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Nationalists
Sinn Fein
Sinn Fein were founded intially in 1905 by Arthur Griffith as opposition to the Irish Party who were only after Home Rule making them the oldest Nationalist party in Ireland. However the Sinn Fein of then is a radically different orgainsation to what it is now. It's President is Gerry Adams and Leader is Martin McGuiness although most of the power is vested in the President. The Sinn Fein that we know today began during the troubles, the first elected SF MP was hunger-striker Bobby Sands. It began as a party to give the IRA some political representation and to campaign for prisoner of war status for prisoners. Most of the initial people who ran for Sinn Fein were also members of the IRA, some of them prisoners. Despite having elected representatives Sinn Fein were still a ignored as a political party until the SDLP's John Hume controversially began dailogue with Gerry Adams, this eventually led to the IRA's first ceasefire and SF took their first tentative steps towards the political establishment.
In the run up to the signing of the GFA all other parties except the UUP and SF were sidelined as became the focus for negotiations. This helped Sinn Fein's performance in the Assembly as people began to view them as the "main" nationalist party "If SF agreed to something the SDLP would". In the recent General Elections Sinn Fein outpolled the SDLP for the first time ever and took 4 seats thus increasing their representation by 100%.
Sinn Fein have been a party dogged by controversy since their remergence, the blame for various stalemates in the process has laid with Sinn Fein and their stance on decommissioning. The IRA has only relatively recently actually decommissioned any weapons and this led to some divisons within the Republican movement but has given some much needed stability to the Executive. Very recently they've been shrouded in controversy with the arrest of three Sinn Fein members in Colombia. They also have refused to nominate members to sit on the new Police Board as they believe the proposals didn't go far enough and didn't match Patten's recommendations. Despite this Sinn Fein look well placed for the next Assembly elections and good well take some seats from the SDLP but who knows what will happen between now and then.
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams has been invovled with Sinn Fein at a high level since its remergence as a party. He was very much invovled behind the scenes in the run up to the election of Bobby Sands. He has led Sinn Fein from political isolation to government in Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams is a man of huge political skill and roundly trounced Irish Labour leader Ruairi Quinn in a live television debate recently. He has seen SF's representation in Westminster increase but the cloud of IRA still hangs over him and his party. Gerry Adams was a very senior member of the IRA and whether he is now or not is a mystery. This has led many Hardline Unionist to refuse to even sit in the same room as any member of Sinn Fein.
Despite this Gerry Adams and SF managed to deliver decommissioning without overly splitting the Republican movement which was a remarkable feat, seeing how Unionism split over the GFA. He has also taken a big involvement in politics in the South and was one of the leaders of the "No To Nice" campaign and Sinn Fein's representation looks set to increase in this years Irish General Election.
Gerry Adams has managed to keep the Hardliners happy by campaigning for representation in the Dail for MLAs elected to Stormont and by claiming that Sinn Fein will soon be the largest party in the North. He's a very able leader although I dislike watching him in interviews as he consistently resorts to rhetoric and fudging to avoid the difficult questions. A technique the SDLP have yet to master!
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