Good point Paddymac. I haven't read Feeney's book yet but I do know that SF wasn't a republican party until after the 1916 Rising, in which it didn't participate. Griffith supported a dual monarchy, making him non-republican by definition. Tom Clarke's widow Kathleen has some very scathing things to say about his politics (not the man himself) in her memoirs. Although he possessed an "old Howth gun" and was picked up in the big post-Rising sweep, he was quickly released. I guess abstentionism was another major policy change. Count Plunkett and De Valera, SF's first two MP's (TDs), both stood on abstentionist tickets, ie not sitting at Westminster. There's a great pic of Brady and Adams shaking hands in Feeney's book after abstentionism was ditched, captioned "The parting of the ways: following his defeat in the ard fheis on abstention, Ruariri O Bradaigh gives a less than cordial handshake to Gerry Adams. The two men's facial expressions say it all ". (Brady is looking resigned and beaten, Adams is smiling broadly). The book also as another good quote, among many, "Hello Sinn Fein, Westminster" - Gerry Adams answering his London office phone, 2002.