Sinn Fein: reunification “a marathon, not a sprint”

Chris Hazzard speaking

by Theo Russell

Sinn Fein MPs Pat Cullen and Chris Hazzard briefed their London supporters on the party’s future last Monday at a meeting in the House of Commons in Westminster, discussing the disappointing election results in the Irish Republic last month and prospects for ending the island’s partition.
Sinn Fein has fought four elections this year – two in the north of Ireland, a general election in the Republic, and European elections – an experience which Hazzard described as “very busy and stressful“. Sinn Fein is now the leading party in the North with Michelle O’Neill the First Minister of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. 
On the border question Hazzard said “All the parties in the Republic say they expect to see a united Ireland in the next ten years, but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael (who have run the Republic since 1945) are in no hurry to deliver this”.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader in the Republic, has had talks about reunification with Labour and the Social Democrats, who have 22 seats in the Dail between them.
Hazzard said Sinn Fein is “working well with the Labour Party left and other independent TDs, and we know that many Fianna Fail’s grass-roots members are unhappy with their leadership’s refusal to talk to Sinn Fein”.
Sinn Fein’s current policy on ending partition is based on discussion and dialogue to ensure that all parties, above all the Northern Unionists, feel included. Hazzard described it as “a marathon, not a sprint”.
He added that if the partition of Ireland ends “the North will automatically become part of the European Union, and there have already been some polls in the North in favour of reunification”.
In the 2020 Irish election Sinn Fein went from 23 to 37 seats – one seat below the winner, Fianna Fail – and may well have taken first place had it stood more candidates.
This was a totally unexpected success which shook the reactionary political establishment in the Republic, but in the November election Sinn Fein failed to follow through, gaining only two seats.
Hazzard put the party’s loss of 100,000 working class votes down to its policies on immigration and transgender rights. “In the working class areas of Dublin our vote didn’t desert to other parties, they just didn’t turn out for us”.
He pointed to the example of the Scottish National Party’s alienation of many of its voters because they saw the focus on transgender issues as irrelevant. “We need to understand working class views on transgender issues, and we didn’t appreciate the level of anger in working class communities over the handling of migrants”.
Since Brexit very large numbers of asylum seekers have entered the Irish Republic through the open border with the North, with an enormous impact on a country of only 5.4 million people.
Hazzard said “our government failed to put any system in place to deal with asylum seekers who were sent into poor working class areas. And people saw that they were being accommodated while nothing was done to help the many homeless Irish people in Dublin”.
“The ruling parties used the issue to create a wedge in the working class in the same way as Farage has done in England, but in the election Sinn Fein took the far right head on and they made no gains, they didn’t even come close”.
As so many times in its history, Sinn Fein is looking to move on from its setbacks in the Republic by learning the lessons and understanding the needs of working class people.