evidence: In recent weeks, in the light of Brexit negotiations and the Conservatives’ fragile majority propped up by the Democratic Unionist party, there have been calls from various quarters for Sinn Féin MPs to abandon the Irish republican principle of abstentionism and take part in the British parliament. A debate has opened up around this principle, particularly for a British audience which may not be aware of its political significance in Ireland. [...] The view of Westminster from Belfast is profoundly different to the view from Brighton or Bradford. Many Irish citizens in the north of Ireland view Westminster as a parliament that facilitated and supported 50 years of anti-Irish apartheid and supremacist sectarian rule in their towns and villages. They see a parliament that excused and endorsed the murder of Irish citizens by the British state during a period of conflict. They see Westminster as the parliament that has denied them basic economic and political sovereignty, and decimated public services and social protections for the most vulnerable citizens.