Never far from political debate is the issue of the seven Sinn Féin MPs refusing to take their seats in the House of Commons. The century old tradition of abstentionism increasingly looks a relic from a bygone era as a succession of new dawns shed light on ancient shadows. Paul Maskey, MP for West Belfast, stated clearly last year that his party would never “validate British sovereignty over the island of Ireland by sitting in the Palace of Westminster.”

This is a fallacy. Sinn Féin have validated British sovereignty over Northern Ireland, by not only signing the Good Friday Agreement, but also by governing it. The seven MPs in question maintain offices at Westminster, and are seen around every corner of Parliament Square with the one exception of the chamber.

What’s more, they also now take their seats in Dáil Eireann, which is a further recognition of partition as a fact of the status quo. The legacy of Arthur Griffith is dead, but for some reason is being artificially kept alive.

A frequent response from members of the party is the severity and serious nature of an ‘oath’. This is another semantical argument based solely upon cosmetics. The late Tony Benn nobly demonstrated how one can circumnavigate the pledge; when being sworn in after the 1997 election, Benn said, “As a committed republican, under protest, I take the oath required of me by law, under the Parliamentary Oaths Act of 1866, to allow me to represent my constituency.”

Dennis Skinner, the long-serving MP of the last Parliament, made the dodge his own by saying, in typical fashion, “I solemnly swear that I will bear true and faith allegiance to the Queen when she pays her income tax.” Much of what makes up British parliamentary process is a lot of pomp and fluff, that no one really believes in but feel obliged to maintain.

Another point made by Sinn Féin members is that there would be a largely futile endeavour for them to waiver their hundred year principle as seven MPs out of 650 would be largely powerless. To serve as evidence of this they like to argue that the SDLP achieved little during their time in the Commons; also that fifty SNP MPs have been unable to shift the position of successive Conservative governments on the issue of leaving the EU.

This is a naïve, weak argument. The House of Commons does not consist solely of the debating chamber, but also of several parliamentary committees. Sylvia Hermon has proven how a single MP can exert influence in this arena, demonstrating by extension what seven could do if they exerted themselves.

Furthermore, it seems strange that such a media savvy party as Sinn Féin would fail to recognise the value of appearing in parliamentary debates, and of Irish voices being heard holding the British government to account. As things have stood for the last two years, Northern Ireland is, in the eyes of Britain, represented entirely by the DUP, who actually represent around 20% of the electorate. A republican voice, no longer dubbed by Stephen Rea, would be a vital dose of reality to the Brexit debate.

Another consideration to make is the walking, talking calamity that is Prince Andrew. His association with the notorious pædophile Jeffery Epstein is the story which shows no sign of dissipating in the public eye. The bizarre interview that Andrew gave to the BBC, in which his main line of defence was that he likes pizza and doesn’t sweat, happened to coincide with the launch of series three of The Crown on Netflix. Suffice to say the former cast a shadow over the latter, as the viewing public that week had little appetite for a romanticising of the monarchy.

Over the last week a trending Twitter topic was a hoax coming from screenshotted WhatsApp messages of someone named ‘Gibbo’ reporting that the Queen had died of a heart attack. This was promptly refuted, and Buckingham Palace reported her to in fact be alive and well. The story should serve as a reminder that the Queen is 93-years-old and won’t be around forever. While she is personally very popular among most people in the UK, that popularity is not shared by most of the family that would survive her.

When the issue of monarchy came up during the first head-to-head leaders debate of the current election campaign, Boris Johnson gave a tone deaf reply when he said, in the week that Prince Andrew gave the aforementioned interview, that the institution was “beyond reproach.” Unwittingly, which is not unusual for the Prime Minister, he laid out an important distinction. While the monarch is personally very popular, the monarchy is not.

Were Sinn Féin to take their seats in the Commons, and start a conversation in the Irish and British media over the oath to the monarch, coinciding with a divisive figure taking up the throne, it could well be the catalyst for a change which would bring about the end of the institution of the monarchy.

There will be a certain segment of the party voter base that would not be able to stomach seeing their MPs sitting at Westminster, and so a fine balance would have to be struck to avoid disenchanting yet more of the electorate.

However, there is far more to be gained from Sinn Féin taking their seats. Not only are there many nationalists and republicans who have grown sick in the last two years from listening to ignorant voices discussing the border, but taking their seats could also serve as a re-endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement and a symbol to unionists that republicanism is will to give an inch if they are as well.