Abstentionism
Abstentionism is the political practice of standing for election to a
In Hungary
When suppressing the
In Ireland
Before partition
After the
In 1845, a motion was carried at the
Other early abstentionist advocates included George Sigerson in 1862, and John Dillon in 1878, who envisaged abstentionist Irish MPs meeting in a separate Irish parliament.[6]
From the 1860s, Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) leaders Charles Kickham and John O'Leary favoured abstentionism.[7] In 1869, G. H. Moore suggested nominating imprisoned republicans for election, knowing they were precluded as convicted felons from taking seats.[8] On this basis, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (in 1870) and John Mitchel (twice in 1875) were returned at by-elections in Tipperary; O'Donovan Rossa was in prison at his election, while Mitchel was in exile.
Kickham envisaged a "great national conference" calling on Irish MPs to withdraw from Westminster. A motion to that effect was proposed by
Sinn Féin
The first abstentionist MP elected was Count
In the Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland
The 1921
In 1970, at its
Sinn Féin split in 1986, as in 1970, over whether to take seats in Dáil Éireann. The larger group led by Gerry Adams abandoned abstentionism, while Republican Sinn Féin (RSF), led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, retained it. Sinn Féin's first sitting Teachta Dála was Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, elected in Cavan–Monaghan at the 1997 general election.
RSF has retained the policy of abstentionism from both Dáil Éireann and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
In Northern Ireland
After Partition, most non-abstentionist parties in the southern state did not organise at all in Northern Ireland. In early 1922, the
Abstentionism
The
From 1953, Stormont candidates were required to take the British oath of allegiance before standing, precluding Sinn Féin from doing so.[37] This did not apply at Westminster elections, where Sinn Féin often gave non-Sinn Féin abstentionist nationalists a free run to avoid splitting the nationalist vote, but conversely fielded a spoiler candidate against non-abstentionist nationalists.[37]
The
Sinn Féin adopted the "Armalite and ballot box strategy" in 1981, and first contested modern elections in Northern Ireland with the 1982 Assembly elections, from which they abstained. The 1983 ardfheis resolved to take seats in the European Parliament, as the 1985 ardfheis did for that year's local elections.[40] Sinn Féin abstained from the Northern Ireland Forum.
Since the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, both the SDLP and Sinn Féin have taken their seats in that body. SDLP MPs have consistently taken their seats in Westminster, in contrast to Sinn Féin MPs, who refuse to take their seats there. Sinn Féin MPs believe that as British political institutions should play no part in governing the people of Ireland, they as MPs should not make decisions on behalf of British people.[41]
Fianna Fáil's sole Stormont election came
After the
In the United Kingdom
Part of a series on |
Left communism |
---|
Some British political activists were themselves inspired by Sinn Féin's policy of abstentionism, one of which was the Glaswegian anarcho-communist Guy Aldred, who advised the Scottish socialist politician John Maclean to adopt the "Sinn Féin tactic" during the 1918 United Kingdom general election, citing a passage from The Civil War in France in which Karl Marx charged that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made State machinery, and wield it for its own purposes". Aldred proposed the fielding of communist candidates on an abstentionist platform, outlining that:[47]
Successful candidates would not go to parliament, but would remain in their constituencies till they had a
Aldred additionally proposed the organisation of an
In Canada
Following the
See also
- Disappearing quorum
- Irish republican legitimatism
- Oath of Allegiance (UK)
- Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)
- Testimonial party
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8179-4492-6.
- JSTOR 25106060.
- ISBN 0-7171-1543-7.
- ^ Davis, p. 122
- ^ Davis, p. 256
- ^ a b Lydon 1998, p. 325
- ^ McGee 2005, p. 39
- ^ McGee, pg. 43
- ^ McGee, pg.48
- ^ McGee, pg. 42–43
- ^ McGee, pp. 49–50
- ISBN 978-1-84588-698-1.
- ^ McGee, p. 53
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 33–34
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 49–50
- ISBN 9780191556838.; Hughes, Paul. "The MP for Ireland: Laurence Ginnell and 1916". Century Ireland. Raidió Telefís Éireann. Archivedfrom the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 53
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 97
- ISBN 9781139426299. Archivedfrom the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- ^ Lydon, p. 343.
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 63
- S2CID 191810580.
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 112
- ^ "Irish Labour Party won't take seats if elected". Century Ireland. RTÉ. 28 September 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
- ^ a b Feeney 2002, pp. 130–131
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 168–170, 174
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 135
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 156–7, 168–9
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 158–160
- ISBN 978-0-7165-2943-9.
- ^ "Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the provisional government from Provisional Government Minutes". Documents on IRISH FOREIGN POLICY. 30 January 1922. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-906221-00-6.
In 1934 Stormont banned Sinn Fein from taking part in local elections, since it refused to take an oath to attend sessions.
- )
- ^ "Contributions by Mr Cahir Healy". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
- ^ Kelly, Conal (1 June 2007). "Fermanagh and South Tyrone 1950–1970". Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
Healy, who had previously been elected on an abstentionist ticket, would ultimately take up his seat at Westminster in 1952.
- ISSN 0955-2359.
- ^ a b Feeney 2002, p. 199
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 308–10
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp. 316–7
- ^ Feeney 2002, p. 328
- ^ Maskey, Paul (6 March 2018). "I'm a Sinn Féin MP. This is why I won't go to Westminster, even over Brexit". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ "When Dev stood for Stormont". Clare Champion. December 2003. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-7165-3186-9.
- ^ O'Halloran, Marie (22 March 2014). "Fianna Fáil leader confirms party will run candidates in the North in 2019". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 22 March 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
- ^ Breen, Suzanne (26 September 2016). "Hardline republicanism shows public face with Saoradh launch at swish hotel". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
- ^ Lonergan, Aidan (9 June 2017). "Gerry Adams confirms Sinn Féin will not swear allegiance to the Queen to take Westminster seats". Irish Post. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 7.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 9.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 12.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 11.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 19.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 94.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 15.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 198–199.
- ^ "PQ MNAs denied access to the legislature amid oath dispute". Montreal Gazette. 2 December 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
General and cited sources
- Feeney, Brian (2002). Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years. O'Brien Press. ISBN 978-0-86278-770-7.
- Lydon, James F. (1998). The Making of Ireland: From Ancient Times to the Present. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01347-X.
- McGee, Owen (2005). The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Féin. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-972-5.
- Shipway, Mark (1988). Anti-Parliamentary Communism: The Movement for Workers' Councils in Britain, 1917–45. .
Further reading
- Jung, Theo (2018). "Auftritt durch Austritt. Debattenboykotts als parlamentarische Praxis in Großbritannien und Frankreich (1797–1823)". Archiv für Sozialgeschichte. 58: 37–67. ISSN 0066-6505.
- Lynn, Brendan (2002). "Tactic or Principle? The Evolution of Republican Thinking on Abstentionism in Ireland, 1970-1998". Irish Political Studies. 17 (2): 74–94. S2CID 143901459.
- Pyne, Peter (1974). "The politics of parliamentary abstentionism: Ireland's four Sinn Fein parties, 1905–1926". The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 12 (2): 206–227. ISSN 0306-3631.
External links
- "Abstentionism". Conflict Archive on the Internet. Retrieved 14 January 2008. "Information on the issue of Abstentionism, particularly the debate that took place at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin on 1–2 November 1986"