Abstract
Sinn Féin is currently the largest party in terms of vote share on both sides of the Irish border, and opinion polling shows it as the most popular party in the Republic of Ireland with a good chance of leading the next government. How this unusual party has moved into the mainstream of politics in two separate jurisdictions is a story worth telling; and Aoife Moore’s book does provide a fascinating glimpse into the internal workings of a party that is known for its message discipline and mistrust of outsiders. Unfortunately, it is just a glimpse. Moore’s preface gives an account of Sinn Féin’s obstruction of her research (p. ix–xiv). This is surprising as Moore is one of the few prominent Irish journalists who is likely to be sympathetic to Sinn Féin aims given that she is young, working class, from Derry, and her uncle was killed on Bloody Sunday. Other mainstream parties have understood the importance of fostering ‘the party in the media’ (Bale, 2023: 168), but Sinn Féin’s historic suspicion of the press, combined with a rabidly anti-republican print media, means that the party views any coverage outside its control as potential sabotage. Moore’s personal hurt from the shunning of Sinn Féin members is palpable from the book (p. xi).
Like Carroll’s (2023) recent book on the Brighton bomb, Moore uses fascinating biographical vignettes to provide an accessible history of recent politics. For instance, her account of Michelle O’Neill - who is vice-president of Sinn Féin and will become First Minister if the Northern Ireland Assembly is restored - is especially insightful into how the party mentors young talent (p. 177–179). Other reviewers have made much of the revelation that Martin McGuinness wanted Gerry Adams to temporarily step down as leader due to his poor handling of the sexual abuse perpetrated by his brother against his niece (e.g., McGee, 2023; Murphy, 2023). But for future scholars, perhaps the most interesting accounts come from anonymous party sources commenting on Sinn Féin’s inner workings during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations (p. 72–76), the internal party debate on abortion (p. 207–218), and the dismantling of the Martina Anderson political network in Derry (p. 235–250).
For example, Moore shows how the party’s policy shift towards a woman’s ‘right to choose’ (at least, in the first three months of pregnancy) was driven by a younger generation of women activists within the party, many from the South (p. 212). Also, it was Mary Lou McDonald - the president of Sinn Féin and leader of the party in Dáil Éireann - who decided that something needed to be done about the party in Derry and instructed a fact-finding mission to discover why Sinn Féin was losing support (p. 242). When reports came back that the network around Martina Anderson (a prominent Sinn Féin politician and former IRA volunteer) was viewed in the city as too nepotistic, remote, and arrogant, the party did not hesitate to replace them with a younger generation of activists (p. 249). That someone with Anderson’s republican pedigree can be summarily demoted points to how in Sinn Féin ‘the cause’ still matters more than personal fiefdoms or the individual’s career. But both events indicate how decision-making power in the party is moving away from Belfast and former IRA volunteers, and towards a younger Dublin-based leadership that is intent on using the levers of the Irish state to facilitate a United Ireland.
However, an analysis of this intra-party democracy is oddly lacking in Moore’s work, and she does not adequately explain the factors that have led Sinn Féin to gain the support of a plurality of voters, North and South. Electoral success in the South is part of Sinn Féin’s long-term strategy for achieving a United Ireland (Bean, 2007: 254), so a greater focus on its breakthrough election campaign of 2020 could have added to our understanding of Sinn Féin as an electoral force. Also, Moore does not address how this unusual party (i.e., one party, two jurisdictions) takes advantage of the external opportunities created by the Great Recession, Brexit, and the housing crisis. Furthermore, why does a policy agenda that combines moderate social democratic policy solutions with an anti-systemic discourse currently appeal to a plurality of voters on the island of Ireland? A greater focus on these structural factors behind Sinn Féin’s rise would be welcome. However, Moore’s work manages to be both interesting and accessible for the general reader, while still providing valuable insight into the inner workings of Sinn Féin for political scholars.
