A group of Sinn Fein members in Cork who have started campaigning for a No vote in the May 22nd referendum on the Belfast Agreement yesterday denied that they were in breach of party policy.
They belong to a group calling itself the Irish Freedom Campaign, which put up Vote No posters all over Cork city centre at the weekend and which is based at the Sinn Fein office in the Ahern/Crowley Memorial Hall in Barrack Street.
According to Mr James McBarron, a Sinn Fein spokesman who is also a spokesman for the group, the campaign is a broadbased, independent, non-party political grouping which includes others apart from Sinn Fein members.
It was established during the first IRA ceasefire to lobby on prisoners and other issues and was now being reactivated to lobby for a No vote in the referendum as part of its campaign for national self-determination for the Irish people, he said.
According to the campaign - which is active only in Cork - a No vote is a stance against partition, the insertion of a unionist veto into the Irish Constitution and British rule in the six counties.
Mr McBarron denied that calling for a No vote in the referendum was contrary to Sinn Fein policy, pointing out that the party had still to decide (its reconvened ardfheis will be held on May 10th) its position in the referendum.
"Several possible combinations may emerge at the ardfheis, such as a Yes vote in the North and a No vote in the South, but as regards the South there are three possible outcomes: a Yes vote, a No vote or a free vote."
"We can't anticipate which of these the party will decide on and until we do, then it's purely hypothetical to speculate," he said.
But Mr McBarron - who spoke against a Yes vote at the April 18th ardfheis - said he hoped that Sinn Fein would tolerate a range of views on the referendum.
He stressed there was a key difference between Sinn Fein membership of the Irish Freedom Campaign and the dissident 32-County Sovereignty Movement, in that the latter had publicly criticised the party leadership.
He refused to be drawn on whether Sinn Fein members of the campaign would work for a Yes vote in the South if the ardfheis backs such a decision. "We just have to wait and see what the position is after the ardfheis." Cork Sinn Fein has tabled three motions for the ardfheis, one from the Traolach Mac Suibhne Cumman in the city and two from Cork City Comhairle Ceanntair, but Mr McBarron declined to say what they were until the clar had been published and members were informed.