Cochlear Implants and the Modern Sinn Fein

Gerry Adams was upset. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to attend a Prime Minister’s Questions session in the Irish Parliament (the Teachta Dáil). As leader of the opposition party Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams was one of those entitled to ask questions of the Prime Minister. This is the same Gerry Adams who headed Sinn Fein whilst it was the mouthpiece for the Irish Republican Army during the troubles, and whose negotiations with the Irish and British governments along with John Hume helped bring about peace in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein remains committed, however, to a United Ireland. And Adams remains a controversial figure- there is constant speculation on the extent of his activities within the IRA. Though unconfirmed, many believe that he held a seat of the Provisional IRA’s Army Council during the Troubles. He was so controversial that British Prime Minister even took the extraordinary step of placing a “media ban” on the broadcast of Adams’ voice in the United Kingdom, and was temporarily barred from entering the United States. He is the current  president of a political party which once declared an “Armalite and ballot box” strategy, in their own words asserting that they would take power in Ireland with a “ballot in one hand and an [automatic weapon]" in the other.

So what did the controversial Gerry Adams spend his questions on? As it turns out, a decidedly uncontroversial topic. Adams made a passionate case for state funding for cochlear implants, a surgically implanted electronic device which can allow deaf children to better understand speech and environmental sounds.  

Since its days as the political wing of a republican paramilitary group waging a brutal campaign in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein has separated from the IRA and become a viable, national political party interested not just in the cause of a unified Ireland but in an entire range of issues. Today, it is the fourth largest party in the Republic of Ireland and, even more extraordinarily, the second largest political party in the legislative assembly of Northern Ireland. And it has taken on a legitimacy unimaginable only a decade and half ago. The modern Sinn Fein denounces violence and promotes center-left social policies which focus on minority rights and ending poverty in Ireland. Hardly a radical agenda. Perhaps the many former militants who populate the party have examined demographic and opinion trends which indicate that Ireland will eventually reunite, and have simply decided they have no need to press the issue. Nonetheless, the fact that Gerry Adams can stand in the Dáil and emphasize Cochlear implants instead of republicanism and unification is a testament to just how far the peace process has come.