"At the End of the Day": An Interview with Mairead Keane, National Head of Sinn Fein Women's Department

Abstract

As National Head of the Women's Department, Mairead Keane has been responsible for finding out what concerns Irish women feel are important to their daily lives. Her position involves both working with other activists to advance those issues outside of Sinn Fein and formulating policies and developing educational programs that address those concerns within the party. Sinn Fein is a legally recognized party, which operates through electoral politics in both the six counties of the North and the twenty-six counties of the Republic of Ireland to end the partition of the country resulting from British rule in the six counties since 1920. Although Sinn Fein rejects media constructions of itself as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, the party identifies with the goals of the IRA, while reserving the right not to endorse all IRA activities. Electoral politics is, of course, about representation, but in all thirtytwo counties of Ireland, Sinn Fein's access to representation is severely curtailed by legislation that prohibits interviews with members of Sinn Fein from being broadcast. In the six counties, the successful election to par-