Opinion

Chris Donnelly: Sinn Féin could have been quicker to read the public mood following Bobby Storey's funeral

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill attending the funeral of senior Irish Republican and former leading IRA figure Bobby Storey in west Belfast
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill attending the funeral of senior Irish Republican and former leading IRA figure Bobby Storey in west Belfast Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill attending the funeral of senior Irish Republican and former leading IRA figure Bobby Storey in west Belfast

The important place of funerals in Irish republicanism was once again brought home last week through the furore surrounding the interment of the veteran Belfast republican, Bobby Storey.

Suffice to say, funerals are of great significance to everyone in our society, regardless of political persuasion, but throughout the history of republican struggle in Ireland, they have taken on a particular significance.

Due to the protracted nature of the Irish republican struggle to achieve its objective of a sovereign and united country, funerals have provided the occasion to visibly demonstrate a commitment to continuing to pursue the cause whilst expressing gratitude to the deceased and solidarity with the bereaved.

Look through republican history and you will find many significant moments where orations were delivered or mass gatherings occurred at funerals that were regarded as seminal moments.

160 years ago, the funeral of Terence Bellew MacManus provided the opportunity for the Fenian movement to arouse national sentiment for the first time since the Great Hunger had decimated the Irish Nation. MacManus was a Fermanagh native who had taken part in the 1848 Young Ireland uprising. Sentenced to death for his role, he was spared execution and banished to Van Diemens Land. He escaped within a few years and made his way to begin a new life in the United States. His death in 1861 was seized upon by the Fenian Brotherhood as an opportunity to galvanise support and his successful repatriation led to a funeral procession attended by up to one hundred thousand along Dublin’s streets.

Half a century later, the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in 1915 was the occasion at which Padraig Pearse would deliver a stirring oration at which he would give a signal as to what was to come a year later when declaring that ‘The Fools have left us our Fenian dead’, serving as a reminder that an unfree Ireland would never be at peace.

In 1917, Michael Collins gave the short and powerful oration at the graveside of Thomas Ashe who had died after being force fed whilst on hunger strike. Ashe was a teacher who had led the rebellion in Ashbourne during Easter Week in 1916. Following release from prison in June 1917, he was rearrested on the charge of delivering a ‘seditious’ speech within two months and sent to Mountjoy Prison, where he began a hunger strike. His death incensed many, and Collins’ approving words after a volley of shots were fired over Ashe’s body provided a stark warning of the future intentions of Republicans as they built towards the War of Independence.

In the modern era, one of the most iconic images from the post-1969 Troubles will forever be the sight of the tens of thousands of mourners gathered at the funeral of Bobby Sands in 1981 giving lie to the notion that republicans were acting without significant public support.

Of course, Bobby Storey’s funeral is different from the aforementioned for a number of important reasons.

Known and revered as a fiercely loyal and dedicated republican through the IRA’s campaign and Sinn Féin’s navigation of a peace and political process, Storey nevertheless died more than 25 years after the IRA ceasefire during a time of peace and renewed power-sharing governance at Stormont, amidst a pandemic crisis and in an era in which republicans are very much part of the political mainstream with very realistic ambitions of playing the lead role in a sovereign Irish government within a handful of years.

The fallout from the funeral was as inevitable as the attendance on the day of the entire Sinn Féin leadership in spite of the lockdown regulations. The reputational damage suffered by Michelle O’Neill, outside of the republican base community, could have been cushioned had the party’s leadership been quicker to read the public mood and demonstrate a degree of contrition for how some aspects of the funeral were handled in the face of albeit predictable howls of outrage from some political opponents.

Sinn Féin did not rise to the position of being Ireland’s most popular political party today without developing a finely honed antenna for public sentiment. This incident will have provided a stark reminder to party strategists that its continued success is contingent upon appealing to and retaining the support of a much broader voting community than simply the core republican base for whom the cries of hypocrisy will not have registered amidst a desire to provide an appropriate send off for a towering figure within Belfast republicanism.