shed itself of its past, it has
to look to a future where it does not feature as prominently in its commentary
and coverage. Adams can remain as an elder statesman, appearing during election
campaigns and ard fheiseanna to rally the troops, but a new generation need to
start doing the heavy lifting. In short, Sinn Féin need to start focusing on formulating a viable left wing alternative to the policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and winning elections, rather than arguments.
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