Probably never in the annals of musical history has a Ukrainian saxophonist-cum-accordionist, a classical violinist and an Irish bodhrán player come together as a highly-entertaining trio.
But they did this week at a celebratory Yuletide event at Garradh Colmcille in Falcarragh attended by women, men and children representing diverse nationalities including Canadian, South African, American, Irish, Ukrainian and English.
This unique occasion featured musicians, Reuben O’Conluain, Irish-language professor and cultural enthusiast, multi-instrumentalist Yuriii Hryhoriev and talented Olena Korotka, a classically-trained orchestral violinist from the now militarised region of Kherson in southern Ukraine.
The proceedings ranged from delightful musical renderings including traditional Irish tunes as well as Ukrainian folk songs such as ‘Chervona Ruta’ and ‘Cheremshyna,’ to contemporary ballads such as Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah,’ and ‘Until I Found You’ by Stephen Sanchez, with a few festive seasonal songs including ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas‘ tossed in for good measure.
Nimble dancers also took to the floor, shaking their booties in carefree abandon to the lively rhythms of the instruments played so wonderfully.
Many congratulations to Armen Galstyan, a refugee from Odessa, for organising the musicians, and local community activist at Pobal le Chéile, Rosemary Grain, and her enthusiastic support team for hosting the event so well.
For me, and I’m sure for many others attending, the event highlighted the interconnectedness of people across borders illustrating how humanity, regardless of language, skin colour, religion or nationality, is one and the same entity, each element dependent upon the other for peace, progress and prosperity.
Luke Mangan dreamed of becoming a father and when his Falcarragh-born wife, Edel became pregnant, he was overjoyed.
Then tragedy struck.
After an emergency C-section thirty-four weeks into her pregnancy, their baby boy, Alexander (Xander), who had been placed on a life-support ventilator, breathed his last and slipped softly away after only 15 days of life. His death due to complications from fetal hydrops, excessive fluid build-up around his vital organs.
Infant Alexander (Xander) valiantly fights for survival.
Joy for the couple turned into deep, unrelenting sadness sweeping them into a dark abyss of depression, leaving them unable to come to terms with what had happened.
“We were left in complete shock, our senses stunned” said Luke, a physical education and history teacher at Rosses Community School in Dungloe. Edel, with a background in psychology, added, “It was a horrendous experience. Sheer hell to live through.”
Memory box provided by Féileacáin included imprints of Alexander’s tiny hands and feet.
Now three years after that tragic day, Edel and Luke are determined to give back what they received in vital support from a national organisation, Féileacáin (meaning butterfly), a Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support Group that helps parents nationwide in such grieving circumstances.
In an event at 8.30 this Saturday evening, 29 November at The Shamrock Bar in Falcarragh, Edel will cut off Luke’s hair that he has been growing since around the time she became pregnant, as well as his handlebar moustache, in an event entitled ‘Luke’s Head and Moustache Shave.’ . Luke’s hair will then be donated to the Rapunzel Foundation, which provides free real hair wigs to children and adults who’ve suffered hair loss, often due to illness. His sister, Rebecca, will also donate her hair on the evening. There will also be a raffle, with organic oils, creams and tonics donated by medical herbalist Columbia Hillen and free acupuncture treatment from Root Point.
Luke and Edel lovingly remember their infant son through his photograph.
“Féileacáin helped us a lot, even providing us with a memory box with photos of our departed son, a lock of his hair and a porcelain mould of his tiny hands and feet,” said Edel. “It’s an amazing charity that helps grieving parents feel less alone and helps them keep their babies’ memories alive. Their meetings with other bereaved parents helped us to recover.”
Added Luke, “We want to give something back, to hold this event in Falcarragh in memory of our little guy who was very much wanted and loved and whom we didn’t get the chance to keep. To raise public awareness.”
A spokesperson for Féileacáin praised Edel and Luke.
“This wonderful initiative by them both deserves tremendous support,” said Nina Doyle, a co-ordinator for Féileacáin (meaning ‘butterfly’). “It’s not just the money they’ll raise to help us support other parents to keep the precious memory of children alive, one of the worst fears of parents. In the past, there was a lot of stigma attached to stillbirths and neonatal deaths of which there are around five hundred every year in Ireland but this event in Falcarragh will bring the community together in greater understanding.”
As for Luke’s feelings about having his hair cut off. “As the evening approaches, I’m becoming more nervous. My hair will be the shortest it’s ever been since my childhood. But it’s all for a very good cause.”
What a theatrical triumph this past weekend for local amateur drama company, The Cloughaneely Players, who meet close to my home here in the scenic northwest corner of Donegal.
Not only did they host a superb re-enactment, complete with costumes and wigs, of James Joyce’s classic short story ‘The Dead’ set in 1904 in a most enjoyable manner, but they transformed a rural Donegal house into a 19th century multi-stage setting using most of the rooms in the house, both upstairs and downstairs, for various scenes.
Many congratulations to director Carmel MacGill, consultant director Murray Learmont, choreographer Caroline McGee, and more than twenty talented local amateur actors and musicians for a superb show.
And keep in mind, we’re not talking about well-paid West End or Broadway professional performers (though you might be mistaken that they were). We’re talking about a local bartender, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor or two, a real estate broker, a hypno-therapist, even a retired revenue sheriff, and many others, all of whom bring sheer enthusiasm and passion into treading the boards.
Here’s a few photographs to illustrate the weekend’s entertainment.
I’ve written a much more comprehensive article in tribute to these delightful women and men for this Thursday’s edition of the Donegal News on the Digest page so pick up a copy and have a read and rejoice we have such talented artists among us.
And don’t miss out on their next production. The tickets will be red hot, so buy early. No doubt they’ll be sold for high prices on the international black market.
Thank you to Catriona Kelly, Jake Campbell McLaughlin and Maggie McKinney for photographs.
Thankfully, mercy of mercies, the Irish Presidential election is almost over.
In a few hours, people throughout the Emerald Isle can breathe a sigh of relief. And get on with everyday things, knowing full well that the winning candidate will have barely a whisper of an effect on their day-to-day lives.
They may, however, be a wee bit miffed that election of a person in office for the next seven years with no power to affect their lives will cost them over 35 million euro, over five million a year in salaries and expenses.
That’s over 13,000 euro for every single day.
Put another way, it’s over 1,600 euro per hour based on an 8-hour working day.
That could pay salaries for a helluva lot of nurses and doctors to help strengthen Ireland’s woeful health system. Not to mention what it could do for struggling schools and community centres.
It begs the question – Is it worth it?
Sadly, this presidential contest, if one can dignify it with this word, is also probably the most boring in living memory, aside from a single mini-drama when one of only three candidates dropped out, no doubt realising being so far behind in the opinion polls, he’d probably come in fourth.
It’s also sad that as the two candidates in the race have been well-established party supported national political figures for many years, real refreshing innovative change is obviously not on the Irish agenda for the foreseeable future. Something that’s probably welcome to some of Ireland’s politicians as their salaries and expenses are quite lucrative. Certainly compared to other countries.
This Presidential election has turned out to be the predictable cliche, Left Versus Right scenario, a pretty straightforward political party battle, with Catherine Connolly, who simply left the Labour Party because she wasn’t picked as an election candidate, head and shoulders intellectually above her rival, Heather Humphreys, former Minister for the Fine Gael coalition government partner. A lady who started her campaign with a fixed butter-wouldn’t melt-in-my-mouth regal smile until, seeing herself well behind her rival, suddenly grew fangs. Much too late.
What’s most depressing about this whole Presidential affair is that the leading parties in Ireland turned this election into ‘them-versus-us’ party political battle, thus making sure the next President of Ireland, the only position based on a national vote, would not be handed to a truly Independent candidate with experience on both the left and right of centre, someone from a working-class background but successful in business, someone with fresh new ideas, vision and comprehensive international experience, something sadly neither candidate possesses.
Is Sinn Fein’s decision this weekend to support Independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, in November’s Irish Presidential elections a case of the tail wagging the dog?
It certainly seems so.
After much dithering and delay, Ireland’s third ranked political party – which not so long ago could have topped the polls nationwide and emerged as the nation’s leading party if they’d only put forward more candidates – could not even decide on its own Presidential candidate, party member or not.
Instead, it meekly followed in the wake of other smaller Left-leaning parties who have been supporting Connolly for many months.
Catherine Connolly – established Irish politician.
If that’s not the tail wagging the dog, what is?
No matter how well the story is spun – and sadly Sinn Fein party leader Mary Lou MacDonald offered an ‘over-the-top’ act to do so a few days ago, uttering the superlative cliché ‘game-changer’ – this non-decision decision may come back to bite her and her colleagues.
While they won’t say it publicly, the other Left wing parties in Ireland are now frothing at the mouth at the possibility of stealing parliament seats from Sinn Fein at the next election.
Unfortunately, Mary Lou made the situation even worse this weekend when she tried vainly to justify choosing Connolly by saying recent Irish presidents had been elected “from outside the political establishment” and that Connolly was following in that tradition.
What a load of nonsense.
Catherine Connolly has been an ‘established’ politician for the last quarter of a century, beginning as local councillor in Galway, then rising to Mayor five years later, then becoming a TD ten years ago. For goodness sake, she was even chairperson of Ireland’s national parliament for a full four years.
If that’s not ‘established’, what is?
Even the present President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, elected not once but twice over the last 14 years, was a ‘classic established politician.’ For almost half a century including stints as Labour Party president, Senator, TD (Member of Parliament) and even as a Minister.
One has to ask oneself ‘Who the hell is writing Mary Lou’s scripts. And who’s conducting her research?”
I’ve always been Left of center in my political outlook, and would like Sinn Fein to be in Government and shake up the meagre mediocrity of Irish politics. But with poor decisions like this one over the Presidency, I fear that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Sinn Fein has shown itself in many instances to be a no-risk party, including its electoral management strategy in Donegal where I now live. In order for it to justify its claim as a leading party, it needs to take risks. But time and time again, it has shown itself to be very much risk averse.
My humble view is that Irish people are desperate for a fresh face in Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, someone truly not involved in Irish politics. Someone with the international experience necessary to conduct the role of Presidency in a strong diplomatic manner. They simply don’t want the Presidential race to be based along worn, age-old political party lines.
That’s why someone like Gareth Sheridan – a man whose US-based company has accumulated losses of 40 million dollars and who has himself already been fined for misleading people about his business and whose main business partner is said to have links with Russian oligarchs – has managed to get two county councils in Ireland to nominate him as a Presidential candidate.
That’s how desperate Irish people are to find someone new.
Mary Lou went half way by talking about the need for someone new.
But then she went right ahead and selected someone straight from the old political establishment. And to make matters worse, someone other parties had already selected a long time ago.
It seems Sinn Fein may have just bought the ruling coalition of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael an early Christmas present.
Sinn Fein’s President Mary Lou McDonald today described on national airwaves that her political party’s long-awaited, soon-to-be-named Irish Presidential candidate would be a ‘game changer.’
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the party’s participation in the Presidential Election campaign will be a “game-changer”. Sinn Féin has been mulling over its approach to the race for Áras an Úachtaráin, with two options at its disposal – either run its own candidate or back Independent Catherine Connolly’s campaign. Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Co Offaly, Ms McDonald said she already knew the proposal she would be bringing to the party, but that it would not be made public until Saturday. Go to link in bio for more #rtenews#ireland#presidentialelection#sinnfein
Having used this grandiose, hifalutin phrase, that’s exactly what supporters and would-be supporters of Sinn Fein will be expecting that person to be – a unique choice who will shock and surprise everyone.
The kind of individual a disillusioned electorate are hungry for. Someone whose name and background will light a fire under what has already become – albeit in its early stages – a timid, banal, utterly predictable and lukewarm election campaign.
To use such a superlative phrase as ’game-changer’ and not deliver an individual with the immense passion, innovative vision and creativity the term demands will be considered by most people to be a dismal failure. And show Sinn Fein to be a ‘has-been, once-was’ party, one whose rise in recent years has incontrovertibly stalled.
To come up with something less – such as merely supporting Independent Catherine Connolly – will help damn the party into endless Opposition. It will signal to a triumphant Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition Government that it has nothing to worry about from Ireland’s third-ranked party. That Sinn Fein is all bark and bluster. But no real bite.
Regardless of the spin about Left wing unity, Sinn Fein supporting Connolly will be seen as nothing less than inherent party weakness. That of a political party seeking to lead the country that cannot even find a suitable candidate for the most universally elected political position in the nation.
That’s not leadership. That’s impotence.
Supporting Connolly, Sinn Fein at this stage will also be seen as being led by the other Left wing parties who decided on her months ago. And they risk losing key votes at the next election as a result, probably leading to an inevitable decline in its parliamentary seats. A major, perhaps irrecoverable, blow to the party’s hardworking grassroots members.
Thus it’s all-important, not just for future success but for sheer survival, that Mary Lou and her colleagues in the upper ranks of Sinn Fein deliver what they’ve promise so confidently. Nothing less will do.
In doing so, hopefully, they’ll also make this rather boring Irish Presidential battle a bit more interesting than it is right now, raising it from its low-level drab ordinariness.
If they don’t, Sinn Fein may pay a heavy price at the next election. And possibly never recover from the fall.
For a party that is admirably ethical and honest in its dealings, with a central mission of equality and justice for all, they need to find the courage to take risk, something the party is not particularly known for, as not running a second candidate in the Gweedore-Cloughaneely area in the last election showed, with Pearse Doherty’s massive surplus votes going nowhere instead of towards electing a record third TD in Donegal.
This Presidential campaign is Sinn Fein’s Rubicon moment. It’ll be intriguing to see if they manage to cross over. Or drown in the effort.
Avid gardeners, herbalists and Nature lovers from countries as diverse as South Africa, England and Ukraine as well as many parts of Donegal gathered this week in Killybegs to share their knowledge about health-giving herbs and plants.
The well-attended event at the Niall Mór Community and Enterprise Centre was part of the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme supported by the Donegal Local Development Company, with more than 30 participants learning to integrate everyday garden flora into tasty dishes supporting digestion, blood circulation, cardiac issues and to help balance blood-sugar levels.
“It’s very important we bring back the knowledge about harnessing the goodness of Nature as food and medicine,” said west-Donegal based Joanne Butler, Climate Action Officer with DLDC, and founder of OURganic Gardens who organised the event. “The benefits include nutrition, mental and physical health and community resilience and care for the environment. The DLDC programme started two years ago and my role is to coordinate community garden network events and help such initiatives with good governance, funding, awareness-raising and other supports they need.”
Guest presenter at the Killybegs event was Columbia Hillen, a member of the Irish Register of Herbalists and the Association of Master Herbalists, who will also host various workshops at Anamcara Healing Herbs Garden in Gweedore.
Columbia Hillen, medical herbalist who held the workshop.
Susanna Friel, from London, who bought an 8-acre smallholding in Donegal, said “The workshop helped transform the way we look at ‘weeds’ as ‘enemies’ and turn them into friends. Columbia showed how easily-recognisable plants such as dandelions and cleavers can be turned into – not just medicines – but delicious ingredients in our everyday diets to maintain robust, glowing health.“
Tish Yelland, a retired kinesiologist who arrived in Donegal from South Africa over two years ago and ‘bushwhacked’ farmland that was fallow for a decade, said, “Plants such as lawn daisies and bramble have healing superpowers used for centuries by our elders. How absolutely refreshing to know there is a herbalist right here in Donegal who educates and empowers people to re-discover a love of weeds. Columbia communicated her knowledge in a relaxed and fun manner but also invited us to share our experiences about foraging and best use of plants for nutrition. Mixing gorse in butter makes it taste even better. As for pesto made from nettles, it’s simply scrumptious. Who’d have thought such an irritating plant could be so good.”
Ronan McNern from Shy By Nature Farm, a community-based project in Inver that sells homegrown vegetable boxes in south Donegal, said, “Since attending the workshop, my volunteers have been busy making healing recipes from dandelions, gorse flowers and nettles. No better way to stay healthy.”
A unique hands-on workshop will be hosted by qualified medical herbalist, Columbia Hillen, at her own charming Anamcara Healing Herbs Garden in Donegal in May, teaching participants to create special health drinks and integrate herbs into everyday foods to help support digestion, blood circulation, cardiac health, balance blood-sugar levels and achieve a more relaxed state of mind and body, among many other benefits.
A former school teacher and leading media professional, Columbia is an experienced herbalist and registered member of the Irish Register of Herbalists – and also the organisation’s social media coordinator – and the Association of Master Herbalists. She is also a national award-winning photographer. Her love and understanding of Nature and the many health benefits plants provide means her own garden in west Donegal features almost 100 different varieties which attracted Ireland’s leading national newspaper, The Irish Times, to publish a special feature article on her life and work in a recent edition.
This innovative three-hour workshop package-event takes place on Saturday May 3rd and includes complimentary lunch accompanied by a variety of herbal teas, special easy-to-make food recipes to help strengthen and maintain physical and mental well-being, medications made during the workshop and free dried herbs for participants to take home with them.
Workshop fee is 65 euro. See details HERE for a discount offer.
Due to the practical, hands-on nature of this workshop, participation is limited to ten (10) participants only so it is recommended to contact Columbia if interested before Monday April 28 to be assured of a place.
Is it not reprehensible – the height of hypocrisy in fact – that Simon Harris the leader of the Irish Government – has the audacity to accuse Sinn Féin in recent weeks of ‘duping’ people when it expelled several party members for substandard social behaviour?
Simon Harris – the Dishonourable Duke of Duping.
The Cambridge dictionary definition of dupe is ‘to deceive’ and if anyone is guilty of deception, it is Harris and his colleagues in the coalition Government of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party.
Over the last four years since being in power – and for many years before that – these parties have been nothing less than ‘repeat offenders,’ constantly deceiving the ordinary hardworking people of Ireland with false promises of a quality lifestyle as befitting a nation that is one of the earliest members of the European Union, then called the European Economic Community, or EEC for short, back in 1973.
Instead, however, we have one of the most disastrous health systems on the continent, with people waiting years for life-saving surgeries, often dying before they receive it; we are awash in homelessness and poverty, with an estimated people 30,000 living on the streets, including thousands of young children and infants; we have a forsaken, forgotten, forlorn State where retirees and newlyweds alike are unable to afford the rent of a simple home, never mind the financial resources to even remotely consider buying one to end or begin their lives together in a modicum of comfort.
Not only does the Dishonourable Duke of Duping continue to deceive people that after all these years he’ll one day consider putting a roof over our heads, but he himself basks in the lap of luxury in one of the most expensive and elitist places in Ireland, the scenic coastal town of Greystones in county Wicklow, where he was born, where he lives and where houses cost up to two million euro, and more.
But is it not somewhat harsh of us to criticise the Dishonourable Duke of Duping for his lack of common decency? Is it not unfair to ask a man of such Royal blood living in such a high falutin’ environment to understand the plight of so many desperate Irish people? Is that not akin to asking King Charles of England to make his own cupán tae once in a while?
Shamefully, while the wealthy in Ireland (many of whom are the Dishonourable Duke of Duping’s closest neighbours) while away their days in decadent lifestyles with fancy homes in fancy places or travel in environmentally-damaging private jets (which the Dishonourable Duke of Duping does frequently) and indulge their whims in ostentatious holiday homes abroad (which the Dishonourable Duke of Duping often does), modern Ireland suffers the worst housing shortage in its entire 100-year history.
Studies show less than a third of 30-year-olds own their home. Over half of all newly-built homes in greater Dublin alone were bought or developed by global vulture investor funds, thus locking countless people out of ever attempting to buy one. These ‘vampire funds’ don’t buy homes to sell, they buy them to extract high rents in perpetuity. In other words, they suck the lifeblood out of decent Irish society.
And to make matters worse, the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his cadre of Government lackeys allowed a temporary no-fault eviction ban in Ireland to lapse last March, thus opening the floodgates for more than 15,000 notices of termination to be issued last year, making the number of evictions higher than it was during the Famine in the mid-1800s.
For centuries, gutless, greedy, often absentee, landlords, have been the scourge of Ireland, rich, ruthless people who with the click of a finger, a scribbled signature on a sheet of paper, thoughtlessly tossed hungry families out into the ditches.
Now it seems the same is happening all over again in modern Ireland, this time under the dictatorial rule of the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his ignoble entourage.
Instead of urgently dealing with these major social and health issues that are making the lives of so many Irish people intolerable, Harris and his well-to-do cohorts, including Government coalition leaders, Micheál Martin of Fianna Fail and Roderic O’Gorman of the Green Party, are pointing their grubby finger at Sinn Féin, an oft-used political ploy to distract popular attention away from the real issues, and their own failings on them.
In doing so, however, these ‘I’m-better-than-you’ leaders fail to realise something important. While the bitter winds of winter howl at our doors, while Storm Ashley batters the coast this weekend, Irish people are not bears. They are not hibernating. They are wide awake. And fearful. And hungry. And cold. And they remember the empty promises made to them from on high four years ago, and for many years before that.
Maybe, just maybe, we should ask Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to re-tell the story of these empty promises once more, to remind us how easily we were taken for fools. And in doing so, help us make sure the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his Royal patrons don’t sneak back into power through the back door and make jesters of us for another four years in their Court of Failure.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ve learned our lesson and are wide awake enough to elect Sinn Féin, the ‘Party of Change’ and improve things for the better. For each and everyone of us, our parents, our children and the generations who come after.
ATHLONE, WESTMEATH – A resounding ‘YES’ was the answer that rang out loud and clear all around me from around 1,500 enthusiastic and committed members, young and old, men and women, some teenagers, some retirees, gathered for the party’s annual Ard Fheis in Athlone, Westmeath several weeks ago.
A large Donegal delegation, the county where I live in northwest Ireland, attended the Ard Fheis.
I know from past experience in both Europe and the US that political party conferences can be full of hype and promise but I sensed something special in the air at this one. Positivity, definitely. Excitement, plenty. Anticipation, yes. Expectation, ditto. Even a little apprehension. Natural, considering it’s been 100 years since Sinn Fein last walked through the corridors of power as the undisputed political leader of Ireland.
Attending this annual meeting, I was extremely impressed with the overwhelming enthusiasm shown by members, their readiness to be in Government and make meaningful changes in Ireland for a better future for all and by the large number of women present, many of whom spoke incisively from the stage as delegates on a range of issues, from education to health, the high cost of living to homelessness.
With local and EU elections, and perhaps national ones as well, occurring next year, it seemed appropriate that a party that continues to rise in national popularity was holding its annual party meeting in Athlone, a town considered the geographical center of Ireland, with Sinn Féin hoping its influence radiates from there nationwide in all directions.
Led by two women, Mary Lou McDonald, the party’s president and TD for Dublin Central, and Michelle O’Neill, party vice-president and First Minister Elect in Northern Ireland, with TDs nationwide, would-be Ministers-in-waiting, including TDs Pearse Doherty and Pádraig MacLochlainn from Donegal where I now live and with whom I spoke during breaks in the formal proceedings, all aired their views on key issues such as the cost of living crisis, plight of the health system, mounting housing problems, and many more.
We want to build a new Ireland,” said McDonald in her keynote address after receiving a rousing reception. “A nation home for all. A unified nation of confidence and compassion, talent and ingenuity, claiming our future, our rightful place among the nations of the world. A new Ireland. The Orange and Green reconciled. No place for racism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or sectarianism.”
O’Neill spoke about the urgent need to kick-start the Stormont Assembly, the national parliament in Belfast, which has been boycotted by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main Unionist opposition, for the past year. “My message is one of positivity, one about the future, about building a better society for us all to live side by side,” she said. “My message to the DUP is that they need to be in the Executive with the rest of us, making politics work, making this a better place for everybody who lives here.”
Pearse Doherty, the party’s spokesperson on finance, thanked his fellow party members, saying, “You are the engine room of our organisation. Your work, your energy, your ideas, make Sinn Féin what it is – the only viable vehicle for the ordinary people of Ireland to achieve change in our country, and the only viable vehicle to achieve the unity of our country. We are focused on one thing – delivery for workers and family the length and breadth of our island. We are on the countdown to the general election, and we are setting out the type of change that a Sinn Féin government will deliver if the people give us that opportunity. We are setting out our plans to build a better, fairer country for all, for positive change and transformation.”
Pearse Doherty listens closely as Mary Lou McDonald gives her keynote address.
Paul Hayes, from Carrigart, Sinn Féin regional secretary in Donegal, was delighted with the weekend’s success, telling me that the Ard Fheis had brought together over 1,400 people, with more than 200 speakers over 300 issues voted on. “It’s a great success, I’m very happy,” he told me, smiling. Sitting beside me in the auditorium stalwart Pat Doherty, former Sinn Féin vice-president, wore a quiet, thoughtful – one might even say, contented – expression on his face. And no wonder. After many years of personal struggle and hard work towards the goal of a United Ireland Socialist Republic, the idea – once remote – of his party leading Government both in the north and south of of the nation seems rapidly becoming a reality.
(left to right) Paul Hayes, Sinn Féin regional secretary in Donegal, with Pat Doherty, the party’s former vice-president.Both were happy with the strong attendance and content at the Ard Fheis.
Thanking me for exclusive information I provided to Sinn Féin on RTE expenses, MacLochlainn, the party’s chief whip and spokesperson on fisheries and the marine, added, “We are mindful that this Sinn Féin Ard Fheis could be the last one before the next general election and the formation of a new government. We are confident, we are ready.”
Pádraig MacLochlainn, TD, is confident. “Sinn Féin is ready for Government,” he said.
Among the many motions passed was one affecting many people in Donegal. This pertains to an ongoing scandal – houses that are crumbling due to mica and pyrite in concrete. “Sinn Féin are determined to lead the next government so it is important to renew our commitment to one hundred percent redress and to spell out how we would implement that policy, if we get that chance,” said Sinn Féin housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin. “We believe the Enhanced Defective Concrete Block Grant Scheme is another scheme that will deny redress to most affected homeowners.”
Aside from domestic issues, Sinn Féin also debated foreign policy issues with loud cheers of support and a prolonged standing ovation given to Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, Ambassador of Palestine to Ireland, a VIP guest speaker.
Sinn Féin initially abstained at local council and national level from calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland but in face of horrific stories of death and life-threatening injuries, including thousands of young children, and the wholesale destruction of home and hearth in Gaza, changed tack and formally backed those calls, as well as calling for Israel to be referred to the International Criminal Court by Ireland and the Irish government to formally recognise the State of Palestine.
“We call for an immediate ceasefire and stand firmly behind Palestine in its hopes and aspirations for its own homeland recognised by all international bodies and a long and lasting peace with all its neighbours,” said Matt Carthy, the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, who also thanked me for a proposal I made on a possible long-term solution to the Palestine question.
Young members of Sinn Féin show their support for Palestine.
Elsewhere at the Ard Fheis, former Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, cheerfully met with a long line of well-wishers as he signed copies of his latest book, Black Mountain and Other Stories. Gerry has authored a number of books including Before the Dawn: An Autobiography; Cage Eleven: Writings From Prison;The Street And Other Stories; Falls Memories; and A Farther Shore: Ireland’s Long Road.
I am proud to say that Gerry’s Donegal holiday house lies less than 10 kilometers from my own home and that his mother and mine were very close friends as teenagers, working side-by-side in west Belfast and stayed together in the Donegal Gaeltacht on several occasions (with their interest in boys vying closely with their interest in the Irish language and culture, I am reliably informed).
Former Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, signs copies of his books.
Sean Hillen 