REPUBLICANS SHOULD discuss and debate their own political history as well as their place in Irish history in general, Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Speaking in Dublin at the launch last night of Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanismby Eoin Ó Broin, former director of the party's European department, she said: "It is important that we participate in the broader conversation with historians and political commentators beyond the republican family."
Mr Ó Broin, a Sinn Féin candidate in the local elections for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council, said: “Sinn Féin has been one of the central architects of the peace process and is increasingly setting the terms of political debate in Ireland north and south. Despite this, the party remains much misunderstood and often misrepresented.
“It is the left republican tradition started by Connolly and continued by Mellows, Gilmore, O’Donnell, the Republican Congress, Clann na Poblachta and even the Workers’ Party to which we belong.
“While our history has seen many successes, it has also seen many failures. Honestly understanding our past is vital if we are to understand the limitations of our present and to achieve our objectives in the future.
“Sinn Féin’s future must be a left republican future, taking our place in the globally resurgent radical democratic left of Europe, Latin America and the wider world.”