Sinn Féin in 2017

Seamus O’Kane

Appearing in these pages this time toxic reputation of in the three years ago was Kieran Allen’s arti- eyes of a Southern electorate, his poor cle, ‘The Politics of Sinn Féin: Rhetoric performance in leaders’ debates, and an and Reality’1 which provided a clear anal- establishment media opposed to anything ysis of a party whose radical image did to the left of Thatcher (nevermind any- not match their actions. Merely updat- thing republican). ing this article would not be particularly The Assembly election in the North useful as it remains relevant. Indeed, if but a few months later saw a continuation one requires a broad overview of the party of what commentator Chris Donnelly had from a socialist perspective, one would be been describing as ‘nationalist malaise’3 advised to re-read it. It is worth noting, characterised by falling voter turnout and however, the significant gains made by a decline in support for nationalist parties the party since then, both in the North as their traditional support base switched and in the South. off from politics, changed their alle- The 2016 General Election saw Sinn giances, or became outright disillusioned. Féin return to the Dáil with 23 seats, at- Sinn Féin’s drop in support resulted in tracting many of the voters who had been the loss of four incumbents, and a net betrayed by the and were loss of one MLA. One of these losses was politicised by the water charges struggle. due to a bizarre decision in Fermanagh This led to them overtaking Labour to be- and South Tyrone to run four candi- come the third largest party for the first dates where only three Sinn Féin seats time since Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin became existed, leading to the loss of incumbent the first Sinn Féin TD to take a Dáil seat Phil Flanagan. A more significant battle in 1997 after the party abandoned absten- took place in Foyle (Derry) where incum- tionism. Whilst this was a vast improve- bent Maeve McLoughlin lost out as an ment on their previous 14 seats, the party expected seat gain from an increasingly- performed below some expectations. All irrelevant SDLP went instead to People of the polls predicted a higher percent- Before Profit’s Eamonn McCann. Ar- age of Sinn Féin voters and a Red C poll guably, the biggest blow of the election even predicted them overtaking Fianna was in Sinn Féin’s heartland of West Fáil just a couple of weeks before the elec- Belfast where incumbent Rosie McCorley tion.2 Optimism in Donegal saw a crucial lost out to People Before Profit’s Gerry error in vote management as three Sinn Carroll. Carroll topped the poll with Féin candidates contested a constituency 8299 votes (22.9% of the vote), an expres- where only two Sinn Féin quotas existed. sion of discontent from an electorate who Two sitting TDs became one TD as in- had watched Sinn Féin sign the Stormont cumbent Pádraig Mac Lochlainn lost his House and Fresh Start Agreements which seat. Sinn Féin’s difficulties here were the committed to gutting the public sector 1Kieran Allen ‘The Politics of Sinn Féin: Rhetoric and Reality’ Irish Marxist Review Vol I, No. 11 2014, pp. 4-15 2Red C General Election Opinion Poll 13 February 2016 3Chris Donnelly ‘Nationalist Malaise: Facing the Facts’ Slugger O’Toole sluggerotoole.com/ 2015/05/10/nationalist-malaise-facing-the-facts/

28 and accepting Tory welfare ‘reform’. the North’s 18 seats, their highest ever. They also took Foyle for the first time, Less than a year later, the RHI scan- previously an SDLP stronghold. dal triggered the resignation of a visibly- Now that I have outlined the recent ill Martin McGuinness as Sinn Féin’s mis- gains made by Sinn Féin, it is worth look- placed efforts to reconcile with an arro- ing at the issues which are most burn- gant and unrepentant DUP were rejected ing in the public consciousness in relation by the party’s grassroots. A scandal re- to the party. Reproductive rights have volving around the misuse of public funds become an unavoidable issue due to the and alleged corruption fell back into fa- mass movement in the South (and a grow- miliar territory as outright hostility from ing movement in the North). Coalitions Arlene Foster, particularly towards Irish are also on everyone’s mind as the Sinn speakers, made this another Orange and Féin leadership refuse to rule out a part- Green election. Sinn Féin’s promise of nership with Fianna Fáil. The National ‘no return to the status quo’ and its com- Question has also gained particular perti- mitment to ‘respect’, ‘equality’ and ‘in- nence after the UK’s EU referendum and tegrity’ won voters, including those pre- the loss of a Unionist majority in the As- viously dormant, to their side. Stormont sembly. reform for this election included a reduc- tion in seats from six per constituency to five. The increase in turnout of nearly Reproductive Rights ten percentage points4 disproportionately The Repeal movement in the South of Ire- benefited Sinn Féin and the casualties land appears, on paper, to have the broad from this seat reduction fell heavily on the support of Sinn Féin. They campaigned Unionist side. Sinn Féin lost a single seat in 1983 against the Eighth Amendment and the Assembly Election 2017 returned being inserted into the Constitution as with a Unionist minority for the first time it was too complex an issue to be en- in the history of the northern state. This shrined there. Their party policy now means that Sinn Féin now have 27 seats seeks to Repeal that amendment thirty- to the DUP’s 28, the closest they have four years later. The progressiveness of ever been to being the largest party and their stance and efforts to be identified taking the First Minister position. with the largest mass movement since the A Westminster election was called a water charges struggle are undermined by few months later as Theresa May strug- their ‘Repeal and Enact’ position which gled with a divided parliamentary party seeks to restrict abortions to the excep- in the wake of June 2016’s ‘Brexit’ EU tional circumstances of rape, incest and referendum. In the North of Ireland, this fatal foetal abnormalities.5 election was a polarising one with voters Sinn Féin have not always had this in their droves going to Sinn Féin and the position. It is not widely-known that DUP as the First Past the Post electoral Sinn Féin had a pro-choice stance in their system encouraged tactical voting. Both party’s constitution for one year. At their the UUP and SDLP were obliterated, los- 1985 Ard Fheis a motion passed which ing every single seat. Sinn Féin won 7 of read ‘women have the right to choose’. 4‘DUP largest party in NI Assembly but Sinn Féin make large gains’ BBC News bbc.com/news/ election-northern-ireland-2017-39147988 5Louise O’Reilly TD ‘Repeal and Enact the only option - Sinn Féin’ Sinn Féin sinnfein.ie/ contents/44316

29 However, as Maillot details in her book, to vote for the Protection of Life Dur- the Ard Comhairle voted against it as ing Pregnancy Act (2013) which allows a group and the passing of the motion for abortion where there is risk to the life was attributed to the vote taking place of a pregnant woman. After abstaining at the end of the conference when a num- on Clare Daly’s bill to allow for abortion ber of delegates, including some from ru- in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities in ral areas, had already departed. The 2015, they changed their policy to allow following year was the 1986 Ard Fheis, for abortion in exceptional circumstances historic for other reasons in republican including fatal foetal abnormalities but history, and the stance was amended to also rape and incest. They also made the read ‘we are opposed to the attitudes and decision to publicly campaign to Repeal forces in society that compel women to the Eighth Amendment. have abortions. We are opposed to abor- Sinn Féin representatives are now to tion as a means of birth control’. Even be seen sporting the Repeal jumpers to some of those who had advocated for the demonstrate their progressiveness. Per- pro-choice stance followed the consensus haps not Gerry Adams, but certainly that a pro-choice stance was divisive and Niall Ó Donnghaile, , and therefore damaging to the overall struggle Eoin Ó Broin are happy to link them- for national liberation. One such delegate selves to the Repeal movement. However, commented, ‘If it damages our struggle, despite Sinn Féin’s famous party disci- then it will have to wait’.6 The priorities pline, there remains division on this is- were clear: not quite De Valera’s ‘labour sue within the party. Peadar Toibín is must wait’ but rather ‘women must wait’. perhaps the most prominent anti-choice Tommy McKearney noted in 2011 member of Sinn Féin after being sus- that Sinn Féin practised a ‘populist pol- pended from the party for six months af- icy in regard to many issues’ which was ter voting against his party on the Pro- ‘typified’ by their stance on abortion as tection of Life During Pregnancy bill. the party ‘regularly assured the handful He also attends events such as the Rally of feminists in its ranks that it supported for Life. Even one of their members on a woman’s right to choose but ensured the Oireachtas committee considering the that no such policy would ever appear Eighth Amendment, Jonathan O’Brien, on its election manifestos’.7 The abor- has publicly stated that he himself is tion rights movement has moved on sig- not in favour of Repeal.9 He assures us nificantly since 2011 and while Sinn Féin that his personal beliefs will not affect have tried to maintain some ambiguity, his political decisions (indeed, he did not they have been forced to take a stance defy the Sinn Féin whip like his colleague publicly. They have moved on from when Peadar Toibín) but he remains an odd Martin McGuinness described Sinn Féin choice for a party supposedly committed as ‘an anti-abortion party’8 and were able to Repeal. It is also worth noting here 6Agnes Maillot New Sinn Féin: in the twenty-first century, London and New York: Routledge, 2005 p. 113-114 7Tommy McKearney The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament, Ireland: Pluto Press, 2011 p.190 8Aoife Barry ‘McGuinness: Sinn Féin is an anti-abortion partyâĂİ The Journal thejournal.ie/ sinn-fein-ard-fheis-abortion-868416-Apr2013/ 9‘Sinn FéinâĂŹs O’Brien opposes repeal of Eighth Amendment’ irishtimes.com/ news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-s-o-brien-opposes-repeal-of-eighth-amendment-1.3097929

30 that the party are not in the Coalition to bers are active in Repeal and pro-choice Repeal the Eighth Amendment despite it groups at a grassroots level. It remains to consisting of over 100 organisations, in- be seen whether or not more senior figures cluding numerous political parties. in the party such as Mary Lou McDonald or Louise O’Reilly will publicly criticise Sinn Féin’s absence at this year’s their party’s position. ARC March for Choice was a conspic- John O’Dowd on BBC Question Time uous one given that it was the largest recently made it clear that he was in march yet with tens of thousands of favour of the decriminalisation (if not un- pro-choice activists filling the streets of restricted access) of abortion. This is . Bernadette McAliskey, one of a pertinent admission given that women the speakers from the platform, warned have recently been prosecuted for the use Mary Lou McDonald that her party had of abortion pills in the North. Unfortu- better be entirely behind Repeal or she nately, this stance remains firmly in the would never be Taoiseach. A Sinn Féin realm of rhetoric as the party has taken spokesperson later said that the purpose no steps in Stormont towards decrimi- of the march for free, safe and legal access nalisation. In the South, Sinn Féin ab- to abortion went beyond the party’s po- stained on Bríd Smith’s bill to reduce the 10 sition. Sinn Féin councillor Sarah Hol- penalty for procuring an abortion from land was one of the party members who a 14-year prison sentence to a euro fine attended the march in a private capac- (the Eighth Amendment requires that a ity. Writing on her blog, she expressed penalty remain in place so no decriminal- her ‘disappointment’ in her party’s ab- isation in the South is currently possible). sence and that the ‘time has long passed Their inactivity in Stormont is also ex- for us to be keeping quiet on basic rights emplified by the unpublished report on 11 for women’. She announced her intention fatal foetal abnormalities.13 This report, to lobby her party to take heed of the Cit- according to the Supreme Court, recom- izens’ Assembly recommendations ahead mends a change in the law, yet it has not of November’s Ard Fheis. She has since been acted upon or released to the public referenced a motion from the 1996 Ard despite being completed for a year now, Fheis submitted by the Women POWs of predating the collapse of Stormont when Maghaberry Prison which reads ‘We be- Michelle O’Neill was still health minister. lieve that individual women should have the right to control their own fertility and this includes having access to safe and le- Coalition gal abortions locally. This Ard Fheis ac- cepts a woman’s right to choose.’12 Sarah Sinn Féin’s place in the northern exec- Holland is not the only pro-choice mem- utive has been surfeit with compromise, ber of Sinn Féin and indeed many mem- u-turns and the abandonment of funda- 10Harry Magee ‘Sinn Féin says March for Choice ‘goes beyond party’s position” The Irish Times irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-says-march-for-choice-goes- beyond-party-s-position-1.3240392 11Sarah Holland ‘Sinn Féin needs to step up on Women’s Rights’ storify.com/Sarahjt/human- rights-commission-calls-for-legalisation-of- 12sinnfein.org/ardfheis/96ardfheis/abo.html 13Brendan Hughes ‘Sarah Ewart ‘disappointed’ abortion report still not published’ Irish News irishnews.com/news/2017/10/21/news/sarah-ewart-disappointed-abortion-report-still- not-published-1167946/

31 mental principles all for the privilege of able political discourse. managing British imperialism in the Six Counties. Failing to negotiate the devolu- The current Stormont crisis, which tion of tax-and-spend powers, Sinn Féin has now gone on for ten months at the have served under centre-right neoliberal time of writing, to some extent runs con- governments from Blair to the Tories with trary to the previous pattern in that no room to pursue radical left-wing poli- no solution appears to be imminent and cies. Even as Stormont lurches from crisis Westminster may step in to produce a to crisis, differences with the reactionary budget quite shortly. There appears to DUP are patched up and agreement is be two currents of thought in the party found on austerity budgets, privatisation at the moment. One will certainly have agendas, and the courting of multina- an eye on the Southern establishment and tional corporations. Unable to break out the business community, both of which of this neoliberal consensus, Sinn Féin is would appreciate a stable government in only able to pursue identity politics as the North and a sign that Sinn Féin re- it seeks to balance the North’s Unionist mains a safe pair of hands, especially in ‘identity’ with an Irish nationalist one. the difficulties of Brexit negotiations. An- other side to Sinn Féin has grown tired of Eamonn McCann characterises Sinn constant compromise with the DUP, who Féin by their ‘pursuit of political re- have been seen to dominate Irish nation- spectability’, exemplified by shaking the alism for the past ten years in a ’peace hands of heads of state and appealing process’ which has been largely one-sided. to a pan-nationalist front which previ- As the story goes, Sinn Féin representa- ously included the SDLP but is now fo- tives were asked ‘what are you doing up cused on the Irish government as co- there anyway?’ by their grassroots who guarantors of the Good Friday Agree- had seen ten years of powersharing with ment, along with Irish-American capital- nothing to show for it. At a meeting ists.14 In order to demonstrate their suit- of members in the Felons Club in West ability for governance, Sinn Féin avoid Belfast, after the press had left, a shout rocking the boat, championing ‘realistic’ of ‘bring the institutions down’ was met policies which have involved passing nu- with cheering and applause. It was to merous austerity budgets in the North. this pressure which Sinn Féin responded. Kieran Allen notes how, in the South, The Acht na Gaeilge, marriage equality they accepted the parameters of the po- and a Bill of Rights are concrete propos- litical establishment with their aim to re- als that Sinn Féin supporters can rally duce the public deficit to 3 percent from around. These issues were not red lines 2013 to 2016.15 In demonstrating that before the 2017 Assembly election but to they are a safe pair of hands for managing backtrack on them now would be a ‘re- the economy to the Southern establish- turn to the status quo’ and could seriously ment and global corporate interests (often damage Sinn Féin’s galvanised and new- termed ‘the business community’), Sinn found support. It is no huge exaggeration Féin policies could be said to be dictated to say that the memory of Gerry Carroll by Overton windows, always within the topping the poll in West Belfast lingers in bounds of what is deemed to be accept- the minds of the Sinn Féin leadership as 14Eamonn McCann War and an Irish Town, London: Pluto Press, 1993 p.37 15Kieran Allen ‘The Politics of Sinn Féin: Rhetoric and Reality’ Irish Marxist Review Vol I, No. 11 2014, p. 6.

32 they consider compromise. Politics of Left Republicanism where his Whilst coalition may be (temporar- alternative coalition was an alliance of ily) spurned in the North, the left-wing Sinn Féin, Labour and the . rhetoric of equality and rights is not re- It would also appear to be a rejection of flected in the Southern leadership’s court- the logic of Right2Change which, as an ing of Fianna Fáil for coalition. In 2016, alliance of forces from the radical left to Sinn Féin members voted at their Ard the centre-left, was seen by some as lay- Fheis not to enter government with Fi- ing the groundwork for Ireland’s first left- anna Fáil or unless they were wing government. Although, even when the largest party. Even as a minority engaged with this project, Sinn Féin did partner, however, Fianna Fáil would not not rule out a coalition with Fianna Fáil. allow for a left government as the party All notions of a left government appear of developers and bankers would certainly to be abandoned now. As Gerry Adams move to veto any measure which funda- said: ‘I have to say, I never really sub- mentally altered the status quo.16 scribed to that notion of a left-wing gov- ernment, certainly not in the short-term. Perhaps due to Sinn Féin’s stagna- I mean, who are the left?’17 tion in the polls, the Sinn Féin leader- ship are now publicly floating the idea Eoin Ó Broin made it clear at this of taking a place as junior partners in a year’s Sinn Féin Summer School that they coalition. They will have the fate of the were willing to talk to any party about Labour Party in mind, who, even with forming a government. This is a revert to 37 seats, were swallowed into an auster- type for Sinn Féin. According to Gerry ity programme by Fine Gael and betrayed Adams in 2011, ‘when you can do busi- their voters. The party was demolished at ness with Ian Paisley, you can do business the subsequent election and barely qual- with anyone’.18 Tommy McKearney’s ac- ified for Dáil speaking rights. Sinn Féin count of the party’s mishandling of the made the decision to choose opposition 2007 general election makes for entertain- rather than following the same path and ing reading. He attributes its dismal elec- so were not able to fulfil their goal of be- toral performance to various factors but ing a junior partner in two partitionist one such standout moment is Mary Lou governments in time for the centenary of McDonald’s comment on the party’s will- 1916. ingness to abandon its policy of raising Deliberately distancing himself from corporation tax in the South if invited to the legacy of the Labour Party, Eoin Ó join a coalition. These comments have Broin instead speaks of a ‘co-equal part- since proven prescient as the policy is now nership’ with the centre-right parties with to lower the rate in the North. Reel- the alternative being opposition. This is ing from their election result, ‘Caoimhin a shift from his previous position in The O’Caoláin inexplicably offered to enter 16Kieran Allen ‘The Politics of Sinn Féin: Rhetoric and Reality’ Irish Marxist Review Vol I, No. 11 2014, p. 7. 17Pat Leahy ‘Interview: Gerry Adams casts doubt on future of NI executive’ Irish Times irishtimes.com/news/politics/interview-gerry-adams-casts-doubt-on-future-of- ni-executive-1.2952790 18Quoted in Kieran Allen ‘The Politics of Sinn Féin: Rhetoric and Reality’ Irish Marxist Review Vol I, No. 11 2014, p. 7. 19Tommy McKearney The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament, Ireland: Pluto Press, 2011 p.199

33 into a coalition government with the Fine ‘new, unified Ireland would promote the Gael party’.19 island as a location for investment and ac- It is of little consolation to a working- cess to the Single European Market’. This class electorate that Sinn Féin made com- section, along with a reference to ‘Brand mitments at a previous Ard Fheis as any Ireland’, implies a continuing reliance on coalition agreement would have to be rat- foreign direct investment, and, if this is to ified at a Special Ard Fheis. A Sinn Féin be a focus of their economic strategy, it is leadership voicing ideas which are not unlikely that their corporation tax policy compatible with the party’s constitution will alter. clearly believe that a previous decision The new zeal that Sinn Féin have for could be overturned with enough persua- the European Union may be shortlived. sion. Now that the Tories are relying on This is the party who were opposed to the DUP for votes, there is now a new ur- the South entering the EU in 1972, op- gency in Sinn Féin to look to the South for posed to the North joining the follow- their own potential coalition partner, es- ing year, opposed the Single European pecially with their emphasis that the Irish Act, opposed to the Maastricht Treaty, government is a co-guarantor of the Good opposed to the Amsterdam Treaty, op- Friday Agreement. It remains part of the posed to the Nice Treaty, opposed to the Sinn Féin strategy to advance the cause of second Nice Treaty, opposed to the Lis- Irish unity through being in government bon Treaty, opposed to the second Lisbon North and South while further developing Treaty, opposed to the Fiscal Compact, the All-Ireland institutions. With Stor- and then, somehow, campaigned for a Re- mont in such a precarious position, the main vote. A United Ireland within the centre of influence may shift to the South confines of the European Union not only rather than the North. flies in the face of the political demand for Irish independence but also places im- The National Question mediate limitations on a prospective left government who will be forced to abide by The issue of Irish Unity has come to the Eurozone’s prohibitive spending reg- the fore again following the Brexit vote ulations. Indeed, Sinn Féin are already and the loss of the Unionist majority trying to navigate this contradiction as in Stormont. As the North of Ireland a recent article in warns voted to Remain in the EU but is leav- of an EU superstate’s ’‘new imperialism ing due to a UK-wide vote, the demo- in which Irish neutrality will be absorbed cratic deficit of British rule has been high- in the military adventures already being lighted. This pretext sets the stage for planned’ and ’centralised economic con- Sinn Féin’s Towards a United Ireland doc- trol’.21 ument (2016).20 It is not a particularly prescriptive The Towards a United Ireland doc- document and some elements of it are to ument floats the possibility of transi- be welcomed, including an all-island na- tional arrangements for Irish unity, in- tional health service, free at the point of cluding the continuation of a devolved use. It does, however, mention how a Stormont and a powersharing executive 20Sinn Féin Towards a United Ireland 2016 sinnfein.ie/files/2016/Towards-a-United- Ireland.pdf 21‘EU plans more centralisation against Irish national interests’ An Phoblacht anphoblacht.com/ contents/27122

34 in the North within an All-Ireland frame- confidence relationship to stay in power work. One fails to understand how this and a shift to the left is being experienced would solve the issue of partition or the across these islands. Their days are num- sectarianism of the northern state. This bered. It would be surprising if discus- proposal is even more conservative than sions for Sinn Féin entering government the previously-rejected éire Nua policy in the 26 Counties did not involve a ref- which proposed arrangements for a fed- erendum on Irish unity. eral Ireland. The border would remain, the tension between two ethno-national blocs would remain as a powersharing ex- A New Generation ecutive would be held to ransom by sec- As the party prepares to enter govern- tarian stalemate. The only difference in ment, one issue which repeatedly crops up this scenario, it would appear, would be is the reputation of Gerry Adams. This a green flag over Stormont Castle. year’s Ard Fheis will see Gerry Adams an- Similarly, the document promises to nounce his plans for a transition to a new recognise the role of the Orange Order in leadership. Mary Lou McDonald, who is the cultural life of the Irish nation and expected to take over, is more palatable the connection between the Unionist pop- to a southern electorate as she holds no ulation and the British monarchy. Reac- baggage from armed republicanism. Fi- tionary ideas are not challenged here but, anna Fáil would certainly be more wel- in the logic of the northern state and the coming towards the idea of coalition with politics of identity, are recognised as le- Sinn Féin in the event of Adams’s depar- gitimate expressions of cultural identity, ture. to be balanced out by Irish nationalism Gerry Adams is a figure, however, rather than challenged. This logic is per- who holds the various disparate elements haps best exemplified by the recent deci- within Sinn Féin together. He commands sion of a Belfast City Council committee a loyalty within his party which no future to award funding to both a James Con- Sinn Féin leader can be expected to pos- nolly museum and an Orange Hall mu- sess. Mary Lou McDonald, conversely, seum in a move described as a ‘political has no real popularity in the North. She 22 carve-up’. When reduced only to Irish may even be regarded with suspicion in or British identity, the politics of social- some quarters due to her Fianna Fáil ism and monarchy, imperialism and anti- background. The era of a Sinn Féin pres- imperialism, are expected to live comfort- ident being uncontested for over thirty ably side by side. years is certainly over. Sinn Féin are calling for a referendum The northern wing of the party is on Irish Unity within the next five years. not without its efforts to rebrand either. It is likely that this demand will fall on Michelle O’Neill was evidently chosen as deaf ears at the present period as the two the new northern leader by the party’s sovereign governments are a partitionist Ard Comhairle in part due to her lack supine Fine Gael and an imperialist Tory of IRA past. The party has managed party. However, both are weak minor- to secure its republican base whilst also ity governments relying on a supply-and- making inroads into the more middle- 22Brendan Hughes ‘DUP and Sinn Féin accused of ‘political carve-up’ of £4 million coun- cil fund’ Irish News irishnews.com/news/2017/10/21/news/dup-and-sinn-fe-in-accused-of- political-carve-up-of-4m-council-fund-1168082/

35 class vote of constitutional nationalism to cent election candidates including QUB the detriment of the SDLP. The choice lecturer Peter Doran and solicitor John of Máirtín Ó Muilleoir as Finance Min- Finucane also show a shift towards the ister, with business interests in both Ire- professional classes. There is certainly ev- land and the United States, secures one idence that the nationalist party is lean- of many links between Sinn Féin and the ing increasingly towards an all-class al- North’s affluent business community. Re- liance.

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