Abstentionism is the political practice of standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself. Abstentionism has been used by Irish republican political movements in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the early 19th century. It was also used by Hungarian and Czech nationalists in the Austrian Imperial Council in the 1860s.
Hungary When suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Austrian Empire abolished the Diet of Hungary. Austria's 1861 February Patent reserved places for Hungary in the indirectly elected Imperial Council, but the Hungarians did not send representatives, arguing the council was usurping authority properly belonging to the Diet. Emulating the Hungarians, the Czech delegates for Bohemia withdrew in 1863, and those from Moravia in 1864. Hungarian demands were met by the Compromise of 1867, with the empire becoming the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in which the Hungarian half was ruled by a revived Diet.
In 1904, Arthur Griffith published The Resurrection of Hungary arguing for a British–Irish dual monarchy similar to the 1867 compromise. Griffith's subsequent "Sinn Féin policy" developed this model. Tom Kettle of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) countered that Bohemia had remained in the Austrian half of the post-1867 empire, and its delegates abandoned abstentionism in 1879.
Ireland Before partition After the Act of Union 1800, Ireland was represented in the British Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Repeal of the Act of Union was a goal of many Irish nationalists.
In 1845, a motion was carried at the Repeal Association's committee for all Irish members of parliament (MPs) to withdraw from Westminster. It was proposed by Thomas Osborne Davis of the Young Ireland movement. However, the committee felt that MPs already sitting could not withdraw without breaking the oath of office they had taken upon election. The Irish Confederation, which withdrew from the Repeal Association in 1847, resolved in favour of immediate abstention; however, its founder William Smith O'Brien continued to speak at Westminster.Davis, p. 122 In 1848, Charles Gavan Duffy proposed that Irish MPs expelled from Westminster should sit in a separate Irish parliament.Davis, p. 256
Other early abstentionist advocates included George Sigerson in 1862, and John Dillon in 1878, who envisaged abstentionist Irish MPs meeting in a separate Irish parliament.Lydon 1998, p. 325
From the 1860s, Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) leaders Charles Kickham and John O'Leary favoured abstentionism.McGee 2005, p. 39 In 1869, G. H. Moore suggested nominating imprisoned republicans for election, knowing they were precluded as convicted felons from taking seats.McGee, pg. 43 On this basis, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (in 1870) and John Mitchel (twice in 1875) were returned at by-elections in Tipperary; O'Donovan Rossa was in prison at his election, while Mitchel was in exile.
Kickham envisaged a "great national conference" calling on Irish MPs to withdraw from Westminster. A motion to that effect was proposed by Charles Guilfoyle Doran and passed at the convention of the Home Rule League.McGee, pg.48 "Honest" John Martin, "independent nationalist" MP for County Meath from 1871 to 1875, spoke in Westminster only to raise nationalist protests, and refused to vote.McGee, pg. 42–43 At the 1874 general election, 59 Home Rule MPs were returned, including John O'Connor Power in Mayo, who was a member of the IRB Supreme Council. He was to fall out with the IRB over allegations of misappropriating election funds,McGee, pp. 49–50 and became progressively less radical. O'Connor Power believed that Westminster was the best platform to argue Ireland's case for self-government. Withdrawal from Parliament would be an abandonment of the Home Rule party to those who favoured conciliation rather than confrontation.Stanford, Jane, That Irishman: The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power, pp. 70–71, 73–74. . By 1876 it was clear that the HRL would never be able to organise a national convention, and MPs elected with its endorsement would remain at Westminster.McGee, p. 53 An alternative to abstentionism was obstructionism, including the use of filibuster. This was practised by the HRL and its successor, the IPP under Charles Stuart Parnell from the late 1870s.
Sinn Féin
Arthur Griffith's "Sinn Féin Policy", formulated between 1905 and 1907, called for Irish MPs to abstain from Westminster and sit in a parallel parliament in Dublin.Feeney 2002, pp. 33–34 The first Sinn Féin abstentionist candidate was Charles Dolan in 1908. Having sat as MP for North Leitrim for the IPP, he resigned after joining Sinn Féin, and lost the ensuing by-election.Feeney 2002, pp. 49–50 Laurence Ginnell's 1909 proposal that the United Ireland League (UIL) adopt abstentionism caused a near-riot; he left the UIL but continued to sit at Westminster until he joined Sinn Féin in 1917.; Abstentionism was opposed by most nationalists, especially after the January 1910 general election when the IPP held the balance of power at Westminster and secured passage of the Third Home Rule Bill from the Liberal government.Feeney 2002, p. 53 The nationalist mood changed after the 1916 Rising, and the IPP itself withdrew from Westminster in April 1918, to protest against the extension of conscription to Ireland.Feeney 2002, p. 97 At the 1916 West Cork by-election, Sinn Féin initially endorsed All-for-Ireland League candidate Frank J. Healy, a supporter interned after the 1916 Rising, but withdrew support when Healy declared his intention to take his seat; the confusion contributed to Healy's defeat.
The first abstentionist MP elected was George Noble Plunkett after the North Roscommon by-election of 3 February 1917.Lydon, p. 343. Plunkett did not categorically state his abstentionism until after his victory.Feeney 2002, p. 63 Plunkett's Liberty League, Griffith's monarchist Sinn Féin, and the northern Irish Nation League merged later that year into a reconstituted Sinn Féin, agreeing after contentious disputation that abstentionism was a principle rather than merely a tactic. Sinn Féin MPs elected at the 1918 general election refused to take their seats at Westminster and instead constituted themselves in Dublin in January 1919 as the TDs () of Dáil Éireann, which was claimed to be the legitimate parliament of the Irish Republic.Feeney 2002, p. 112 The Irish Labour Party stood aside in 1918 in favour of Sinn Féin, having at first proposed to be abstentionist until emergency laws were lifted. Sinn Féin was unsure whether to boycott the 1921 elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and House of Commons of Southern Ireland set up by the Government of Ireland Act 1920.Feeney 2002, pp. 130–131 It decided to contest the Northern election for tactical reasons and the Southern one for consistency, with its returned MPs becoming the TDs of the Second Dáil.
One strand within Republicanism, in remaining loyal to this pre-Partition Irish Republic, denies the legitimacy of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.Feeney 2002, pp. 168–170, 174 Other parties reached accommodation with the southern state but not Northern Ireland. Some groups have boycotted elections within either jurisdiction; others have been abstentionist; others abstained from some bodies but not others. Abstentionism has often been a divisive issue within Republicanism.
Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State, with an opt-out for Northern Ireland and requiring an Oath of Allegiance for Free State legislators. The Treaty split Sinn Féin, mainly over the Oath rather than "Partition", and caused the Irish Civil War.Feeney 2002, p. 135 The June 1922 election featured a "Sinn Féin panel" of pro- and anti-Treaty candidates, but the resulting 3rd Dáil was boycotted by the anti-Treaty TDs. These refounded Sinn Féin in 1923 and based their continued abstention from the Free State Dáil on Partition.Feeney 2002, pp. 156–7, 168–9 Fianna Fáil split from Sinn Féin in 1926 and abandoned abstentionism in the Free State in 1927.Feeney 2002, pp. 158–160 From 1955, Sinn Féin contested local elections in the Republic of Ireland and took its seats, arguing this did not amount to recognising the state.
In 1970, at its Ardfheis (annual conference), Sinn Féin split again on the issue of whether or not to reverse its long-standing policy of refusing to take seats in Dáil Éireann. The split created two parties calling themselves "Sinn Féin". The anti-abstentionist party was known as "Official" Sinn Féin. It changed its name to "Sinn Féin the Workers Party" (SFWP) and won a seat in the Dáil in the general election of 1981, which it took. The following year it dropped "Sinn Féin" from its name to become "The Workers' Party". The abstentionist party was initially referred to as "Provisional" Sinn Féin, but after 1982 it was known simply as "Sinn Féin"; it continued to abstain from taking seats won in all institutions.
Sinn Féin split in 1986, as in 1970, over whether to take seats in Dáil Éireann. The larger group led by Gerry Adams abandoned abstentionism, while Republican Sinn Féin (RSF), led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, retained it. Sinn Féin's first sitting Teachta Dála was Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, elected in Cavan–Monaghan at the 1997 general election.
RSF has retained the policy of abstentionism from both Dáil Éireann and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Northern Ireland After Partition, most non-abstentionist parties in the southern state did not organise at all in Northern Ireland. In early 1922, the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State was seen as representing the interests of nationalists in Northern Ireland and had a policy of not recognising the Northern Irish government. Catholic bishop Joseph MacRory (who later became Archbishop of Armagh and a Cardinal) indicated to the Provisional Government that Joe Devlin and his party members wanted to enter the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, and was worried that the policy of non-recognition would result in Northern Irish nationalists having to "fight alone", but his advice was ignored.
Abstentionism at local elections was effectively prohibited by a 1934 law requiring candidates to take an oath to attend council sessions.
The Nationalist Party did not take their seats during the first Stormont parliament (1921–1925). Despite forming the second-largest parliamentary party, they did not accept the role of Opposition for a further forty years. They did so on 2 February 1965 but withdrew from opposition again in October 1968, two weeks after police batoned demonstrators at a civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968.Brendan Lynn (1979), Holding the Ground: The Nationalist Party in Northern Ireland, 1945–1972 . (CAIN Web Service )
Cahir Healy was elected to both the Stormont and Westminster parliaments under a variety of nationalist labels between the 1920s and the 1960s. He was abstentionist in Stormont until 1927 and at Westminster from 1950 to 1952. In the 1930s, Healy led the Irish Union Association, which supported his policy of intermittent tactical abstentionism, whereas the otherwise-similar Northern Council for Unity regarded abstentionism as a principle.
From 1953, Stormont candidates were required to take the British oath of allegiance before standing, precluding Sinn Féin from doing so.Feeney 2002, p. 199 This did not apply at Westminster elections, where Sinn Féin often gave non-Sinn Féin abstentionist nationalists a free run to avoid splitting the nationalist vote, but conversely fielded a spoiler candidate against non-abstentionist nationalists.