Abstentionism here to stay, says McDonald on Mullingar visit

Those putting pressure on Sinn Féin to renounce its century-old abstentionist policy in order to stop Brexit are indulging in ‘wishful thinking’, party president Mary Lou McDonald said in Mullingar yesterday.

Speaking in the Annebrook House Hotel, where she met with party supporters and volunteer groups, Ms McDonald said that dropping abstentionism and asking its seven MPs to go to Westminster – a proposed policy shift advocated by commentators in recent months – makes no sense.

The Sinn Féin TD said that she is “astonished” at the level of “wishful thinking” which kicked in after the June 2016 Brexit vote.

“Within a couple of months of the vote, we heard a lot of lead opinion makers saying that Brexit would never happen,” Ms McDonald told the Westmeath Examiner. 

“We had been over and back to Westminster and we had established, within a few short months, that there wouldn’t be a second referendum, and that this isn’t stopping. We’ve been of that view from early out.

“The decided view in England is for Brexit. The Tories want it, Labour want it, albeit for different reasons or in different forms.

“So the only thing you can be sure of is that Sinn Féin entering Westminster would do two things: firstly,  it would galvanise the Brexiteers, because then it becomes Brexit versus Irish republicanism – a whole other shade of political debate.

“Secondly, those in the Tory ranks who are minded to split with Mrs May and ameliorate Brexit would get frightened back into line. 

“That’s the practical reality, and I am astonished that people with a political nose don’t get this. We know that; we’re over and back there all the time. 

“The final point, and the most important point is this: they can do whatever they want in Westminster – and it’s going to be messy and confused – but where the deal will be struck is between Michel Barnier’s team and the British negotiators. That’s where Ireland’s interests absolutely have to be vindicated and protected. The rest is just distraction and noise.”

Ms McDonald said that SF had met with the Government and vowed to back it “200 percent” if it fights Ireland’s corner in the right way, and was not prepared to “play party politics” over an issue of such national importance.

But she added that she was “disappointed, but not surprised” that on the issue of abstentionism, people are inclined to “play silly buggers with Sinn Féin”.

Ms McDonald said that other political parties had chosen not to fight elections in the North, and had failed to show up when, before the June 2016, they were aware that there was a possibility of Brexit coming on the horizon.

“If they had contested elections in the North, and if they had won, would they have taken the oath in Westminster?” she added, referring to the oath of allegiance to the Crown taken by all sitting MPs. 

“If I was in that position, I personally wouldn’t be prepared to swear an oath of fidelity to an English queen. I’m not going to ask anyone to do that. Our people run on a mandate of abstentionism.

“The nationalist community in the North have decided. They’ve turned their gaze away. For them, the centres of Irish politics are Belfast and Dublin, not London.”

Ms McDonald said that when she puts the question of the oath of allegiance to critics of abstentionism, she frequently gets the same answer.

“Invariably, when you put it like that, they go eh… eh…. eh… maybe, if. But then you see that the ifs and maybes amount to nothing but wishful thinking.

“The idea that the likes of Elisha McCallion [Sinn Féin MP for Foyle (Derry)] can go in on a charge and make it all stop – that’s just silly.”

Abstentionism has been part and parcel of Sinn Féinism since the party was founded in 1905, and almost a hundred years ago, became a cornerstone of its push for Irish independence.

Accompanied by Mullingar’s Cllr Sorca Clarke, who will contest the next general election for Sinn Féin in Longford/Westmeath, Ms McDonald toured the constituency yesterday, starting in Longford before visiting Athlone, Moate, Kilbeggan, Mullingar and Castlepollard.

Along the way, she visited Athlone IT, Kilbeggan Handmade Chocolate Ltd and the historic village of Fore.

Ms McDonald said that she appreciated the “disparity” which exists between regions like the Midlands and Dublin, in terms of feeling an economic recovery.

She said that one potential “silver lining” on the Brexit cloud is that it may give a shock to a system “so conservative and so resistant to common sense”, that it would force the country to think radically, strategically and innovatively about its economic future.