SINN FEIN EMERGED from the general election of 1955 as
the fourth largest political party, polling over 150,000 voters and gaining two seats, though its candidates were ineligible to sit in the Com- mons and would in any case have refused to do so. It is still the fourth largest party, but nearly two-thirds of its former supporters have now deserted. Even in the border areas of Northern Ireland the party's poll slumped. The Guardian, usually well-informed on Ireland, suggests this may presage the growth of a constitutional agrarian party in those areas, 'to the clarification of political thinking.' But clear thinking there is impossible while partition exists—any more than it would be possible in Kent if things had gone differently in 1945, and it had been ceded to Germany. The continued partition of Ireland may in present circumstances be inevitable. But this does not mean that the Catholic Nationalists in the border regions are ready to enjoy being ruled from Westminster and Stormont. Their refusal to vote Sinn Fein was simply a protest against Sinn Fein's policies--particularly against adoles- cent violence masquerading as patriotism. To regard it as a sign that the Border issue no longer exists there is foolish.
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