PRINCIPLES
Republican Sinn Féin believes that the historic Irish nation is a distinct, coherent unit and is entitled to exercise its own independence. Because of the history of our own country we identify with national liberation struggles around the world.
We believe, in the words of one of the 18-Century founders of Irish Republicanism, Wolfe Tone, in the urgent need to "break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils". We stand for the complete overthrow of British rule in Ireland.
We recognise the danger of the growing European Union becoming a world superpower in its own right. As it grows stronger it will assert itself and become involved in what Jack Deleors described as the "resource wars" of the 21st Century. We do not believe that Ireland, with its history of being a colonial possession, should involve itself in the oppression of other nations that the growing EU will eventually mean. There is also the danger that, instead of finally winning its freedom and independence, Ireland will find itself swapping British domination for European domination.
Republican Sinn Féin is internationalist. We have a sense that we all have a common identity as human beings, as members of the great family of peoples. We wish to play our role in this wider world community on the basis of equality and respect for the rights of others. In particular, we would wish to eliminate the kinds of international trade and international debt that impoverish the peoples of the Third World. We advocate neutrality in respect to military alliances and power blocs and we feel a sense of solidarity with all peoples who are struggling for freedom and justice.
We believe in the establishment of a reign of social justice based on Irish Republican Socialist principles in accordance with the Democratic Programme and the 1916 Proclamation.
We stand for the complete separation of Church and State.
We believe in the central importance of the Irish language to the Irish identity.
Republican Sinn Féin is abstentionist. We do not recognise the legitimacy of the Six or 26-County States in Ireland, both of which were created by acts of the British parliament in Westminster as a denial of the wishes of the Irish people. Therefore, we do not give voluntary recognition to either jurisdiction.
DETERMINATION
Republican Sinn Féin is determined to push ahead and achieve its goals. It rejects the New Stormont Agreement because that Agreement strengthens British rule in Ireland. Because of this determination it has borne the brunt of State and other harassment. This harassment has included physical attacks on its members by supporters of the Stormont Agreement and a campaign by the Six and 26-County police, as well as in Britain and the US, of arrests of scores of its members and supporters, raids on their homes and arranging for members to be sacked from their jobs. Republican Sinn Féin is prepared to continue to work through such pressure because of the necessity that we do so. Such pressure does not alter the very serious objections we have to the Stormont Agreement or our belief that it is a bad deal for the Irish people.
Republican Sinn Féin has opposed full membership of the EU from the outset as a highly centralised political and economic power-bloc where decisions about our lives are taken in completely undemocratic institutions. Our struggle has been to manage our own affairs and our programme is for maximum power at the base. That is real democracy and the very opposite of EU imperialism.
Under the EU our resources (eg fish) are being taken. The EU bureaucrats are doing well on their large salaries and so are the big farmers. But the plan is to wipe out the small farmers and restructure industry so that the EU centre can prosper at our expense.
In agriculture far from the promised guaranteed level, milk, cattle and sheep prices are down. New standards for milk collection are being brought in to force the small farmer out. We can expect these processes to increase further. Neutrality s under threat.
In these and in other matters, Republcan Sinn Féin will not hesitate to take issues into the streets or wherever may be necessary to ensure the interests of the people they serve.
HISTORY
Formed in 1905 . . . Republican Sinn Fein is the oldest political organisation in the country . . . Organised throughout the 32 Counties . . . We have continously rejected the failed political entities of the Six and 26 Counties in existence since the British partitioned our country . . .
ORGANISATION
Republican Sinn Féin head office, 223 Parnell St, Dublin 1 Republican Sinn Féin is organised throughout the 32 Counties of Ireland with cumainn (branches) in England and Scotland and supporters in North America and Australia. Republican Sinn Féin's head office, Teach Dáithà Ó Conaill (Dáithà Ó Conaill House), is located at 223 Parnell St, Dublin 1 (Tel. 8729747; Fax. 8729757). It's Belfast office is 229 Falls Road, Belfast, BT12 6FB (Tel. 90319004; Fax. 90319863) It has a newspaper Saoirse - Irish Freedom, The Voice of the Republican Movement, which is published every month, in print and on the Internet. Republican Sinn Féin is barred from contesting local government elections in the Six Counties because of the political test oath imposed by Margaret Thatchers British government in 1989. It does however contest local elections in the 26 Counties.
JUSTICE
Republican Sinn Féin campaigns for a just settlement to the conflict in Ireland. It is our belief that a key ingredient missing from the Stormont Agreement is justice for all the Irish people. The "solution", so-called, leaves the people in the 26 Counties stranded in a neo-colonial State, which by nature is heavily centralised (it is only now seeming to go contrary to its centralist nature at the behest of its European masters in order to receive maximum grant aid), with a political system contaminated beyond repair by an ethos of cronyism. In the Six Counties a new assembly is being set up; a successor to the old Stormont parliament which was overthrown by the peoples struggle in 1972. The added prop to the new British assembly, which was missing from the old parliament, is the active participation of nationalist parties. This agreement, if it runs its course, promises many more decades of working class alienation and institutionalisd sectarianism. The sooner it falls, the better.
É:ire Nua, d'Aois Nua
Republican Sinn Féin's proposal for a just settlement in Ireland is ÉIRE NUA (New Ireland) -- A four province federal Ireland, with a self-governing parliament in each of the four provinces: the nine-county Ulster, Connacht, Munster and Leinster. Each of these parliaments would deal with the governing of their province as part of the objective of the creation of an Ireland of self-governing communities in which people will control their own affairs.
This involves the total re-structuring of local government in this island, not only in administration but also in the nature and functions of local authorities themselves. This re-structuring would be on four levels in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity of function:
1. VOLUNTARY COMMUNITY COUNCILS for every 1,500-6,000 people in urban and rural areas with the right of audience at all District Council meetings.
2. DISTRICT COUNCILS: This basic unit of statutory
government would serve the needs of communities of 10,000-40,000 (depending on local variations) and would have charge of public services to individuals and families in the sphere of social welfare, education, labour guidance, trading and employment practics, housing, planning permission, agriculture and fishing, small industry development etc.
3. REGIONAL COUNCILS: These would concern themselves with (a) public services with a high technological content, eg hospitals, major roads, telcommunications and third level education; (b) collection of local revenue and (c) economic, physical and educational planning.
4. PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLIES: The provincial legislature would allocate funds to the Regional Councils and co-ordinate regional plans.
Each district would have a local government office where the citizens could conduct all their normal business -- housing, agricultural, grants and information on the social services -- all under one roof in a local town within an hour's drive of each and every citizen. In this way the citizens, with proper training at school, could do all their own business rather than be "beholden" to politicians. Within a special Gaeltacht Region, there would be a local office (as above) in each Gaeltacht district.
There would be a National Parliament, which Republican Sinn Féin proposes placing in Athlone -- the geographic centre of Ireland. The National Parliament would deal with Foreign Affairs and Defence.
The motive behind the Federal proposal is to be fair to all sections of the country. The Republican struggle is against the domination of Ireland by the British State. The people who are currently described as Unionist are a part of the Irish nation. Their concerns about domination by Dublin in a unitary State of all Ireland should be listened to, and are in fact shared by the so-called 'peripheral' regions in the 26-County area.