State papers from 1990 show that the Army Council of the Provisional IRA wanted to exclude Sinn Fein from its talks with the British government on a potential peace settlement.
The papers released after the 30 year mark, that Provisional IRA chiefs were averse to the “socialist views being espoused” by the party’s leaders.
The reports state that the IRA leadership had approached Rev Will Murphy and Fr John Murphy, who were chaplains at Longkesh Prison as intermediaries to the British government after they had been engaged in a two-year process to encourage loyalist and republican prisoners to move away from violence.
Brendan McMahon, head of the Anglo-Irish Division, updated Dermot Gallagher, the assistant secretary at the DFA, on the potential breakthrough with the IRA and noted:
“Fr Murphy commented that one thing which has struck him in the course of this initiative is the noticeable difference between the IRA and Sinn Féin – with army council members referring to Sinn Féin as merely “the party which is the closest to our view”.
Sinn Fein’s position has slowly morphed over time to the point now where it is practically unrecognizable when compared to the party of the same name in 1990, moving to champion issues such as refugee rights, abortion, transgenderism and condemning nationalist movements.
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