Sinn Féin is holding a critical meeting in Navan on Monday to plan how to recover from recent political reverses in the South. Gerry Adams says that both he and Sinn Féin will meet those challenges through “long haul” politics and that he has no intention of standing down
GERRY ADAMS says he doesn’t read the Sunday papers just to “liberate” himself. But after Toireasa Ferris’s critical comments in the republican house organ An Phoblacht early last month prompted commentators to suggest it was time for him to resign, he did scrutinise their pages.
He also read the dailies and listened to the radio and television reports about his possible imminent political demise – and it was a useful experience, he says, because it galvanised him for the political tests ahead. His chief of staff Richard McAuley reckons there were seven political pundits at the time suggesting he should step down.
Probably the comment that made the most impact from Ferris, who stood unsuccessfully in the European elections in Munster, was that “too many voters unfortunately see us as a Northern-based party”.
That must have hurt. Adams says that Sinn Féin doesn’t stifle difficult debate. “Policing was discussed in An Phoblacht, abstentionism was discussed out in An Phoblacht. I first got into trouble way back in 1977/1978 by saying there could be no military solution, that it had to be a political solution.” And just for the record he stresses: “I have no intention of standing down.”
“There is work to be done and I intend to do it. I have actually found myself energised as a result of all of that commentary.”
He concludes with a dig: “Some of those people may have axes to grind for reasons I have never fully comprehended. Sometimes people just have to fill space . . . ”
We’re chatting in the Sinn Féin offices in Sevastopol Street on the Falls Road. He’s had a busy week attending numerous events of the West Belfast Féile, one of which was a political debate involving a senior PSNI officer, leading republican Seán “Spike” Murray and UDA leader Jackie McDonald.
Not so long ago the only place the three would have met was in a police interrogation centre, joked McDonald. He was right: it was another demonstration that the war is over, that the peace and political process, notwithstanding some lingering difficulties, is bedding down.
That oddly is one of the electoral problems for Sinn Féin. The buzz, the excitement, the drama of the transition from war to peace benefited Sinn Féin hugely, especially in the North where the graph is still upward, but also in the South.
But now with the peace, Sinn Féin is almost a normal, more than slightly constitutional party. On some days Joe Higgins can be more edgy than Gerry Adams. That must hurt too.
As did the recent resignations of party stalwart Christy Burke in Dublin and Gerard Foley in Strabane and of Dublin councillor Louise Minihan. “At least Christy didn’t try to put any bells on his resignation.” But Louise Minihan wielded the stiletto. Sinn Féin, she said, was “becoming largely irrelevant to working people”.
Her former cumann colleagues were “affronted” by these and other of her critical remarks, says Adams. But “that’s politics, that’s the way it is”.
Adams makes the point that while there were “surges” from time to time, Sinn Féin’s success in the North was built up steadily over 20 years. The party has always played a long game and in the South too it is in for the “long haul”. He describes results in general, local and European elections over the past two years as a “mixed bag” and while some might view Sinn Féin in the South as being in serious trouble, that is a fair reading.
It may have lost its sole European seat in the Republic – that of Mary Lou McDonald – but its European vote was over 11 per cent and that’s quite a strong base. Its number of Dáil seats is down from five to four, while numerically it held its own in the council elections but suffered reverses in Dublin.
Adams admits that regaining lost ground in the capital is crucial. “Dublin is ultra-important because if you can get a critical active campaigning organisation there you are more likely to get publicity, to get the media exposure and so on.” He says too that on a number of occasions Sinn Féin “hit the crossbar” in recent elections. For instance in the general election Pádraig Mac Lochlainn in Donegal North East and Pearse Doherty in Donegal South West came very close. He says with certainty that Doherty will take a seat in Donegal South West – if not in the by-election, whenever it is called then soon after – and that Mac Lochlainn should also crack a seat.
Talk about Sinn Féin entering a coalition government is academic at this stage, he adds. He would be reluctant to enter a government with Fine Gael, but says if Enda Kenny needed Sinn Féin votes in the Dáil he would be grateful to have them – a gratitude that would likely entail Fine Gael offering Sinn Féin a place in government.
But despite probing about the issue, he doesn’t fully address Ferris’s concerns that in the South there is a northern turn-off factor for Sinn Féin. The Navan meeting is important is charting the way ahead. He’s 60 now but says he is in good health and has plenty of energy, interest and commitment to remain at the helm. But he can’t skipper the republican ship forever.
Implicitly he asks who is there at the moment who could replace the Adams-Martin McGuinness leadership. And that again is a fair point. Mary Lou McDonald hasn’t delivered and the other great hope, Pearse Doherty, has yet to make his mark. It’s just too early to talk of replacing the Northern leadership, he feels, and anyway there are no vacancies.
