Sinn Féin Devastated in British Elections
The Sinn Féin party suffered its greatest setback ever at the British general election on April 9, with its president, Gerry Adams, losing his West Belfast seat in Parliament. The election, which restored Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative Party to power, garnered for Sinn Féin the lowest support from Nationalist voters since it began its policy of electoralism in 1982.
Adams was defeated by Joe Hendron, the candidate from Northern Ireland’s Constitutional Nationalists, the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP). Observers are crediting Adams defeat to a number of factors, most prominent the practice of “tactical voting.” by which almost 3,500 Unionists voted for Hendron in the hopes of beating Adams. The Unionists figured that, since there was no way that any Unionist would win the West Belfast seat, they may as well vote for the SDLP candidate so as to defeat Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin supporters have attacked the SDLP over this, saying that the party “stole” the West Belfast seat from the members of the constituency, an argument seemingly supported by the fact that, while Adams lost, he actually managed to hold on to the same share of the vote which he had won with in the last election.
There is concern about the seemingly increasing disillusionment with party politics on behalf of republicans. Sinn Féin started its ballot box campaign after the 1981 hunger strikes, and observers speculate that the militaristic wing, which thinks that the electoral process is a waste of time, is gaining support. This could mean that Republicans in the North, frustrated and disillusioned after 10 years of party politics, will step up the campaigns of violence.
The election was a great victory for the SDLP, which attracted many first-time votes from Catholic Nationalists, obviously impressed with the party’s involvement in the Brooke peace talks, which Sinn Féin has been excluded from because of their refusal to condemn the IRA.
After a high point of 43 percent of the nationalist vote in 1983, Sinn Fein had hovered at about 35 percent.
With the SDLP and Sinn Féin vote taken together, the Nationalist vote was at its highest ever at 260,000, or 33 percent of the total. The overall Unionist vote also increased by nearly 30,000 to 438,000, or 56 percent.
The fear of increased violence on behalf of militaristic Republicans was borne out less than 24 hours after the election, when the largest IRA bomb ever to be exploded on the British mainland went off in London, killing three civilians and wounding 91. Four hours later, a bomb of the same size went off in Northwest London, although the evacuation warning was early enough so that no one was harmed. Although these two attacks must have been planned well before the election, they are still being seen as an increase in the IRA’s campaign.
Disenchantment with the political process among Republicans has been growing for years, largely due to the perception that, no matter how many votes Sinn Féin won, they would still be excluded from political dialogue. Sinn Féin has complained that, despite its progress, the government would throw up every obstacle to deter its success: after Bobby Sands’ parliamentary victory, prisoners were banned from campaigning; voter restrictions were toughened; media censorship of Sinn Féin politics was introduced.
To top off the alienation felt by the North’s nationalist minority, Prime Minister Major appointed controversial former Attorney General Patrick Mayhew to be his new Northern Secretary. As Attorney General, he decided not to prosecute Northern security officers who were charged with covering up in several “shoot-to-kill” cases investigated by British policeman John Stalker in the mid-1980s, and he is seen to be strongly pro-Unionist. His appointment outraged nationalists from both Sinn Féin and the SDLP, and it is feared that his hardline approach might give encouragement to those who have decided that the political process is a dead-end street.
Scheme to use U.S. Taxes for Irish Beef Fraud Uncovered
Since 1986, more than $120 million in United States taxpayers’ money has been donated to the International Fund for Ireland, which is used to develop cross-border projects under the aegis of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The idea has been to aid the Irish economy while helping to patch up its relationship with Britain.
However, a plan to use that money for another purpose, namely to bail out the huge losses dealt in the Goodman Beef scandal, was uncovered recently in a Dublin courtroom. Senior Civil Servant Tom O’Reilly told the Irish government’s Beef Tribunal, which is investigating corruption in the Goodman group, formerly Ireland’s largest beef exporter, that government officials discussed using the IF money to bail out the bankrupt beef group.
Similar to this country’s situation with Savings and Loans Association, Ireland has found itself in a bind over the course of the last year because of the failure of the Goodman group. That group failed largely because millions of dollars of beef shipments to Iraq went unpaid due to the Gulf War. The company had an insurance policy, similar to that held by this country’s S&L’s, set up with the government whereby losses suffered due to export deals would be recovered.
O’Reilly told the court that the government, faced with huge bailout payments, have considered plans to use the IFI money to do so. While the Beef Tribunal continues, it is expected to be damaging to politicians involved in the alleged scandals surrounding the Goodman bailout.
Back in the U.S., reaction from Irish-American groups can be expected to be just as caustic. Many Irish and Irish-Americans have criticized the Fund in the past for what has been seen as its misuse for frivolous enterprises.
Joe Doherty: At Home in the H-Block
Any travel agent will tell you that it is often cheaper to fly from the U.S. to any other European country than it is to fly from the States to Ireland, the European country it is physically closest to.
The reason for this, say airline officials, is that most airlines refuse to fly directly to the country because of what they call awkward and outdated Irish government regulations which stipulate that all trans-Atlantic flights stop at Shannon Airport, in the west of Ireland, before heading on to Dublin. To do so, protest the airlines, is expensive and is also a turn-off to travelers to the capital, whose trips can be lengthened by more than an hour due to the stopover.
And despite this virtual monopoly on the busy U.S. to Ireland route, Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline, reported a loss of over £7 million last year on that route alone. It lost £10 million overall in 1991, its first year without a profit in a decade.
Aer Lingus renewed its call on the government to scrap the Shannon stopover, which they say is forcing many potential customers to opt for the often cheaper route of flying a competitive rate into London and doubling back for Dublin. A direct route from Los Angeles to Dublin is just one of the things which Aer Lingus says it would do if the stopover is scrapped.
Tourism officials have also called for an end to the stopover, which they see as a relic from the days before airline deregulation. U.S. tourists would be more likely to head for Ireland rather than other European countries, if they could choose to go directly to Dublin at a reduced fare.
However, keeping the stopover alive is the huge number of people from the west of Ireland who protest that an end to the Shannon stopover would mean an end to the entire region, because airlines would then bypass Shannon altogether. Thirty thousand people took to the streets of Limerick City recently to demonstrate against moves against the stopover.
The west, which is already the worst-hit area of the country’s recession, would suffer a fatal blow, with a loss of 20,000, say the stopover supporters.
Many powerful government figures are known to be against the stopover, but ironically, the one most directly involved with the upcoming government ruling on the issue is Transport Minister Maire Geoghan Quinn, who is from Galway, in the west. She criticized Aer Lingus’ complaints regarding their revenue loss on the trans-Atlantic route, saying that it cannot entirely be blamed on Shannon. Instead, she said, the future of Aer Lingus “depended on them getting their own act together.”
The government has been investigating the issue, and a decision on the stopover is expected before the summer.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the May 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦
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