Sinn Fein Ard Fheis

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Sinn Fein’s Presidential decision – a case of the tail wagging the dog

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.  

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Meet The Real Simon Harris – The Dishonourable Duke Of Duping

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. 

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Is Sinn Fein really ready for Government?

by Sean Hillen 

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.
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Sinn Fein Ard Fheis features multi-faceted personalities

It’s interesting, the people – some expected, some unexpected – one meets at a political Ard Fheis – in this case, Sinn Féin’s in Dublin’s ultra-modern glass and steel, Liffey-fronting Convention Centre recently.

The former included loyal, hardworking party stalwarts – both at local and national level. People like Donegal Councillor and youth worker, John Sheamais Ó’Fearraigh, from the Gaeltacht hamlet of Bun na Leaca, Gaoth Dobhair, who voiced his concerned “about the closure of rural post offices and banks and lack of broadband coverage and tourism development, as well how European legislation on planning and wild life is preventing rural development – all leading to the export of our youth and loss of our Teanga Dúchas.”

John Sheamais Ó'Fearraigh, Sinn Fein Donegal

(l to r) Donegal Councillor, John Sheamais Ó’Fearraigh, discusses issues with Pearse Doherty TD, outside Dublin Convention Centre at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis.

And Inishowen Councillor Albert Doherty from Carndonagh who spoke passionately to the 2,500 party members about “unfortunate Donegal residents who are having to watch their homes disintegrate before their very eyes” because of Muscovite mica, a mineral that weakens concrete. He called for the government’s much-delayed experts report to be concluded by August 31.

Then there’s Pearse Doherty, TD. Though only six years since his victorious High Court case against Fianna Fail for delaying the Donegal South-West by-election, Doherty has risen in the party ranks astronomically since, culminating in national kudos recently when he found a gaping two billion euro hole in Fine Gael’s ‘fiscal space,’ (the amount of money available to the government above what is already being spent on public services). His value to Sinn Fein was more than obvious last weekend when I entered the so-called ‘green room’ to find him engaged in whispered conversation with party president Gerry Adams and vice-president Mary Lou McDonald. Even though a photograph was required of him for this article, a subliminal ‘not-to-be-disturbed’ sign hung clearly in the air.

Easter Rising Celebrations Dublin,

Celebrating women’s role in the 1916 Rising. Over 300 women participated, some of whom were sentenced to death, later commuted.

All three Donegal politicians supported calls made by delegates under the party banner “Saoirse Ceart Aontacht’ for the rejuvenation of rural Ireland, on behalf of people the official Ard Fheis programme declared, “are tired of being treated as second-class citizens, fed up with under-investment and angry at the lack of jobs and opportunities.” Among the motions to strengthen rural areas under the document, ‘A New Deal for the West,’ were “the introduction of rural equality legislation; a spatial enterprise and infrastructure strategy backed up with financial stimulus; a commitment to significant investment to protect and enhance public services; support for traditional industries, particularly co-operatives; and measures to assist emigrants wishing to return.”

Sinn Fein Ard Fheis Dublin

Honoring those who died during the Hunger Strikes and the Easter Rising.

Such were the expected.

Among the unexpected was meeting author and former ‘Sunday Times’ managing editor and ‘Daily Mirror’ editor, Roy Greenslade, now journalism professor at City University London, my alma mater, who now pens an insightful media blog for ‘The Guardian.’ From sturdy working-class roots in east London and a fellow West Ham fan, Greenslade has been a long-time supporter of Sinn Fein. We met way back in the mid-80’s ago when he and his wife, Noreen, a former national feature writer, visited me in Kansas City and later at Mirror HQ before I headed off to the Romanian revolution, former Yugoslavia and the Iraq war. Greenslade bought Ballyarr House in Ramelton and two years ago stood surety for Creeslough-based former IRA member John Downey after his arrest at Gatwick Airport.

Roy Greenslade journalist

Roy Greenslade, author, editor and journalism professor: unafraid to speak out on sensitive social issues.

Last, but not least, was Danny Morrison, Sinn Fein’s former national publicity director, now successful fiction and non-fiction author and international creative writing trainer. Dressed stylishly in black hat and long leather coat, the affable man reminded me of Toulouse-Lautrec’s portrait of Aristide Bruant, famous on so many posters. Both Greenslade and Morrison have been invited as special guest speakers at this year’s ‘Ireland Writing Retreat’ held at Teac Jack’s in Glassagh from June 27 to July 3.

Danny Morrison author

Belfast-based Danny Morrison: a life well lived. Former editor of An Phoblacht-Republic News, Sinn Fein publicity director, author and creative writing guide.

For those interested in writing a novel, poetry or a memoir, or simply want to hear some fascinating speakers, this is the place to head for. It should be a most stimulating week. You can stay for the whole week, or sign up for several of the days. Your choice.