SF growth a banker, says Ó Caoláin
For the leader of its five TDs in the Dáil, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, it's another milestone on the party's inexorable march towards the mainstream of Irish politics.
"It's great progress it's been great being a part of that development. It could have gone the other way. But through all the long and difficult years, through a concerted and first-class leadership, Sinn Féin has now moved to centre-stage of political life in the island of Ireland. It's hugely important."
Ó Caoláin, a 49-year-old TD for Cavan-Monaghan, speaks with the measured, precise and thoughtful tones of a civil servant or solicitor.
His background, however, was as a bank official in the Bank of Ireland, where he took up employment after leaving school. He rose to the position of senior bank official, but his increasingly visible role in politics during the hunger strikes was something that didn't sit comfortably with his public position in the banking sector.
"There would have been one or two mild exchanges about the issue. I've no doubt that there was an unholy sign of relief from my employers when I tendered my resignation," he smiles.
Sinn Féin's breakthrough in last year's general election, increasing their Dáil representation from one to five, was remarkable. However, the bigger parties sought to discredit it through allegations that much of the support was based on direct community action or vigilantism.
Others say the party's sole strategy was to systematically target disaffected urban voters marginalised by the political system. Ó Caoláin rejects these points and says the reasons for Sinn Féin's breakthrough are manifold, but boil down to the party presenting a genuine alternative to the indistinguishable platforms offered by others.
"Everyone attributes our success to the peace process, but that alone wouldn't have been enough to dramatically change the public perception of Sinn Féin.
"People's understanding of the party changed not just because of the peace process, but after the lifting of Section 31, they were hearing Sinn Féin spokespersons offer public analysis of their policies, articulate their position; they were able to hear us in debate and discussion.
"The penny was dropping people were taking on board that Sinn Féin were offering a very reasonable position, their policies were relevant to the daily life of people. People developed a comfort factor and that grew from trust, to respect, to support."
He also pours cold water on the allegations of vigilantism that were thrown around in north Kerry by the established parties during the election.
"I reject vigilantism in any shape or guise it has no role in what we do, it never had any role in any of the political functions that I have pursued. We don't countenance it and wouldn't under any circumstances.
"Sinn Féin of course bring an energy to politics we have a passion for our politics. We believe our political engagement will help lead to the goals that we have set ourselves: a democratic, pluralist, secular all-Ireland republic. "Politics is about giving energetic service, and if we make a greater effort, then we deserve the wider consideration of the electorate."
Ó Caoláin's interest in the republican movement drew from a number of sources, but not from his immediate family.
His father and mother were Fianna Fáil supporters, although a cousin of his mother's, Fergal O'Hanlon, was a member of the IRA who died along with Seán South of Limerick in the 1950s.
The unfolding situation in the North in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cavan-Monaghan bombings, and the H-Block campaign all contributed to his republican outlook.
But he says he was never drawn to the IRA and saw politics as the way forward.
"I was very conscious of the course he (Fergal O'Hanlon) had taken. It wasn't a course I felt was appropriate to myself, but political activism in seeking to achieve the same goals was very strong in my consciousness.
"The genesis of this was the hunger strike of 1980-'81. I was active in the H-Block in Armagh campaign, in support of the prisoners' demands. I was director of elections for Kieran Doherty, who was elected as TD for Cavan Monaghan in 1981 and died subsequently while on hunger strike.
"He was a young Belfast man who I never met and had probably never visited Cavan-Monaghan in his lifetime. That was my introduction to political life.
"I wrestled with my conscience from that period. Here was a young man from my own time willing to give his life, as he was with others, and I had the inner battle between the selfishness of putting career before what I felt very strongly about myself." He first stood for election in 1984 when he was one of the three Sinn Féin candidates in the Connacht-Ulster constituency for the European parliamentary elections.
A year later he topped the poll in his home territory of North Monaghan, beginning an unbroken 20-year stint as public representative for the area.
The party machine in Cavan-Monaghan has since been built up into a formidable force, with some 23 councillors across the constituency outpolling Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's combined support in some areas.
Ó Caoláin has twice topped the poll in the general election, having been first elected to the Dáil in 1997.
If the party is so active locally, some ask whether Sinn Fein is a participant in what's seen of one of the major failures of the Irish political system: focusing on local issues to the detriment of national politics.
"It's important that while local politics informs you well, it pulls you back from what you're meant to be: a legislator. I look forward to developing out that role and coming to greater terms to the primary focus of what is means to be a TD, and that is legislating."
Now that the party has a greater presence in the Dáil, he says they form part of the real opposition. He is scathing of Fine Gael, who is says are virtually indistinguishable from Fianna Fáil, but has more time for Labour, the Greens and some of the
Independents. He says Sinn Féin will only keep growing and says they will secure even greater gains in the next election.
"The message is they key. The packaging, in terms of our candidates, shows there's clearly a youthful vigour about the Sinn Féin team. I think that is being empathised with by more and more young people. I think the new body of support that Sinn Féin will enjoy will come from the young people of Ireland. I think we'll double our numbers in the next election there as many constituencies again as we have here that will return Sinn Féin TDs in the next election. We'll be ready."
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