Republican News · Thursday 15 August 2002

Rush of applicans to join Dublin Sinn Féin

BY JUSTIN MORAN

The massive increases in Sinn Féin support seen so visibly in the recent election have been mirrored by continuing growth in party membership, to a point where structures are proving inadequate to the task of coping with the mass of applicants, young people in particular, eager to join Sinn Féin.

"In the last year or so we've seen the pace of new member applications increase at an even more accelerated rate," said Dublin Sinn Féin Chairperson Daithí Doolan. "Right now we are processing a large number of membership applications which had to be set to one side as a result of the demands of the election campaign. It just wasn't possible to be running new members' classes and fighting the election at the same time."

It is expected these new members, who will shortly be going through the party's educational structures, will mean an increase of 25% in Dublin Sinn Féin's membership by the end of the year, bringing the number of members in the Dublin City and County region to about 500.

This growth has meant the party has needed to restructure itself to accommodate the changes. "Basically we have to expand the number of party cumainn in Dublin. We had 22 cumainn going into the election, three of them in the colleges, but we're probably going to expand to 28 or 29 by this time next year," said Dublin Organiser Stewart Reddin. "We've already got the Pat Cannon cumann going in Donaghmede and we're in various stages of progress in setting up cumainn in Rathmines, Rathfarnhman, Stoneybatter, Corduff and Lucan. We're looking at other areas too. This kind of growth also means expansion of the Cúige Officer Board to bring in more people from some areas we did particularly well in during the elections and to cope with the increased workload."

These new cumainn will be key to Sinn Féin's progress in the capital over the next two years and the party is confident they will provide the foundation for serious local election challenges across Dublin in two years time.

"We stood in all 12 constituencies this time round for the first time since the '20s. There was a little internal doubt about the advisability of stretching our limited resources that far but it paid off," says Doolan. "One of the constant refrains our candidates got in areas we had never stood before or where we had no organisation was from people telling us how pleased they were to get the chance to vote for Sinn Féin. These are people who feel marginalized, who felt ignored by the other parties, who weren't going to vote if there wasn't an alternative and by providing an alternative we not only gave them something they could vote for, but started getting people involved in politics in their own local communities. It means we now have a presence in areas we had never been before."

The phenomenon of Sinn Féin's membership growth is a very positive sign for the campaigns the party has lined up for the next few months. "First and foremost we have the Nice campaign to get through," says Reddin. "Sinn Féin played a key role in defeating the first referendum. We were the only party or organisation to really put the effort in on the ground on anything like a large scale and the effect of this can be seen in the high No vote in the areas across Dublin where we're strongest. This time round we can expect Dublin to be the key battleground again and from visiting local areas it's clear that there is an enthusiasm, even an anger, about this referendum."

The party also intends to maintain its high profile campaign against the double tax on waste collection and is exploring the possibility of large scale campaigns on issues like health, housing and public transport.

"We're very much in a consolidation phase at the moment," says Doolan. "The election was the big project of the last 18 months. It's time to take stock, restructure ourselves to take account of the membership increase, the TDs we have in Dublin and decide where we go from here. With the elections out of the way, we can get back to work."