The Truth about the  Sinn Fin Ard Fheis   The story of how Gerry Adams tried to turn an eighty year old revolutionary movement into a British Constitutional party  How he broke the Sinn Fin constitution created fake cumainn to give him fake votes and barred life long republicans from voting  How he managed to expel himself and his supporters from Sinn Fin membership  And how a small band of republicans managed to keep the Sinn Fin constitution and traditional policy in tact    In  Section b of the Sinn Fin constitution read as follows  No person who is a member of any political party organisation or who approves of or supports the candidature of persons who if elected intend taking part in the proceedings of the Westminster or partitionist County or County  parliaments or who approves of or supports the candidature of persons who sign any form or give any kind of written or verbal undertaking of intention to take their seats in these institutions shall be admitted to membership or allowed to retain membership   The Adams leadership put forward a motion titled Resolution  at the  Ard Fheis  Its wording was as follows   RESOLUTION   THAT this ArdFheis drops its abstentionist attitude to Leinster House Successful Sinn Fein parliamentary candidates in County elections  a Shall attend Leinster House as directed by the Ard Chomhairle  b Shall not draw their salaries for personal use Parliamentary representatives shall be paid a Sinn Fein organisers subsidy and the Leinster House salary shall be divided at the direction of the Ard Chomhairle to defray national and constituency expenses  To accommodate this change the Constitution and Rules be amended as follows  That Section b of the Constitution be amended to read   No person who is a member of any political party organisation or who approves of or supports the candidature of persons who if elected intend taking part in the proceedings of the Westminster or partitionist County parliaments or who approves of or supports the candidature of persons who sign any form or give any kind of written or verbal undertaking of intention to take their seats in these institutions shall be admitted to membership or allowed to retain membership   Motion  supports and approves of the candidature of persons who if  elected would be of the intention to take their seats in certain circumstances ie on the direction of the Ard Chomhairle  Obviously Motion  infringes Section b  Section b was in effect at the time this Resolution was presented  Its clear that Adams made a mistake in procedure  He should have sought a majority decision to amend Section b in  and returned in  to propose entering Leinster House  Trying to amend Section b and propose taking seats in the partitionist County Parliament in the same Resolution was a logical impossibility   Can anybody say that  the wording  That this ArdFheis drops its abstentionist attitude to Leinster House Successful Sinn Fein parliamentary candidates in County elections  a  Shall attend Leinster House as directed by the Ard Chomhairle  does not constitute the supporting and approving of the candidature of persons who intend to take their seats in Leinster House as directed by the Ard Chomhairle Clearly Adams was in breach of Section b and according to that section he had expelled himself and all those who voted for Resolution   Brian Feeney in his book Sinn Fin  Turbulent Years puts forward the argument that Adams had managed to bypass Section b by introducing a motion in  allowing the discussion of any aspect of the Sinn Fin constitution  This change may indeed have facilitated debate on abstentionism but it did not infringe on the content or effect of Section b in any way  To discuss something is not the same as formally proposing or supporting it  For example conventions are held regularly where drug addiction is discussed without any of the delegates proposing or supporting it  In fact the line Adams added in  was superfluous as the Sinn Fin constitution had never banned the discussion of anything  just the approving and supporting of taking seats in named partitionist parliaments  Of course its not illegal to amend or remove section b Section b bans the approval or support of candidates who intend to take seats in British assemblies It can be removed or amended at any Ard Fheis by a two thirds majority The reason for doing so could be many Perhaps delegates might feel that it implies that they cannot be trusted to be loyal to the Republic In fact its not necessary according to the constitution to give any reason But you