FG commemorates Griffith's founding of SF

Fine Gael has "as much right as any other party and more than most" to celebrate the centenary of the foundation of Sinn Féin, according to party leader Enda Kenny.

He was speaking at a special commemoration in the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday, to pay tribute to Arthur Griffith, who founded Sinn Féin 100 years ago today.

Speaking before the special seminar, Mr Kenny denied that Fine Gael was trying to "outdo" Fianna Fáil in "reclaiming the republic" from Sinn Féin.

He was not concerned about that, and said that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were inheritors of the legacy of Arthur Griffith, who also founded Cumann na nGaedheal.

The centenary seminar follows Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's announcement last month that military parades would be reinstated to mark the 1916 Easter Rising.

He told about 100 people at the seminar that it was a "fiction too far" for Sinn Féin to claim a sole connection or any connection "to the patriots who founded the party 100 years before. Compare the non-violent philosophy, the probity, the sheer nobility of Sinn Féin leader Arthur Griffith, with those present-day leaders who promoted, or at least tolerated murder, punishment beatings, racketeering, kidnapping, extortion and the biggest bank raid in the British Isles as part of their peacetime activities".

He said that "Arthur Griffith's Sinn Féin was committed to a policy of non-violent action. Fine Gael is proud to bear that legacy. And there have been times in Ireland's history when we and Labour were the only major political parties that did".

At the conference, Dr Michael Laffan, head of history and archives at UCD said that most parties in the Republic could claim descent or connection with Griffith's Sinn Féin. He said that depending on one's viewpoint Sinn Féin was like a cat on its fifth or sixth life, or a "chameleon".

Historian and Griffith biographer Brian Maye said that while the name Sinn Féin was attributed to Mary Butler, who was active in the Gaelic League, it had been around since the 1880s. Arthur Griffith was attracted to it because "it ideally captured the notion of self-reliance", that Ireland "didn't need to depend on anyone else".

One member of the audience pointed out that the SDLP was the only party that came from non-violent activity.