Ireland: Saying So Long to Isolation

For years the outlawed Irish Republican Army has refused to recognize the - authority of the Irish Republic's Parliament, contending that doing so would bestow legitimacy on the British partition of Ireland. That has not stopped the I.R.A.'s political wing, Sinn Fein, from contesting seats in the 166- member Dail, the assembly. But once elected, Sinn Fein winners have always boycotted the Dail. Last week Sinn Fein reversed its policy and said its candidates will take seats if elected.

The vote was a victory for Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, 38, who had argued that electoral participation is the "only feasible way out of our isolation." Some 130 hard-core "abstentionists," however, promptly formed a breakaway group. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald called the party's attempt to hold public office "an abuse of the democratic system."