A chara, – It was good to see an article ("An Irishman's Diary", January 31st) on the centenary of the North Roscommon byelection victory of Count Plunkett.
However, Ronan McGreevy could not resist a sideswipe when he wrote that Plunkett “was not, as the present Sinn Féin erroneously claims, the first elected Sinn Féin MP”.
Plunkett did indeed stand as an Independent but had the support of Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers and other nationalist and republican groups, most of which came together later that year to adopt a republican constitution for Sinn Féin. Naturally the North Roscommon election was seen then and since as the first of a series of byelection victories for resurgent “Sinn Féinism”.
As for "the present Sinn Féin", I do not know what "erroneous claim" Ronan McGreevy refers to, but in the January 2017 edition of An Phoblacht, I wrote: "While often cited as the first Sinn Féin election victory after the Rising, Plunkett was not officially a Sinn Féin candidate". – Is mise,
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Cllr MÍCHEÁL
Mac DONNCHA,
Sinn Féin,
City Hall,
Dublin 2.