Q&A: The ramification of Sinn Féin's contact with hardline republican group Saoradh

The paramilitary contingent at the Saoradh Easter Rising March on Easter Monday in Derry.

Q. What’s this about Sinn Féin reaching out to a hardline republican group? 

A. The Sunday Times published an article saying that Sinn Féin had approached Saoradh, a hardline republican group linked to paramilitary organisation the New IRA about joining a wider political campaign to get a Border poll for Irish unity in the North.

Q. What’s the problem with that? 

A. For some people the problem is because of Saoradh’s strong links with the New IRA. Some senior members of the grouping have been accused, and have even been charged, of being in the terror group.

The letter from Sinn Féin, sent in late 2020, was less than two years after 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was fatally shot in Derry. The New IRA admitted responsibility for what it said was an accidental shooting. Sinn Féin has condemned the shooting.

Q. Any wider reaction? 

A. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said it highlights how the party’s number one priority is an Irish unity referendum. Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill defended the decision to reach out to Saoradh, saying it was motivated by a desire to move dissident republicans away from violence towards peaceful politics.

The sister of Lyra McKee was very critical of the article and its timing.

“I would question the timing of the publication of this letter (given that it is over two years old) and the links to my murdered sister," said Nichola McKee. "I view this as exploitation of Lyra’s murder for political purposes in the run-up to the election and I find this entirely reprehensible.” 

Q. Is someone playing politics here? 

A. Northern Ireland Assembly elections are on May 5. Sinn Féin is doing well in the polls and set to be the largest political party, with obvious concerns for unionists. It does pose the question, who leaked the letter and why now?

Q. Why would Sinn Féin need some fringe group? 

A. Well, this is not clear. Some observers suspect Sinn Féin sent this letter out to a number of republican political groups and community organisations as part of its push for a Border poll. Experts assess Saoradh as being a very small group. With the shooting of Ms McKee, the group is thought to have lost a lot of support in republican circles. After that, in August 2020, many of its senior members were arrested as part of a PSNI investigation into the activities on the New IRA, in an operation involving searches by gardaí in the south. The emergence of a suspected MI5 agent Dennis McFadden also hit Saoradh and the New IRA, amid speculation he may not be the only one.

Q. So, how big is Saoradh now? 

A. Experts roughly estimate there are 30 to 50 active members in Derry and that they account for around half of all Saoradh activists. It did hold an Easter rally in Derry, which attracted a larger crowd than some observers expected. 

There is a harder-to-estimate passive support for Saoradh with a spectrum of anti-Sinn Féin republicans in Derry. The group is said to be very weak in Belfast with a few people in Dublin, including chairman Brian Kenna, a former IRA Portlaoise prisoner.

Q. Where does this story go from here? 

A. Given the intervention of Lyra McKee's sister, maybe not very far.