Brendan Behan, the Irish playwright, poet and novelist, said the first item on the agenda of any new Irish republican organisation is “the split”. Since its founding in 1905, Sinn Féin has been bedevilled by splits. There have been so many – some lethal – that the organisation has been through at least seven iterations in the last 117 years, some so radical that it is hotly contested whether today’s party has any connection with Sinn Féin 60 years ago, let alone the original Sinn Féin.
Nevertheless, today’s Sinn Féin (SF) successfully claims the mantle of Irish republicanism. It presents itself as the guardian of the mystical phoenix flame of Irish republicanism, like the mythical bird which gains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
