Elaine Loughlin: Sinn Féin's challenge is to keep supporters north and south on the one road

Sinn Féin has long expressed solidarity with Palestine. It previously called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and voted to this effect in the Dáil in 2021.

Back in 2020, it hosted a Voices of Palestine webinar which included a contribution from Hamas representative Basem Naim.

“We don’t have a relationship with Hamas,” Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin insisted when pressed by reporters this week.

But most interesting is the perceived U-turn on the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, which curiously came immediately after McDonald attended meetings in the North where the party had taken significant flak over its stance.

Unlike Solidarity-PBP and others who immediately demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, over the bombardment of Gaza, Sinn Féin initially took a more muted response by instead calling for a ceasefire.

Being a party of protest does not tally with entering government and the slow but steady move to a more considered approach has been under way for some time now.

Grassroots SF supporters protest  

But many party members felt the approach taken on Israel was out of sync with the strong pro-Palestine stance Sinn Féin has maintained down the years. Ó Broin told the media: 

Like any of these issues, there are mixed views, there are people who think that the call for the expulsion of the ambassador was the right thing to do, some people thought it should be done earlier, some people aren’t sure. 

Grassroots anger peaked after a vote in Belfast City Hall last Wednesday week when, instead of voting with the SDLP, Greens, and People Before Profit on a motion to expel the ambassador, Sinn Féin’s 22 councillors abstained.

One TD this week privately admitted being “surprised” at “where we landed” on the motion, stating that voting in favour would have been the obvious Sinn Féin move.

Another said Palestine is an issue that supporters are both “emotionally” and “ideologically” attached to, meaning it will always be the subject of discussion and debate. One TD said: 

These are big calls. You’re trying to make a balanced decision and meanwhile your activists, who are very connected to this issue, are watching this stuff. A lot of our people have been over to Palestine.

The day after the vote, in what was seen as another provocative move, PBP-Solidarity’s four TDs and MLA Gerry Carroll published an open letter appealing directly to Sinn Féin grassroots “not to go along with this reversal of a long-standing position”.

“We recognise, from speaking to Sinn Féin members and seeing the open calls from Ógra Shinn Féin, that this position does not reflect the view of many Sinn Féin members, including those who have been activists for a long time,” the letter stated.

It said the shift in position “sends a very clear message to Biden and the rest of the West: we won’t make this difficult for you”.

As frustration and anger mounted, one of Sinn Féin’s public representatives was heckled at a Belfast protest.

McDonald's calls for a ceasefire

But McDonald remained adamant that demanding a ceasefire was the correct approach.

She was still strongly defending the stance on social media just a few hours before she travelled to Belfast late last week.

In response to one self-proclaimed Sinn Féin supporter who asked to “stop equivocation and publish your reasoning behind abstaining on Israeli ambassador expulsion”, McDonald wrote on Twitter, now rebranded as 'X’: “There’s no equivocation SF solidarity with Palestine is longstanding and rock solid. The absolute urgent priority now and overwhelming political call now is for #CeasefireNOW. That’s the united, shared political call echoing across the world. The question of sanctions will follow.”

Why don't you stop equivocation and publish your reasoning behind abstaining on Israeli ambassador expulsion votes Many SF voters including myself uncomfortable with this policy so SF must give a clear statement as to the reasoning behind it Why is SF ducking questioning on this

— JAMES McGeown (@JAMESMcGeown15) November 2, 2023

What followed for Sinn Féin was a swift change of tack last Friday when McDonald moved to demand the ambassador be expelled until a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is imposed.

Any notion that McDonald was instructed to take a stronger line by those running the show in the North was dismissed by Ó Broin: 

“The party has structures for making decisions, and while we have the Oireachtas team here and Mary Lou is the leader of the party, we also have Assembly members, we also have an international department, as it happened there was a meeting of all of those people on that day.

They took the decision and I think it’s the right decision, particularly of the deteriorating situation in Gaza to move a step further and call for the withdrawal of diplomatic status.

No fuller explanation as to the timing of the shift was provided other than to say the situation has “got worse and worse and worse”.

Having outflanked Sinn Féin on an issue the party is supposed to be strong on, the PBP statement, with its reference to the US and the West, was clearly an opportunistic political jab.

SF now addressing a wider audience

But Sinn Féin is acutely aware that its audience has increased far beyond its own supporters or even those living on the island of Ireland.

The initial stance taken by Sinn Féin could be seen as the political head ruling the activist herd.

One TD noted: “This applies to everything, which is whatever we say now, particularly in the 12 months in the run-up to the general election.

Whatever we say a government should do now, everybody’s going to be saying they are the things we should be doing when we’re in government.

“As the party grows, and the closer we get to the possibility of being in programme-for-government negotiations, every single thing has to be — and rightly so — filtered through ‘if we were in government, are we absolutely sure this is what we would do?’.”

An all-island party does not distinguish between supporters, but should a Dublin-based government be dictated by the views of people who do not vote in this jurisdiction?

This would become an even more acute predicament if Sinn Féin enters power after the next election.

What happens if the direction being taken is deemed unpalatable by the majority of supporters and representatives in Northern Ireland?

Of course, considering the views and outlook of members on both sides of the border could also be considered forward-thinking and simply reflecting one of the core principles of the party — a united Ireland.

Members will also argue that party policy is voted on as a whole at the annual ard fheis.

But when all supporters are viewed as equal, in her actions and words, would Taoiseach McDonald have to give the same weighting to the views of members who don’t live or vote here?

When you have a significant mandate on both sides of the border, you have substantially more plates spinning at any one time.

This weekend, the party once again is united as it meets for its ard fheis in Athlone, but bringing supporters north and south together on issues is going to be something McDonald will have to work hard on, especially if the party is to govern.