The so-called “draft dodgers” within the Irish republican movement are in danger of having their political power base eroded by undisciplined Provisional IRA activists who have never fully embraced decommissioning or disbandment.
The term “draft dodgers” refers to Sinn Fein politicians who have never served an apprenticeship in the republican movement’s military wing, the Provisional IRA.
Sinn Fein’s problem is that following decommissioning, it did not convert the terrorist Irish Republican Army into an old comrades Irish Republican Association. Now the terrorist chickens have come home to roost, especially in Belfast in recent weeks, with the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirming that the terror wing of the republican movement has been involved in murder.
It’s not the responsibility of the Unionist parties to fix this mess IRA terrorists have created. The onus is with Sinn Fein to set its electoral machine for the next Dail general election to one side, and focus on the much-needed practical step necessary to defuse the Stormont impasse.
A generation of young republicans is emerging for whom the 1994 IRA ceasefire and even the 1998 Good Friday Agreement are the stuff of history books.
If Sinn Fein is to prove that it is a truly democratic movement, the test will be that it will not allow next year’s Easter Rising centenary commemorations to deteriorate into a massive recruitment drive for a new republican terror faction.
The threat posed by dissident republican terrorists is very real. Sinn Fein has replaced its former battle cry of “The ballot paper in one hand with the Armalite rifle in the other” with “The ballot paper in one hand and the honours degree in the other”.
This may seem a sound democratic policy on paper, but the reality in the working class republican heartlands is that – to quote Sinn Fein president and Louth TD Gerry Adams – the IRA haven’t gone away, you know.
Sinn Fein needs to implement an old comrades’ association to keep existing Provisional terrorists under a tight rein and, equally significantly, prevent a generation of young republicans turning to violence.
Ever since the formation of Sinn Fein in 1905, the republican mindset has been eventually to resort to violence. This is the danger of the so-called blood sacrifice which was spawned by Easter Rising leader Padraig Pearse in 1916.
This resorting to terrorism was sparked again in 1919 when IRA leader Dan Breen started the War of Independence when he murdered two policemen during the notorious Soloheadbeg Ambush.
Then, in 1922, republican butchered republican in the Irish Civil War when Free State forces executed more IRA men than the British killed during the War of Independence.
The IRA’s 1956-62 border campaign was defeated by the B Specials, preventing the IRA from spreading its campaign beyond the border counties across Ulster – a mistake the Provisionals did not make throughout the Troubles in the 1970s until the IRA ceasefire of 1994.
Sinn Fein also has to contend with the republican ethos of fragmentation. The Provisional IRA as a movement may be on official ‘ceasefire’, but Sinn Fein has been unable to prevent defections or new blood being recruited by the various dissident factions, such as the Continuity IRA, Real IRA, New IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann.
Sinn Fein must recognise the extent of the organisational cancer which is spreading through the republican family. If it is genuine about wanting to save both the peace process and the Stormont Assembly, it must create a vehicle of communication for its ex-terrorists, otherwise the crisis will worsen as the “draft dodgers” do not have the same level of influence over militant republicans as the politicians from the Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness era.
The solution is not to see Sinn Fein develop into a dark green version of Fianna Fail, or the now defunct Irish Independence Party.
Sinn Fein must take the bull by the horns and maintain discipline with the broad republican family. Only then will Unionists be able to have any degree of trust in the party