Professor/Political Activist & PDR Posse Leader Briege McP visited with us to refute an article that compared the Republican Party to Sinn Fein.
Briege McP sets the record straight.
Briege McP recently read an article on the Coffee Party USA Facebook page. She was taken aback because she thought it mischaracterized the real struggles in Northern Ireland as it equated the MAGA Republican Party with Sinn Fein.
In the Dispatch article titled “Is the Republican Party Becoming the Sinn Féin of America?” the first two paragraphs were justifiably problematic to her.
For decades, Sinn Féin, a political party in Northern Ireland, acted as the political arm of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), a terrorist group fighting to end British rule in Northern Ireland. The two groups were formally separate but shared the same goals and, sometimes, overlapping membership. Sinn Féin pursued Irish irredentism through the political process, including by running for and winning seats in the British and Northern Irish parliaments. The IRA pursued the same goals through intimidation, assassination, and bombings.
The arrangement gave Sinn Féin an edge in political bargaining. They could present themselves as relatively moderate compared to the murderers on their side. Sinn Féin could always argue that if it did not get its way, frustration would boil over and fuel the IRA’s terrorist campaign. IRA violence hung like a Damocles’ sword, an ever-present threat, a heckler’s veto over northern Irish politics. If the political process didn’t produce outcomes favorable to their cause, it could always pivot to terrorism. In exchange, Sinn Féin gave political representation and ideological legitimacy to the IRA. The Sinn Féin-IRA alliance enabled the republican side to have its cake and eat it too: I tried to play fair, but look what you made me do.
While Briege agrees partially that Sinn Fein had the IRA on the side, it is essential to know that there were two sides to the IRA.
“One more political, one more violent,” Briege wrote. “Yet, both socialists, as is Sein Fein. The GOP is not socialist. But to compare our current GOP and the people like the Proud boys or the like would not be Sein Fein and the IRA. Although those people do believe they are fighting for the freedom of their country, they are not. Nor are the GOP. Apples and Oranges. It’s more like maybe Martin Luther King and BLM. When fighting an army with just regular people, things happen. The army is not blamed for the murder they do, but armed, well-formed citizens are. “
Briege then points out a reality that gets hidden by corporate media. The assumed good guys carry out many atrocities attributed to groups purported to be terrorists. If we understand the genesis of America and our not-so-good-deeds with slavery, native genocide, and extraction from third-world countries that maimed and killed, we should pause and display some humility and understanding to those who are fighting against their oppressors — often by all means necessary.
Following is the rebuttal that Briege McP sent me. I thought an interview was in order as sometimes it is necessarily more expressive.
Please listen to the entire interview.
