Understood, and intimidation in any form is of course obnoxious, and perhaps the party's history as one of resistance accentuates the tendancy towards intimidation on the part of its members. Not being anywhere near it (and being totally against the sort of violence its military arm employed in the UK and elsewhere in the past) I wouldn't deign to try to understand...

One would hope that with the passing from one generation to the next this will change. Violence aside though, looking from afar, they appear to be a credible left alternative in the tradition of James P Connolly, great man that he was.

Hopefully Gilmore will reconsider his zero-tolerance approach else I suspect you will not see much change, assuming Labor would instead need to partner with FG (or worse, FF) and meet the same fate they did 15 years ago.  

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

Not mention plain, straightforward criminality.

Sinn Fein's friends are even less desirable than Fianna Fail's.