Some years ago, as an Irish Northern Aid observer, this writer attended a large Sinn Fein internal conference held in Dublin to discuss the policy of abstentionism, which was to be overturned within a few years. Two of the early speakers set the parameters of the debate. One argued that elected Sinn Fein TDs would secure the abolition of the Special Criminal Court, denounce British injustices from the floor of Leinster House and so rally support for Republican political prisoners. The second speaker contended that the party would inevitably become tied into the twenty-six county establishment, with its ability to support Republican political prisoners undermined and compromised. Ironically both men would later be killed in County Donegal. The latter speaker, Eddie Fullerton, will be remembered as a murdered Irish patriot, while the former was informer Denis Donaldson, an admitted paid servant of the British crown.