>>515041858
>I don't think we will know for a long time what really happened to SF.
I can tell you, anon. It's hidden down there, maybe, but up here we all know it well.
For the first half of the Troubles, the relationship between Sinn Féin and the IRA was that the IRA leads, Sinn Féin follows; electoralism was a waste of time, there was fighting to do. They were ironclad about the "Éire Nua" political policy, which they presented to the Brits multiple times; Britain fucks off, NI+ROI become a Federal Republic (autonomy to appease Unionists). They were even in talks with Loyalist leadership in the late 1970s.
Then a new generation (one lead by Gerry Adams and Co.) show up and think it's all not working. They say:
>we should participate in electoral politics
>AND we should keep the IRA
>the IRA fights, while we campaign
Éire Nua was dropped, Adams ended up in charge. The old leadership left to form "Republican Sinn Féin" and Adams+his mates took over Sinn Féin. The new Sinn Féin just wanted to gain electoral support by any means possible, to try leitimise the movement-and it was these guys who ended up accepting the Good Friday Agreement.
Most of them were already left wing (same as the rest of SF/the IRA) but specifically they just wanted votes at any cost; they overtook the SDLP as the main Irish party in Northern Ireland, and the steady drift toward populist leftism continued. The OG guys (Republican Sinn Féin) are still around, mostly seething about what happened and calling for a retvrn to Éire Nua.
If the Free State/Republic of Ireland political parties are the traitors/stooges of 1922, then Sinn Féin are the equivilant of 1969 (in the eyes of Republican Legitimism.)