Left Archive: Sinn Féin Policy Document, c.1994

To download the above please click on the following link. SF POLICY DOC

Please click here to go the Left Archive.

Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.

This document from Sinn Féin which undated appears to have been produced around 1994 – given that it mentions both the 1992 abortion referendum and calls for the introduction ‘of divorce in the 26 counties’. 25 pages long it outlines SF policy across all areas including Women, Economy,Prisoners – Political Hostages, the European Community and so on.

It notes in the introduction that:

The prerequisite for a lasting peace in Ireland is the existence of democracy. Without democracy there can be no settlement, no economic stability, no end to injustice or part ion. The denial of national democracy creates the donations for conflict, perpetuates injustice and division and deprives the Irish people, North and South, of a free and open society in which economic prosperity and social equality can be achieved.

It argues that:

The primary task facing the Irish people today is the resolution to he national question and the establishment of an Irish democracy in which the Irish people as awhile can decide their future.

And that:

SF’s pursuit of peace through dialogue, discussion and debate, in private and in public, with a range of groups and individuals across the political and religious spectrum have borne fruit in the current national and international concentration on the issue of peace in Ireland. Most significant of all has been the dialogue between our president Gerry Adams and the SDLP leader John Hume.

In April 1992, as a result of their discussions, they issued a joint statement which accepted that the most pressing issue facing the people of Ireland and Britain today is the question of lasting peace and how it can best be achieved. The statement accepted that ‘an internal settlement is not a solution’ and that ‘the Irish people as a whole have a right to national self-determination’.

Given its publication at a pivotal time in relation to political developments on the island of Ireland this is provides a clear insight into developments in the thinking of that party.