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.
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.
My observations of us Irish since returning to live in my native country 10 years ago is that far from the reputation we have in the eyes of other nationalities as an almost swashbuckling tribe of adventurers, we are in fact the most boring, banal and predictable of people when it comes to voting habits.
We, sheep-like, have voted into government mainly one of only two parties since the nation was founded a century ago, our warped sense of ‘change’ being simply to switch from Fianna Fail to Fine Gael and vice-versa now and then.
In doing so, we fail to realize – or worse, realize but lack the courage to accept – that there is simply no difference between these two parties.
What greater evidence do we need of this, if we needed more, than the last five years of Government: these two parties having been in what is strangely termed a ‘confidence and supply’ relationship. In effect, a coalition government under a different guise.
My advice: take a chance on change. It’s long past time and no less than what you deserve.
Consequently, shocking ongoing crises in key sectors such as health, housing and social welfare have occurred under the watch of both parties. They are both equally guilty of neglect and disservice to the people of Ireland. And Fianna Fail bankrupted Ireland not so long ago, leaving teachers, nurses and others on the scrap heap, and some of its TDs then are running again, including its leader.
So, on voting day tomorrow (Saturday), will the final outcome be any different from that over the last 100 years?
Sadly, regardless of Sinn Fein receiving a well-deserved boost, hopefully above the 30 mark, I don’t think so.
If past result are anything to go by, we will remain with a Centre Right majority that kowtows to wealthy individuals, major corporations, banks, vulture funds and major land developers offering tax breaks and other incentives. A coalition that steadfastly fails to rectify the growing, severe inequalities in social life here.
Through the election campaign, I continue to be deeply disillusioned by the media in Ireland and their bias. For example, do many people really believe there was a dead-heat between Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, 24-24 percent, in the Red C poll for the Business Post? What decent, well-organized poll ends up in a draw? It is not even mathematically possible as you poll an odd number of people, not an even number, to make sure there is an outright winner.
A caveat to this is that my wife, Columbia from Romania, who will, I believe like many emigrants, vote Sinn Fein, received a call from Red C. But when she said she lived in Donegal, they refused to take her details, telling her they had enough people from Donegal.
Surprising to say the least, as Red C had boasted its poll was a ‘random’ one. This simple incident proves it was far, far from that. It is no coincidence that, with Sinn Fein poised through Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn to attract more votes than any other party in Donegal, Red C pollsters were told not to take anyone from Donegal in the so-called ‘random’ poll.
I feel Sinn Fein was probably the winner in that poll but a national business newspaper handing this particular party the lead in such a crucial election would have been tantamount to treachery in the eyes of the newspaper’s owners and its well-to-do readers.
Let a woman take the lead. (image from first-ever Irish elections)
Or take The Irish Times, for whom I worked as a foreign correspondent. At least, they had the decency to portray their poll results honestly. Sinn Fein as outright winners.
But then a strange thing happened, the newspaper started spinning the numbers in an effort to reduce the prestigious victory of Sinn Fein, mixing in other numbers to the point of confusion.
There was even a bizarre moment during its live election debate from Trinity College earlier this week for subscribers when event host, Hugh Linehan, the newspaper’s arts and culture editor, said the poll might have created ‘a self-fulfilling prophecy’ and encouraged other journalistic colleagues on the panel to agree with him, which political correspondent, Pat Leahy (formerly of the Business Post) gleefully did.
How can a poll be ‘a self-fulfilling prophecy’? It’s as if a poll is an unseen power outside in the ether controlling the minds of people. Simply ludicrous. A completely irrational attempt at spin.
Keep in mind also that election podcasts by The Irish Times since the campaign began featured four men in key intro voiceover sound-bites, Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin, another Fine Gaeler and an Independent. No mention of Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald, who won the newspaper’s own poll as most popular person for Taoiseach and Sinn Fein as most popular party.
Not until I pointed this out to the newspaper in several e-mails did they decide to include Mary Lou’s voice.
My predictions for the five-seater in Donegal where I live: two Sinn Fein, one Fine Gael, one Fianna Fail and one Independent.
Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn of Sinn Fein and Joe McHugh of Fine Gael will be the first past the post.
Then there’ll be a battle for the last two seats with Fianna Fail’s Charlie McConalogue sweating it out next to get over the line.
Then the Battle Royale for the final seat – between Fianna Fail’s Pat the Cope Gallagher and hard-working Independent, Thomas Pringle.
It’ll be a rainy day for some candidates.
It’s past time multi-pensioned Pat, and his brand of old-style politics, retired from the ring. While once a shoo-in, he’s now panic canvassing door-to-door, but I’m hoping Pringle, younger, more progressive, more passionate, will receive his just reward.
Whether you agree with me or not, don’t waste your right to express your opinion. Call me a dreamer, but I still believe voting has as much meaning as we give it, so use it.
Perhaps this will turn out to be ‘the election of the young,’ the one that changes the usual political landscape of Ireland.
Sean Hillen 