Editing Sinn Féin (section)

=== 1983–1998===
[[File:Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.jpg|thumb|Under the political leadership of [[Gerry Adams]] and [[Martin McGuinness]] (pictured 2016), Sinn Féin adopted a reformist policy, eventually leading to the [[Good Friday Agreement]].]]
Under Adams' leadership electoral politics became increasingly important. In 1983 [[Alex Maskey]] was elected to [[Belfast City Council]], the first Sinn Féin member to sit on that body.{{sfn|Murray|Tonge|2005|page=153}} Sinn Féin polled over 100,000 votes in the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|Westminster elections that year]], and Adams won the [[Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency)|West Belfast]] seat that had been held by the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP).{{sfn|Murray|Tonge|2005|page=153}} [[1985 Northern Ireland local elections#Overall|By 1985]] it had 59 seats on seventeen of the 26 Northern Ireland councils, including seven on Belfast City Council.{{sfn|Murray|Tonge|2005|page=155}}

The party began a reappraisal of the policy of abstention from the Dáil. At the 1983 ''Ard Fheis'' the constitution was amended to remove the ban on the discussion of abstentionism to allow Sinn Féin to run a candidate in the forthcoming European elections. However, in his address, Adams said, "We are an abstentionist party. It is not my intention to advocate change in this situation."{{sfn|Feeney|2002|page=326}} A motion to permit entry into the Dáil was allowed at the 1985 ''Ard Fheis'', but did not have the active support of the leadership, and it failed narrowly.{{sfn|Feeney|2002|page=328}} By October of the following year an IRA Convention had indicated its support for elected Sinn Féin TDs taking their seats. Thus, when the motion to end abstention was put to the ''Ard Fheis'' on 1 November 1986, it was clear that there would not be a split in the IRA as there had been in 1970.{{sfn|Feeney|2002|page=331}} The motion was passed with a two-thirds majority. Ó Brádaigh and about twenty other delegates walked out, and met in a Dublin hotel with hundreds of supporters to re-organise as [[Republican Sinn Féin]].{{sfn|Feeney|2002|page=333}}

In October 1988, the British Conservative government followed the Republic in banning broadcasts of Sinn Féin representatives. Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] said it would "deny terrorists the oxygen of publicity". Broadcasters quickly found ways around the ban, mainly by using actors to dub the voices of banned speakers. The legislation did not apply during election campaigns and under certain other circumstances. The ban lasted until 1994.<ref>{{cite news |title=The 'broadcast ban' on Sinn Féin |work=[[BBC News]] |first=Francis |last=Welch |date=5 April 2005 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4409447.stm |access-date=21 June 2013 |archive-date=26 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726210043/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4409447.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Tentative negotiations between Sinn Féin and the British government led to more substantive discussions with the SDLP in the 1990s. Multi-party negotiations began in 1994 in Northern Ireland, without Sinn Féin. The Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in August 1994. Sinn Féin then joined the talks, but the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government under [[John Major]] soon came to depend on unionist votes to remain in power. It suspended Sinn Féin from the talks, and began to insist that the IRA decommission all of their weapons before Sinn Féin be re-admitted to the talks; this led to the IRA calling off its ceasefire. The new [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government of [[Tony Blair]] was not reliant on unionist votes and re-admitted Sinn Féin, leading to another, permanent, ceasefire.{{sfn|Murray|Tonge|2005|pages=193–194}}

The talks led to the [[Good Friday Agreement]] of 10 April 1998, which set up an inclusive devolved government in Northern Ireland, and altered the Dublin government's constitutional claim to the whole island in [[Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland]]. Republicans opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin in the peace process formed the [[32 County Sovereignty Movement]] in the late 1990s.<ref>Independent Monitoring Commission, ''Twenty-first Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission'', The Stationery Office, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-10-295967-3}}, p. 31.</ref>