ABSTRACT
Holding the Labour Party aside for the moment, Sinn Fein is the mother of all major parties. Founded in 1905, Sinn Fein was at that time another of the many nationalist organizations in Ireland and did not have any special place on the political landscape. Sinn Fein exerted pressure to keep the national question front and center. The Labour Party strategy was designed to allow the nation to vote on its political future and to preserve labor solidarity in the face of Sinn Fein and unionist combat. Lynch's policy, although distasteful to hardline republicans, won the day and Fianna Fail thereafter dealt with the north within the framework of peaceful negotiation even when Haughey changed the party's position upon his accession to power. Abstention turned out to be a trap for Fianna Fail because to abandon this principal would be transparently hypocritical, while to adhere to it was to be excluded from the exercise of power.
