Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to say that for the first time since partition, nationalists have rejected Westminster and turned their backs on it. They have said they want no part in Westminster and, of course, that Westminster should have no part with them. That would be a more appropriate response than the comments we have heard from Deputy Micheál Martin and other regional party leaders such as Fine Gael and Labour, who have told us that republicans must take their seats in Westminster and swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen of England. I wonder whether the same people would have advised those who set up the first Dáil in 1918 that such a bold and decisive decision was folly and that Sinn Féin MPs should take their seats at Westminster instead. How dare they stand on the sidelines as passive observers of politics in the North and tell the huge expressed democratic mandate endorsed for the Sinn Féin stance that they have to ignore that and travel to England?