Fianna Fail

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To be or not to be (a Donegal councillor)

Lugh’s top three choices in the Glenties electoral area

What’s termed in America, ‘mid-term elections’ are coming up tomorrow (Friday) – and the results will indicate the future evolution of political parties and individual candidates, the direction country and counties will take and perhaps even leadership changes.

Living in Gaoth Dobhair, here’s Lugh’s take on his local area (from Dunfanaghy to Dungloe) within the Glenties Electoral area –

VOTE FOR:

Marie Therese Gallagher, Sinn Fein

John Sheamuis O’Fearraigh, Sinn Fein

Micheal Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig, Independent

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Lugh carefully analyses the candidates

Why?

Marie Therese Gallagher

Setting aside for the moment that there are simply not enough women in Irish politics today, thus a major loss to the political system as whole, Marie Therese has performed very well as a sitting council member (while, at the same time – multi-tasking comes so much easier to women than men – nurturing a delightful family). Reflecting Sinn Fein’s consistent stand on principles of fairness and social justice, she and her party colleagues remained firm against the council budget last year due mainly to Irish Water taking over local water services and people having to pay yet another government stealth tax. Fianna Fail, on the other hand, caved in, with Rena Donaghy, presenting a poor excuse for ducking the vote on the night and Independent, John Campbell, swapping sides to that of Fine Gael and Labour at the last minute.

On the issue of women in politics, Ireland remains in the Dark Ages – even more so with regard to women’s rights. Without Mary Robinson and her successor, Mary McAleese, we’d have been left with Fianna Fail’s Padraig Flynn, Charlie Haughey, Brian Lenihan’s claims that women belong in the kitchen peeling potatoes and in the bathroom changing nappies.  Yet, while some progress has indeed been made, still only 17 per cent of council seats across Ireland are currently filled by women, the worst record in Europe.

John Sheamais O’Fearraigh

John, married to Bernadette and father of three children, is a sincere, decent man, who has contributed much to the local community over the years, through his various roles, especially as a youth worker and on a number of local committees. His message is a simple one, a fine prescription for healing the wounds of society, and particularly here in Ireland: each to his abilities, each to his needs.

John spoke eloquently and passionately on national TV (TG4) a few weeks back about the urgent need for transparency and financial accountability from publicly-funded bodies such as Udaras na Gaeltachta (after the corruptive practices at the higher levels of FAS, the Garda Siochana and Rehab surely we’ve had enough of the particular Irish condition known colloquially as ‘cute whorism’). A vote for him is a vote for progress.

Micheal Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig

Micheal is both vocal and passionate about social justice and deserves credit for the way in which he has put his words into actions, including being a member of the ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ campaign. He has organized a number of events, several of which I have attended, some of which I have enjoyed immensely. Local editors inform me he is persistent in pushing stories on diverse social issues, including anti-racism, and greater transparency on public issues, although it was bemusing that he declined to go on the air for TG4 recently to talk about spending of between one and three million euro by Udaras na Gaeltachta on a proposed addiction clinic in Falcarragh without proper benefit-investment information being presented for public analysis. Micheal has been described by some as irascible, but then again so has former Mayor and Councillor Frank McBrearty, a man who has brought up some extremely important issues in the council chamber rather than bow to that most common of Irish characteristics – aversion – a strategy that leaves truth as the ultimate casualty. Irascibility may thus be one of the most important qualities required in the chamber if councillors are to successfully fight for their corner, their supporters and their issues.

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Lugh seeks trusted advice from his elders

Candidates in the Glenties electoral area who disappointed me

 John Curran, Fine Gael

Running as a Fine Gael candidate instead of an independent (as he informed me he had been considering) has, unfortunately, been a mistake for John, making it harder for him to drum up enough votes to get over the line. Let’s be honest, John had no real choice in the matter as the party put him on the board of Udaras na Gaeltachta with an eye on propelling him forward on a rising political career, perhaps even successor to Minister of State, Dinny McGinley. The decision John took to run on a FG ticket – or was taken for him – has both pros and cons.

The cons are Fine Gael’s wretched record over the last three years and its list of broken electoral promises – ‘not another penny’ and ‘those guilty shall pay’ being its twin, pre-election mantra, which has obviously collapsed in a heap of rubble – is a hard sell. The pros – the party machine behind John’s electoral effort: more ad money; more people out canvassing; more and bigger posters.

To my mind, John had a golden opportunity to prove his individual worth – and blew it – over the proposed spending of millions of euro of public money on a church-run addiction clinic in Falcarragh. Instead of following through on the twin issues he promised as a newly-appointed Udaras board member two years ago – being a watchdog over the organization to create greater transparency and accountability on spending as well as promoting tourism based on our rich, native culture as a top priority – he has put loyalty to the organization ahead of loyalty to the people whose money it spends – some say, too wantonly and irresponsibly.

See his quote in a story published in the Donegal News: “Everyone is aware of the lack of transparency in Ireland in the past on certain matters and the unfortunate results for the country as a whole. My commitment is that in future Udaras will be completely open in its dealings so that projects – whether in culture, language or economics – are selected on merit and need, not on who certain people know. Cronyism should play no part in its affairs.”

For example, John has made little effort to inform ordinary people how much the proposed addiction clinic will cost or detail the specific community benefits to Falcarragh (as it is proposed to be located where he now lives, he could also be accused of pork barrel politics). John’s initial assertion that the clinic would create a magic 45 jobs is a simple case of political flag-waving. Basic business sense says no jobs are guaranteed until an operation is up and running, (not to mention if any, or many, jobs, will be local), so this number is a figment of the imagination.

John dipped his toe into what he thought was the cool waters of local Irish politics and it came out red and roasting. I like John as a person, so much so I gave him my Croker All-Ireland hurling final tickets last year, with no favors asked and none given (I’ve also offered game tickets to other decent people such as the two local former Gardai, Martin Ridge and Seamus Corbett; Timmy Boyle, friendly Bunbeg restaurateur and boatman, and his brother-in-law, Sabba, one of the kindest men I have met hereabouts). John and I have sat down for dinner and coffees together and held long discussions on various subjects. He had my vote, then let it slip from his grasp. With his background, John would be a help to any local community but not as a political party hack. If he’s not his own man, then he’s nobody’s man.

Seamus O’Domhnaill, Fianna Fail

A win for him in west Donegal means once again developers and bankers will celebrate victory with raised champagne glasses.

Regardless that inappropriate lending and fat bonuses for bankers, as well as developers absconding with much of the loans, has led to national economic collapse and continuing austerity, these two sectors – feeding into each other – remain O’Domhnaill’s twin political platforms.

Considering the amount of money Fianna Fail has reaped from both sectors over the years and the fact that the ‘old guard’ of the party still rules the roost, it should come as no surprise that this strategy will continue to be O’Domhnaill’s remit for years to come. If he wins, and with his brother, Brian as a Senator, his supporters within Fianna Fail hope to dominate future proceedings in their local area of Falcarragh and Gortahork. Then again, some say if Fianna Fail put up a donkey in certain parts of Donegal, it would get elected.

In conclusion, my top three choices of electoral candidates are Marie Therese Gallagher, Sinn Fein; John Sheamais O’Fearraigh, Sinn Fein; and Micheal Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig, Independent. I now cordially invite you to join me in voting for them. We missed out on making the kind of radical political changes we should have made three years ago. Let’s not miss out on it now. If we do, we’d never forgive ourselves.

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Owen Curran: well-respected Donegal community activist speaks out

Names his choices for local elections in the Glenties

Watching as stone cottages in England were leveled to make way for a nuclear power plant and seeing protestors trying to stop it being mistreated by police was the beginning of Owen Curran’s political awakening.

“I was nineteen, living in England, but that planted a seed in me,” the 51-year-old explains simply during a recent two-hour interview at Lough Altan Hotel in Gortahork.

Owen, first from the left, looking at camera, displays his solidarity with protestors seeking greater equality and social justice.

In the intervening thirty-two years, that seed has grown into a sturdy tree, its branches used in the protection of basic civil and community rights and furtherance of a more equitable society. That’s why Curran, who was born in Glasgow but who grew up in Ray, west Donegal, and has lived the last 12 years in nearby Derryconnor, came to be one of the canvassers for a then aspiring Dublin political leader named Joe Higgins in the 1990s. That’s how he also ended up in the vanguard of the Cloughaneely ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ campaign against the household and water taxes; among 15,000 people protesting outside the Fine Gael Ard Fheis two years ago in Dublin; and one of a small group of people behind the emergence of ‘May Day’ celebrations earlier this month in Falcarragh.

“I suppose you could say I’ve always been involved in fighting for peoples’ rights and social fairness,” says the well-read, quiet-spoken Donegal county council employee. “These rights were hard-fought to get and keeping them is even more difficult, especially in times of economic crisis.”

With the local elections but a few weeks away, Owen, who like many Irishmen before him has travelled to many places seeking work, including Neasden, Edinburgh, Bermondsey, Dunbar, Haddington and Port Seton, is eyeing the candidates with that view very much in mind. “I’m looking for people with genuine beliefs about social justice, the kind who get involved and don’t waver when things get tough, people like Pearse Doherty of Sinn Fein, the best politician we’ve ever had in Donegal,” he says, before adding philosophically, “democracy is a living, breathing, thing and should be borne out to its fullest. We’ve been told there is an economic upturn, but we don’t see it. Most of our working people have emigrated or are simply unemployed. How can we talk about rural Ireland if we don’t put people back to work? We need to get back to basics, back to looking at agriculture, tourism, the environment. We need open public forums where people can have the right to their say in how the community in which they live should move forward. We’re not going to come out of this crisis automatically. That requires serious, long-term spending.”

So why hasn’t that happened already? Why has there been so little protest from Irish people who have undergone such dire difficulties over the last five years?

“There are many reasons,” he explains. “With our colonial past, including landlordism, there has been a ‘do-what-you-have-to’ attitude to survive. Also, the Catholic Church, while it has done much good, has left us over-deferential to authority. Further, emigration has always been Ireland’s safety valve. It lets pressure off. Those who would traditionally stand up are gone away.”

Owen also believes history went amiss for the people of Ireland. “After the so-called revolution here, the wrong people grasped power, not the people who did most of the fighting, but larger farmers and those who were better off. Some people like to make a devil out of Éamon de Valera but he wasn’t alone. Some of what he and others beside him did was progressive but there has been an absence of social change. Ireland is a Republic in name only and even though the phrase annoys me, we are a ‘class conscious’ nation. In a country in which we felt we were in it together, resisting the might of the British Empire, we found we were no better, no worse, than them. The green flag is still waiting to be raised. There are still things to do.”

That includes, according to Owen, “all people being given choices.” “People are not given their rightful place. Minorities should be able to voice their opinion. That is vitally important. Cutting them off is dangerous and we have to be ever vigilant that does not happen. We also need to relearn a lot of stuff, things we knew in the past, like solidarity and standing up for each other. Irish people like to say they didn’t like Margaret Thatcher yet we’ve taken many of her policies and applied them, thus the Celtic Tiger and the Charlie McCreevy’s of this world. Unions ‘in partnership’ with government? What does that mean? We cannot sit on both sides of the fence. It’s as if we are delighted to be allowed to ‘join the club,’ join the ruling classes. We have become so deferential to authority we let off those clearly guilty of white-collar crime. It has just become too easy for them.”

Locally, Owen is passionate about the unfortunate situation at Largo Foods in Gaoth Dobhair. “This is a case where skills were honed over forty years, yet now, it’s all gone. Crocodile tears were shed by many politicians, but it took eleven days for Udaras na Gaeltachta to host a first meeting on the factory’s closure. It should have organized a special task force back in the 1980s when manufacturing was going down. I mean, has there ever been an audit of skills in the Gaeltacht community, not to mention a series of public meetings to find job-creation ideas or special training seminars on how to apply properly for funding? Udaras has spent hundreds of millions of euro of public money over the years and much of it has been wasted. It is long past time for greater transparency and much more public scrutiny of the way this organisation operates.”

To whom does Owen owe such thoughtful and mature political thinking? “In Ireland, the lives and writings of people like James Connolly and Jim Larkin, and, of course, Joe Higgins, which is why I canvassed for him all those years ago, but others outside Ireland who were very influential during their time,” he says. Among these, Owen adds, are James Cannon in the United States, whom he sees as “an early stalwart of American socialism in the 1930s and who wrote ‘Socialism on Trial,’ which Owen considers “a masterful explanation of the ‘red scare,’ and even the writer, Jack London, who wrote ‘The Iron Heel,’ about the strength of the individual and the collective. Owen also greatly admires Barack Obama, who, he says, “has made a tremendous difference.”

With local elections up ahead, how does the local activist – with two brothers and two sisters and now married to Sheila – feel about the future?

“I remain optimistic. I believe in people, in the human spirit. But we need to build peoples’ confidence, to encourage them to get involved in making their communities better. They will find they are well able but it’s a long process. However, it can work. There is not simply dark and light. There’s rarely an outright victory. The ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ campaign, for example, made a number of people active. We all learned how to debate issues. In many ways, it was a model for local democracy within a group. I saw people who were too shy to speak, get up and chair a public meeting.”

Regarding the ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ campaign, Curran gives great credit to a number of people who he says “have been pioneers in the struggle for greater equality as well as anti-austerity stalwarts, including Theresa and Caroline Woods, founders of the group; Mary Bridget Sharkey; Mary Attenborough; Moire McCarry; R.J. McLean; James Woods;  Gerard Gallagher; and Martin McEhlinny.”

He continues, “Back to the issue of deference – some people on the left wasted an opportunity this economic crisis presented. They disengaged over spurious reasons. The landscape changed but they didn’t take advantage of the opportunity it presented. Forcing Fine Gael and Fianna Fail together would have made way for a stronger Left alliance….. but maybe it’s not too late.”

Owen’s choices in the upcoming local elections for the Glenties area are –

  1. Michael McClafferty – “a decent, hardworking person who got involved in this election because he believes change can only come about if people go into politics and fight for it.”
  2. Cllr. Marie Therese Gallagher and John Sheamais O’Fearraigh of Sinn Fein “because that party has shown consistent loyalty to its principles, as well as strong discipline, especially at last year’s council budget meeting.”
  3. Seamus Rogers – “a genuine community activist, and a decent man.”