Gerry Adams's Blog, page 86
April 12, 2011
Dáil Diary: Commemorating 1916
As party leader one of my tasks on a daily basis in the Dáil is to question the Taoiseach. There are two opportunities for this. Taoiseach's Questions is an opportunity to ask Enda Kenny about issues for which he has specific responsibility and Leader's Questions are on the important matters of the day.
Thus far I have used the opportunity afforded by Taoiseach's Questions to quiz him on the withdrawal of the 50:50 recruitment policy to the PSNI by the British secretary of State; the European Council meeting; about meeting with the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee (which he agreed to do); north-south co-operation and much more.
This week I asked him about his plans to re-establish the all-party committee in the Dáil to plan for the 1916 celebrations which he agreed to do by Easter.
I reminded him that the decade before us is one which 100 years ago was filled with momentous and tragic events which dramatically shaped the subsequent history of this island.
They included the formation of the UVF and Irish Volunteers in 1912 and 13; the signing of the Ulster Covenant; the 1913 Lockout; the formation of the Irish Citizen Army; the Easter Rising of 1916, the General election of 1918 and much more.
In particular, in 5 years Irish people at home and across the globe will be remembering those brave Irish men and women who rose in rebellion at Easter 1916.
But the issue of commemorating the events of 100 years ago also raises the important issue of how we preserve those iconic sites linked to them.
In particular I asked the Taoiseach to ensure that every effort is made to restore and preserve Numbers 14 to 17 Moore St where the leaders last met before the surrender on April 29th 1916. And I urged him to look positively at the creation of a Revolutionary Quarter covering that part of Dublin City. He said he would.
In recent years I have travelled to many parts of the world. Some of these places won their freedom through hard fought struggle and revolution. Whether in Paris, or Philadelphia, in Washington or South Africa or Cuba, buildings and sites designated as 'national' and linked to their freedom struggles are preserved, restored and have pride of place as part of the history and culture of those nations.
And so it is in many other places. Not so in Dublin.
Last September a group of us, including Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and myself, visited the National Monument at 14-17 Moore St in Dublin.
If truth be told though 14-17 Moore Street looks unlike any National Monument I have ever seen. It is a short terrace of red brick buildings that have lain derelict for many years.
For me and others in the Sinn Fein group it was a political pilgrimage to the spot where the leaders of the 1916 Rising held their last meeting before the surrender to the British.
It was a beautiful autumn day. We were met by some members of the families of the leaders who were subsequently executed. They have been campaigning for many years for the Moore Street site to be preserved, protected and developed as a proper national monument.
They brought us around the streets adjacent to the GPO, recounting as we walked, the story of those seven days in April 1916 which shocked the British Empire and shook it to its foundations.
Moore Street itself is the site of a famous fresh vegetable, fish, and flower market with stall holders many of whom have been there for generations.
And while this historic site has been designated a National Monument, a developer plans to level most of it apart from some outer walls of the four buildings.
I believe that 14-17 Moore Street should be protected and incorporated into a wider revolutionary quarter that would link together all of those iconic sites we visited that day in and around the GPO. The story of 1916 is there for future generations in that quite small space. It is a story of courage and heroism and an example of the heights to which the human spirit can rise in pursuit of freedom.
1916 was the first body blow to the 'Empire on which the Sun never sets' and it began a process of rebellion and revolution which led within 50 years to the dismantling of that Empire.
The families told us how on the Friday evening of Easter week the leaders were forced from the GPO which, like most of O Connell Street was in flames and in ruin. Their objective was to make their way to the Four Courts' Garrison.
They left by a side entrance in Henry Street and under fire, and carrying their wounded, including James Connolly, they slowly made their way along Moore Lane to Moore Street.
There they tunneled from one house to the next. On Saturday morning they eventually reached number 16 Moore Street which was then a poultry shop.
It was here that Pádraig Pearse, Tom Clarke, Joseph Plunkett and Sean Mac Diramada along with James Connolly, discussed their next steps. One plan was to rush the barricade the British had on Parnell Street but Tom Clarke who went to see if this was practical returned to say it was impossible.
There was then a fierce discussion about a surrender. It was decided that this was the only course of action open to them and Elizabeth O'Farrell was charged with the dangerous task of going to the British.
She was taken from the barricade to Tom Clarke's shop in Parnell Street. The British demanded unconditional surrender.
As O'Farrell was returning to 16 Moore Street and as she passed Sackville Lane, "the first turn on the left in Moore Street going down from Parnell Street, I looked up and saw the dead body of The O'Rahilly lying about four yards up the lane - his feet against the steps of the first door on the right and his head on the curbstone."
The O Rahilly had sought to prevent the Rising. He had returned to Dublin after travelling to Kerry where he had instructed the Irish Volunteers there not to join the Rising. But when he discovered that the Rising was going ahead the O Rahilly stepped forward and famously said: "Because I helped to wind the clock I come to hear it strike."
At 2.30 pm Pearse left Moore Street and with Elizabeth O'Farrell beside him he met General Lowe. Pearse handed over his pistol and sword and ammunition. And on an old wooden bench he signed the surrender document. Elizabeth O'Farrell was then asked to take the document to the various outposts held by the republicans.
The Volunteers formed up in ranks in Moore Street and marched defiantly to the Parnell Street barricade. They were held in the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital where Tom Clarke and some others were stripped by British soldiers.
The Court Martials began on May 2nd with Padraig Pearse, Tom Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh executed the following day. The last to die in Ireland were Sean MacDiarmada and James Connolly on May 12th . Roger Casement was hanged in August.
In his poem Easter 1916 W B Yeats concluded:
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Thus far I have used the opportunity afforded by Taoiseach's Questions to quiz him on the withdrawal of the 50:50 recruitment policy to the PSNI by the British secretary of State; the European Council meeting; about meeting with the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee (which he agreed to do); north-south co-operation and much more.
This week I asked him about his plans to re-establish the all-party committee in the Dáil to plan for the 1916 celebrations which he agreed to do by Easter.
I reminded him that the decade before us is one which 100 years ago was filled with momentous and tragic events which dramatically shaped the subsequent history of this island.
They included the formation of the UVF and Irish Volunteers in 1912 and 13; the signing of the Ulster Covenant; the 1913 Lockout; the formation of the Irish Citizen Army; the Easter Rising of 1916, the General election of 1918 and much more.
In particular, in 5 years Irish people at home and across the globe will be remembering those brave Irish men and women who rose in rebellion at Easter 1916.
But the issue of commemorating the events of 100 years ago also raises the important issue of how we preserve those iconic sites linked to them.
In particular I asked the Taoiseach to ensure that every effort is made to restore and preserve Numbers 14 to 17 Moore St where the leaders last met before the surrender on April 29th 1916. And I urged him to look positively at the creation of a Revolutionary Quarter covering that part of Dublin City. He said he would.
In recent years I have travelled to many parts of the world. Some of these places won their freedom through hard fought struggle and revolution. Whether in Paris, or Philadelphia, in Washington or South Africa or Cuba, buildings and sites designated as 'national' and linked to their freedom struggles are preserved, restored and have pride of place as part of the history and culture of those nations.
And so it is in many other places. Not so in Dublin.
Last September a group of us, including Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and myself, visited the National Monument at 14-17 Moore St in Dublin.
If truth be told though 14-17 Moore Street looks unlike any National Monument I have ever seen. It is a short terrace of red brick buildings that have lain derelict for many years.
For me and others in the Sinn Fein group it was a political pilgrimage to the spot where the leaders of the 1916 Rising held their last meeting before the surrender to the British.
It was a beautiful autumn day. We were met by some members of the families of the leaders who were subsequently executed. They have been campaigning for many years for the Moore Street site to be preserved, protected and developed as a proper national monument.
They brought us around the streets adjacent to the GPO, recounting as we walked, the story of those seven days in April 1916 which shocked the British Empire and shook it to its foundations.
Moore Street itself is the site of a famous fresh vegetable, fish, and flower market with stall holders many of whom have been there for generations.
And while this historic site has been designated a National Monument, a developer plans to level most of it apart from some outer walls of the four buildings.
I believe that 14-17 Moore Street should be protected and incorporated into a wider revolutionary quarter that would link together all of those iconic sites we visited that day in and around the GPO. The story of 1916 is there for future generations in that quite small space. It is a story of courage and heroism and an example of the heights to which the human spirit can rise in pursuit of freedom.
1916 was the first body blow to the 'Empire on which the Sun never sets' and it began a process of rebellion and revolution which led within 50 years to the dismantling of that Empire.
The families told us how on the Friday evening of Easter week the leaders were forced from the GPO which, like most of O Connell Street was in flames and in ruin. Their objective was to make their way to the Four Courts' Garrison.
They left by a side entrance in Henry Street and under fire, and carrying their wounded, including James Connolly, they slowly made their way along Moore Lane to Moore Street.
There they tunneled from one house to the next. On Saturday morning they eventually reached number 16 Moore Street which was then a poultry shop.
It was here that Pádraig Pearse, Tom Clarke, Joseph Plunkett and Sean Mac Diramada along with James Connolly, discussed their next steps. One plan was to rush the barricade the British had on Parnell Street but Tom Clarke who went to see if this was practical returned to say it was impossible.
There was then a fierce discussion about a surrender. It was decided that this was the only course of action open to them and Elizabeth O'Farrell was charged with the dangerous task of going to the British.
She was taken from the barricade to Tom Clarke's shop in Parnell Street. The British demanded unconditional surrender.
As O'Farrell was returning to 16 Moore Street and as she passed Sackville Lane, "the first turn on the left in Moore Street going down from Parnell Street, I looked up and saw the dead body of The O'Rahilly lying about four yards up the lane - his feet against the steps of the first door on the right and his head on the curbstone."
The O Rahilly had sought to prevent the Rising. He had returned to Dublin after travelling to Kerry where he had instructed the Irish Volunteers there not to join the Rising. But when he discovered that the Rising was going ahead the O Rahilly stepped forward and famously said: "Because I helped to wind the clock I come to hear it strike."
At 2.30 pm Pearse left Moore Street and with Elizabeth O'Farrell beside him he met General Lowe. Pearse handed over his pistol and sword and ammunition. And on an old wooden bench he signed the surrender document. Elizabeth O'Farrell was then asked to take the document to the various outposts held by the republicans.
The Volunteers formed up in ranks in Moore Street and marched defiantly to the Parnell Street barricade. They were held in the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital where Tom Clarke and some others were stripped by British soldiers.
The Court Martials began on May 2nd with Padraig Pearse, Tom Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh executed the following day. The last to die in Ireland were Sean MacDiarmada and James Connolly on May 12th . Roger Casement was hanged in August.
In his poem Easter 1916 W B Yeats concluded:
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
April 10, 2011
One week later
Today thousands of people, from all walks of life came together in Omagh in an act of solidarity with the family of Ronan Kerr. They were also determined to demonstrate their opposition and defiance of those responsible for Ronan's murder last weekend and the placing of a bomb near Newry.
One week ago, last Sunday it was Mother's Day. For families in Omagh, and across Ireland and around the world it was a day when they spoiled and pampered their mothers.
But for the Kerr family Mother's Day was tragically different. Instead of celebrating together Nuala Kerr was in front of television cameras, standing with her children, Dairine, Cathair and Aaron, and speaking with love and affection about her son Ronan who had been murdered the previous day.
The shock and the tragedy and trauma were etched on their faces. Despite this Nuala Kerr spoke strongly and clearly.
Her message was simple and her assertion that we all need to stand up and be counted struck exactly the right note. It was a message of courage and of hope.
It was about people "striving for a neutral police force for the good of our country". Nuala Kerr asked "all Catholic members not to be deterred" and she said, "we all need to stand up and be counted and to strive for equality. We don't want to go back to the dark days again of fear and terror."
And she is right.
We all have to stand up and be counted for our families, four our community and for a better future.
We have to stand up for equality and a non partisan, civic policing service in the north.
And we have to confront and challenge those responsible for Ronan Kerr's murder.
On Wednesday last I travelled to Beragh to attend Ronan's funeral.
It was a terribly sad occasion but it was also very remarkable.
The imagery, even for this part of Ireland were there have been some noteworthy events, was significant. All of the leaders of the main political parties on this island – unionist and nationalist and republican – were present.
Also present where the church leaders and community leaders and ordinary citizens, many of them neighbours of the Kerr family.
But what made it stand out was the interweaving of community, of politicians, of GAA, of family, of school children, and of PSNI.
Ronan's remains were carried by his friends in Beragh's Craobh Rua GAA club; by his colleagues in the PSNI; by senior figures from the GAA, including Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and then by his family into St. Oliver Plunkett's Church.
By their presence and participation all sections of Irish society were giving expression to their abhorrence and outrage at the actions of a small number of anti-peace groups who remain trapped in the past and offer nothing for the future.
But if we are to end the pointless and futile violence of these groups we have to go beyond condemnation. Yesterday I spelt out my view of these small groups and asked the very few people who support or tolerate their actions to think again.
I am an optimist by nature. The logic of the arguments in support of the peace process and its ability to deliver an end to partition and Irish reunification are overwhelming.
Will they listen? I don't know. But we cannot acquiesce to the violence of the few. Nor can we allow a tiny minority to undermine the opportunity to advance our republican objectives.
So, Nuala Kerr is right. We all have to make a stand.
One week ago, last Sunday it was Mother's Day. For families in Omagh, and across Ireland and around the world it was a day when they spoiled and pampered their mothers.
But for the Kerr family Mother's Day was tragically different. Instead of celebrating together Nuala Kerr was in front of television cameras, standing with her children, Dairine, Cathair and Aaron, and speaking with love and affection about her son Ronan who had been murdered the previous day.
The shock and the tragedy and trauma were etched on their faces. Despite this Nuala Kerr spoke strongly and clearly.
Her message was simple and her assertion that we all need to stand up and be counted struck exactly the right note. It was a message of courage and of hope.
It was about people "striving for a neutral police force for the good of our country". Nuala Kerr asked "all Catholic members not to be deterred" and she said, "we all need to stand up and be counted and to strive for equality. We don't want to go back to the dark days again of fear and terror."
And she is right.
We all have to stand up and be counted for our families, four our community and for a better future.
We have to stand up for equality and a non partisan, civic policing service in the north.
And we have to confront and challenge those responsible for Ronan Kerr's murder.
On Wednesday last I travelled to Beragh to attend Ronan's funeral.
It was a terribly sad occasion but it was also very remarkable.
The imagery, even for this part of Ireland were there have been some noteworthy events, was significant. All of the leaders of the main political parties on this island – unionist and nationalist and republican – were present.
Also present where the church leaders and community leaders and ordinary citizens, many of them neighbours of the Kerr family.
But what made it stand out was the interweaving of community, of politicians, of GAA, of family, of school children, and of PSNI.
Ronan's remains were carried by his friends in Beragh's Craobh Rua GAA club; by his colleagues in the PSNI; by senior figures from the GAA, including Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and then by his family into St. Oliver Plunkett's Church.
By their presence and participation all sections of Irish society were giving expression to their abhorrence and outrage at the actions of a small number of anti-peace groups who remain trapped in the past and offer nothing for the future.
But if we are to end the pointless and futile violence of these groups we have to go beyond condemnation. Yesterday I spelt out my view of these small groups and asked the very few people who support or tolerate their actions to think again.
I am an optimist by nature. The logic of the arguments in support of the peace process and its ability to deliver an end to partition and Irish reunification are overwhelming.
Will they listen? I don't know. But we cannot acquiesce to the violence of the few. Nor can we allow a tiny minority to undermine the opportunity to advance our republican objectives.
So, Nuala Kerr is right. We all have to make a stand.
April 9, 2011
It's Time to Stop
Since the Omagh bomb attack on Saturday April 2nd which murdered Ronan Kerr I have met many people. Most have been former republican prisoners and their families and other activists of long standing.
These are the stalwarts who over decades of conflict lost loved ones to the British Army, RUC and collusion; were tortured, imprisoned and had their homes raided and often wrecked.
They were and are the people who have been the backbone of the republican struggle over many years. And they have suffered grievously for their stand against British injustice and partition.
And they are seething with anger at the violent actions of a small core of anti-peace groups who have killed citizens; forced the elderly from their homes; injured children; threatened community workers; orchestrated sectarian conflict at interfaces and some of whom are involved in extortion and drug related crime.
I want once more to address these groups directly. Sinn Féin has offered - through people like me and Martin McGuinness - to meet you and to outline our strategy for advancing republican and democratic objectives and our belief in the futility of armed actions.
So far you have refused to speak to us, dismissed us and placed a death threat on some of us. Despite this I make the same offer again.
I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with Sinn Féin. That is your right, but you have no right to attack anyone and there is no support for this. That is clear from the overwhelming public rejection of the attack which killed Ronan Kerr.
The people of this island demand that you stop.
I am prepared to meet you anywhere at any time to listen to what you have to say and to tell you that there is now a democratic peaceful way to unite our people and our country on the basis of equality.
Your achievement has been to unite us all in opposition to your actions. It is time to end these futile attacks on the peace process; they will not succeed.
I would also like to address the smal number of people who might have some tolerance for armed actions. To those who might shelter or provide resources and facilities to the perpetrators of these actions you need to ask yourselves what purpose is being served?
Don't be fooled into thinking that you are helping the IRA. The war is over. The IRA is gone. The IRA embraced, facilitated and supported the peace process. When a democratic and peaceful alternative to armed struggle was created the IRA left the stage.
Those who murdered Ronan Kerr are not the IRA. Those who murdered Ronan Kerr have no coherent strategy. Your actions do not advance republican objectives. In fact they advance no political agenda whatsoever.
Moreover as has happened in many other conflict resolution processes some of those who were formerly engaged in conflict turn their hand to criminality or those who are purely criminal exploit the situation for their own ends.
This is not a new phenomena nor is it uniquely Irish. However some of these people who are masquerading as activists and others who support violent anti-peace actions are heavily involved in extortion, robberies, and tiger kidnappings in republican heartlands.
Sinn Féin is totally committed to exposing this activity and to making a stand against them.
What is remarkable at this time is that no one is articulating any defence or explanation or rationale for these actions. Where are the political groups who criticise Sinn Féin and vent their anger at our strategy.
Some of these groups, or individuals associated with them - a small number - are standing in local government elections in the north. They should be challenged on these issues.
Irish republicanism was always about more than militarism.
You claim to be republican but your actions are anti-republican and against peace.
You are unrepresentative of the community and do not define republicanism.
You are not dissidents; dissent is a good and necessary part of any democratic or social movement.
Through a long and hard process of negotiation, effort and hard work, Sinn Féin developed a peace strategy and with others created a peace process that has brought about fundamental and positive change.
Significant progress has been made, although this is a continuing struggle. One example of this is the fact that in four weeks there will be an election to the power sharing Assembly and Executive at the end of a successful four year term.
Who could have imagined 20 years ago that Martin McGuinness would be in government with Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson, and that there would be a power sharing system involving Sinn Féin, the DUP and other parties?
Who could have imagined the all-Ireland institutions that are working and delivering for citizens and each day making the border more and more irrelevant?
Who could have imagined that Irish republicanism would be in the vanguard of change. The largest party in the north, with Ministers in an Executive and 14 newly elected TDs in the Dáil?
Almost 400,000 citizens have voted for Sinn Féin in the last 12 months. More than vote for Fianna Fáil.
This is evidence of the growth and strength of real republican politics.
This is progress and it should be developed.
The Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic means to achieve republican objectives for those who have such goals. In referenda and in every subsequent election the people of this island have voted for this and subsequent agreements.
There is a huge onus on mainstream political parties, civic, church, leaders to go beyond the politics of condemnation. The Irish government in particular, along with the Executive have a solemn responsibility to fully implement all aspects of the Good Friday and subsequent agreement.
The Irish government in particular has a responsibility as a co-equal partner with the British government, to ensure that London fulfils all of its responsibilities. This will require a step change in Dublin's approach to these matters.
It also of huge importance that the response to the actions of these anti-peace process groups is entirely within the law and human rights compliant.
There is no excuse, justification or explanation that can validate the murder of Ronan Kerr or any of the other actions of those involved in his killing.
Our goal in the time ahead must be to defend the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.
In summary Sinn Féin believes that the conditions which in the past led to republican armed actions have fundamentally changed.
Political conditions have changed. New opportunities now exist to advance republican goals.
I am and others in the Sinn Féin leadership are willing to discuss all of this with any prepared to speak to us.
These are the stalwarts who over decades of conflict lost loved ones to the British Army, RUC and collusion; were tortured, imprisoned and had their homes raided and often wrecked.
They were and are the people who have been the backbone of the republican struggle over many years. And they have suffered grievously for their stand against British injustice and partition.
And they are seething with anger at the violent actions of a small core of anti-peace groups who have killed citizens; forced the elderly from their homes; injured children; threatened community workers; orchestrated sectarian conflict at interfaces and some of whom are involved in extortion and drug related crime.
I want once more to address these groups directly. Sinn Féin has offered - through people like me and Martin McGuinness - to meet you and to outline our strategy for advancing republican and democratic objectives and our belief in the futility of armed actions.
So far you have refused to speak to us, dismissed us and placed a death threat on some of us. Despite this I make the same offer again.
I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with Sinn Féin. That is your right, but you have no right to attack anyone and there is no support for this. That is clear from the overwhelming public rejection of the attack which killed Ronan Kerr.
The people of this island demand that you stop.
I am prepared to meet you anywhere at any time to listen to what you have to say and to tell you that there is now a democratic peaceful way to unite our people and our country on the basis of equality.
Your achievement has been to unite us all in opposition to your actions. It is time to end these futile attacks on the peace process; they will not succeed.
I would also like to address the smal number of people who might have some tolerance for armed actions. To those who might shelter or provide resources and facilities to the perpetrators of these actions you need to ask yourselves what purpose is being served?
Don't be fooled into thinking that you are helping the IRA. The war is over. The IRA is gone. The IRA embraced, facilitated and supported the peace process. When a democratic and peaceful alternative to armed struggle was created the IRA left the stage.
Those who murdered Ronan Kerr are not the IRA. Those who murdered Ronan Kerr have no coherent strategy. Your actions do not advance republican objectives. In fact they advance no political agenda whatsoever.
Moreover as has happened in many other conflict resolution processes some of those who were formerly engaged in conflict turn their hand to criminality or those who are purely criminal exploit the situation for their own ends.
This is not a new phenomena nor is it uniquely Irish. However some of these people who are masquerading as activists and others who support violent anti-peace actions are heavily involved in extortion, robberies, and tiger kidnappings in republican heartlands.
Sinn Féin is totally committed to exposing this activity and to making a stand against them.
What is remarkable at this time is that no one is articulating any defence or explanation or rationale for these actions. Where are the political groups who criticise Sinn Féin and vent their anger at our strategy.
Some of these groups, or individuals associated with them - a small number - are standing in local government elections in the north. They should be challenged on these issues.
Irish republicanism was always about more than militarism.
You claim to be republican but your actions are anti-republican and against peace.
You are unrepresentative of the community and do not define republicanism.
You are not dissidents; dissent is a good and necessary part of any democratic or social movement.
Through a long and hard process of negotiation, effort and hard work, Sinn Féin developed a peace strategy and with others created a peace process that has brought about fundamental and positive change.
Significant progress has been made, although this is a continuing struggle. One example of this is the fact that in four weeks there will be an election to the power sharing Assembly and Executive at the end of a successful four year term.
Who could have imagined 20 years ago that Martin McGuinness would be in government with Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson, and that there would be a power sharing system involving Sinn Féin, the DUP and other parties?
Who could have imagined the all-Ireland institutions that are working and delivering for citizens and each day making the border more and more irrelevant?
Who could have imagined that Irish republicanism would be in the vanguard of change. The largest party in the north, with Ministers in an Executive and 14 newly elected TDs in the Dáil?
Almost 400,000 citizens have voted for Sinn Féin in the last 12 months. More than vote for Fianna Fáil.
This is evidence of the growth and strength of real republican politics.
This is progress and it should be developed.
The Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic means to achieve republican objectives for those who have such goals. In referenda and in every subsequent election the people of this island have voted for this and subsequent agreements.
There is a huge onus on mainstream political parties, civic, church, leaders to go beyond the politics of condemnation. The Irish government in particular, along with the Executive have a solemn responsibility to fully implement all aspects of the Good Friday and subsequent agreement.
The Irish government in particular has a responsibility as a co-equal partner with the British government, to ensure that London fulfils all of its responsibilities. This will require a step change in Dublin's approach to these matters.
It also of huge importance that the response to the actions of these anti-peace process groups is entirely within the law and human rights compliant.
There is no excuse, justification or explanation that can validate the murder of Ronan Kerr or any of the other actions of those involved in his killing.
Our goal in the time ahead must be to defend the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.
In summary Sinn Féin believes that the conditions which in the past led to republican armed actions have fundamentally changed.
Political conditions have changed. New opportunities now exist to advance republican goals.
I am and others in the Sinn Féin leadership are willing to discuss all of this with any prepared to speak to us.
April 5, 2011
Leinster House Lock-in
Leinster House
My editor has determined that as I have now relocated – at least in terms of constituencies and Parliaments – that I should be charged with keeping Andytown News readers appraised of political and other developments in this part of our country.
So, let me begin at the beginning and introduce you to my new Parliamentary home – Leinster House.
As someone who has spent many years visiting various big houses during the negotiations around the peace process, it is obvious that the British aristocracy like their big houses. So too with some wannabe aristocrats from this island.
Of course, these big houses were not confined to Britain. Some were built in Ireland, usually by absentee landlords who liked to occasionally visit their holdings in England's first colony.
Leinster House, which is the home of the Houses of the Oireachtas, is an example of one of these.
I have been in Leinster House on many occasions over the years. Those visits were short affairs and usually for meetings with the Sinn Féin group. Occasionally we held publicity events, mainly connected to elections, outside the front gate.
They have a rule in this place that only TDs can meet the press on the plinth – the little raised area – at the front of the main entrance. Although I breached that protocol the odd time most media events involving me were relegated to outside the front gate or across the street in Buswell's Hotel. That is until I was elected as a TD for Louth and East Meath. Now I can cavort on the plinth to my heart's content. Which doesn't mean the media will pay us much heed. But that's another story.
There was also a time when Sinn Féin representatives were banned from here.
Councillors John Joe McGirl and Eddie Fullerton were among the most famous of these.
But that's another story also.
Eddie Fullerton and John Joe McGirl each outside Leinster House after they were refused entry despite being elected Councillors and being there on Council business.
Anyway like many a first time TD, I arrived in Leinster House in early March as 'Deputy Adams' – a title I am bemused by. I keep thinking of that cowboy suit I got for Christmas when I was wee and the sheriffs badge that accompanied it. Or I think of Martin McGuiness who persists on calling me his deputy. He is trying to get his own back on Ian Paisley.
Leinster House is a Georgian mansion – a 'ducal palace' whatever that is. It was built by James Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, between 1745 and 1747. With great originality he named it after himself. Kildare House.
And when he became the Duke of Leinster in 1776 he imaginatively renamed it again - after himself. Leinster House.
It is claimed that the design of the building influenced James Hoban who designed the White House in Washington. And one famous, occasional resident, Lord Edward Fitzgerald was a leading figure in the United Ireland movement in the 1790's and was subsequently killed during the 1798 rebellion.
Today it is difficult to walk through the place without some portrait or sculpture or other piece of memorabilia reminding you of the colonial occupation of Ireland by Britain, and of Ireland's long struggle for freedom.
When you enter through the main door into the large lobby large portraits of Michael Collins and Austin Stack look down – some might say appropriately - from opposite sides of the room. Across the lobby is a framed copy of the 1916 Proclamation. And along a corridor toward the stairs leading to the Dáil chamber is a striking portrait of an earlier Sinn Fein TD Austin Stack.
Cathal Brugha
At the bottom of the same stairs is a framed photograph of the First Dáil which met in the Mansion House on January 21st 1919.
The chamber has busts of the 1916 leaders and other national figures. Most of the ushers have Irish and they converse easily in the first language with the likes of me and other Gaels.
Padraig Pearse and James Connolly
The pond out the back of the building (or is it the front?) has a resident flock of wild ducks. Last week as I left here very late – about 10.30 – I spied a fox sauntering across the car park. Even though we are in the city centre with lots of traffic and people about the place he slipped through the railing and dandered across the main road into Merrion Park.
At least one fox from here who escaped the tribunals.
Incidentally on our first night here me and your man were almost locked in. Many new TDs have yet to get offices or Personal Assistants or Political Advisers. That's down to the huge turnover as the people had their say at the ballot box.
Anyway me and your man were working away in some one else's office and when we came out the place was in darkness. Lucky enough we caught the security guy just as he locked the last door.
But our car was locked in.
Ah well that's life. By the way they call this institution Dáil Éireann. Our Sinn Féin team are forever telling them that that's work in progress.
And good work it is too.
The 1916 Proclamation
April 2, 2011
LOOKING BACKWARDS
'My belly thinks my throat's cut,' your man gasped.
His face was red and he was breathing in short sharp gulps, sucking in the air like his life depended on it, which of course it did but usually without the dramatics of this particular moment. We were on the Mountain Loney, towards the top, at the very steep turn on the road. The two of us stopped to take in the view behind us and to catch our breath.
'Do you remember the wee tin church that used to be down there where the houses are now?'
'Indeed and I do' I said ' it was a wee Protestant church'.
'Same style as the old Saint Mathais' one' he continued ' they were flat pack churches. Made for the missions. They transported them off to Africa and put them together like an Ikea pack.'
St.Mathais Church on a winters days.
He was breathing more evenly now.
'I never tuk any breakfast' he mused. 'I'm famished now'.
'You shud always have breakfast' I chided him.
He ignored me and whistled to Snowie. Snowie ignored him. That gave me some satisfaction.
'Do you remember the flax ponds over there' he asked, pointing down to the back of New Barnsley where three ponies were grazing.
'There were two dams and an old mill' I said.
'Joe Magee slipped in one day and we rescued him' your man recalled.
'We were always rescuing Joe'.
'Let's go on' he suggested.
The black railings of the reservoir loomed beside us as we reached the top of the Loney.
'We can't get through here' your man observed. 'unless we cut into the field here'.
So we did.
'Do you remember there used to be a fresh mountain stream over there?' your man reflected.
'A mountain spring' I recollected ' we called it the waterfall'.
'Things always luk big when you're wee.' He said.
We struggled up from the field on to the mountain path and paused before setting off on the upper one.
'We used to call this the forest but sure it's only a wee small stand of trees'.
'And the cave? We cudn't fit into it now'.
Snowie darted ahead of us.
'Remember our Paddy fell here and got stung with the jaggy nettles?'
'Yeah he cried his eyes out that day. Your Paddy cried a lot in them days'.
'Not as much as Joe Magee' I reminded him.
'This path used to be wide enough for a horse and a cart' your man paused again.
We looked backwards over Belfast. The Lough stretched beyond the cityscape towards the distant but clearly visible hills of Scotland. To our right the waters of Strangford glistened and further to the south east the Mournes slipped down to the sea.
'There's our house' your man pointed down to the Murph.
'There's a hurling match on at Saint Galls' I said.
'I suppose you can see who is winning' he griped 'Let's stop at the Hatchet Field.
This is tougher than I thought. I don't know why I let you talk me into these things?'
He looked pained. I was perspiring freely but your man's face was beetroot red and he was breathing heavily again.
'When 's the last time you came up here?' he gasped.
'Last month during the snow' I replied. ' This is the hardest bit. From the Hatchet Field to the Gully is easy peasy.
'We shud have come the other way' he grumped. 'Across from the UTV aerial. I haven't been up this way since the sixties!'
'That's a long time' I agreed. 'Over half a century! Remember the time we nearly stepped on the big hare? Remember it leaped up out of the bracken from beneath our feet?'
'Aye' Your man exclaimed. 'I do remember that.'
We flopped down beneath the big sycamores on the edge of the Hatchet Field.
'The hare must have been sleeping and we came up wind of it. It tuk off like a lilty and us all charging after it guldering like eejits. That was just over there. Our Rory nivver came back for hours'.
Your man's face softened at the memory. The two of us were wee boys again.
'Rory was a great dog' he recalled.
'Yeah' I agreed ' I cried for a week when he disappeared on us a few years after he nearly caught that big hare.'
'He nivver nearly caught the hare' your man laughed ' you're such a spoof.'
He chuckled to himself.
'Somethings nivver change'.
I paid him no heed. We sat together in contemplative silence. Snowie stretched out beside me. I scratched him behind the ears. Your man didn't know what he was talking about. And that hare didn't know how lucky he was. If Joe Magee hadn't tripped over our Rory that wee dog would have caught the hare as easy as anything. There was no doubt about that. Though looking back I didn't want the hare to be caught. The chase was good enough.
'I'm glad the winters over' your man smiled. 'and I'm glad we came up here'.
'So am I' I smiled back at him. 'It's good for the soul.'
His face was red and he was breathing in short sharp gulps, sucking in the air like his life depended on it, which of course it did but usually without the dramatics of this particular moment. We were on the Mountain Loney, towards the top, at the very steep turn on the road. The two of us stopped to take in the view behind us and to catch our breath.
'Do you remember the wee tin church that used to be down there where the houses are now?'
'Indeed and I do' I said ' it was a wee Protestant church'.
'Same style as the old Saint Mathais' one' he continued ' they were flat pack churches. Made for the missions. They transported them off to Africa and put them together like an Ikea pack.'
St.Mathais Church on a winters days.
He was breathing more evenly now.
'I never tuk any breakfast' he mused. 'I'm famished now'.
'You shud always have breakfast' I chided him.
He ignored me and whistled to Snowie. Snowie ignored him. That gave me some satisfaction.
'Do you remember the flax ponds over there' he asked, pointing down to the back of New Barnsley where three ponies were grazing.
'There were two dams and an old mill' I said.
'Joe Magee slipped in one day and we rescued him' your man recalled.
'We were always rescuing Joe'.
'Let's go on' he suggested.
The black railings of the reservoir loomed beside us as we reached the top of the Loney.
'We can't get through here' your man observed. 'unless we cut into the field here'.
So we did.
'Do you remember there used to be a fresh mountain stream over there?' your man reflected.
'A mountain spring' I recollected ' we called it the waterfall'.
'Things always luk big when you're wee.' He said.
We struggled up from the field on to the mountain path and paused before setting off on the upper one.
'We used to call this the forest but sure it's only a wee small stand of trees'.
'And the cave? We cudn't fit into it now'.
Snowie darted ahead of us.
'Remember our Paddy fell here and got stung with the jaggy nettles?'
'Yeah he cried his eyes out that day. Your Paddy cried a lot in them days'.
'Not as much as Joe Magee' I reminded him.
'This path used to be wide enough for a horse and a cart' your man paused again.
We looked backwards over Belfast. The Lough stretched beyond the cityscape towards the distant but clearly visible hills of Scotland. To our right the waters of Strangford glistened and further to the south east the Mournes slipped down to the sea.
'There's our house' your man pointed down to the Murph.
'There's a hurling match on at Saint Galls' I said.
'I suppose you can see who is winning' he griped 'Let's stop at the Hatchet Field.
This is tougher than I thought. I don't know why I let you talk me into these things?'
He looked pained. I was perspiring freely but your man's face was beetroot red and he was breathing heavily again.
'When 's the last time you came up here?' he gasped.
'Last month during the snow' I replied. ' This is the hardest bit. From the Hatchet Field to the Gully is easy peasy.
'We shud have come the other way' he grumped. 'Across from the UTV aerial. I haven't been up this way since the sixties!'
'That's a long time' I agreed. 'Over half a century! Remember the time we nearly stepped on the big hare? Remember it leaped up out of the bracken from beneath our feet?'
'Aye' Your man exclaimed. 'I do remember that.'
We flopped down beneath the big sycamores on the edge of the Hatchet Field.
'The hare must have been sleeping and we came up wind of it. It tuk off like a lilty and us all charging after it guldering like eejits. That was just over there. Our Rory nivver came back for hours'.
Your man's face softened at the memory. The two of us were wee boys again.
'Rory was a great dog' he recalled.
'Yeah' I agreed ' I cried for a week when he disappeared on us a few years after he nearly caught that big hare.'
'He nivver nearly caught the hare' your man laughed ' you're such a spoof.'
He chuckled to himself.
'Somethings nivver change'.
I paid him no heed. We sat together in contemplative silence. Snowie stretched out beside me. I scratched him behind the ears. Your man didn't know what he was talking about. And that hare didn't know how lucky he was. If Joe Magee hadn't tripped over our Rory that wee dog would have caught the hare as easy as anything. There was no doubt about that. Though looking back I didn't want the hare to be caught. The chase was good enough.
'I'm glad the winters over' your man smiled. 'and I'm glad we came up here'.
'So am I' I smiled back at him. 'It's good for the soul.'
March 27, 2011
Leadership across Ireland
There have been many milestones in the recent history of the northern state. Some have been incredibly difficult and tragic. The foundation of the state; the partition of our small island; the repression of the unionist regime at Stormont and the decades of conflict, have all left a sad and bitter legacy which will take a long time to completely deal with.
But more recently there have been different kinds of milestones. Moments of hope. The beginnings of new friendships and the possibility of a new and better future.
Four years ago, on Monday March 26th, Ian Paisley and this blog led respective party delegations into the member's dining room in Parliament Buildings at Stormont. This event followed years of work and some very focussed months, weeks and days of negotiations. Ian Paisley and I sat at the centre of our parties delegations.
Beside and behind us set our colleagues. At 12 noon the television feed went live and the first thing viewers saw was Ian Paisley and this blog sitting together looking at the camera.
It was one of those moments when it was clear to everyone that something important was taking place. The scene was set for the formal opening of the Assembly on May 8th.
This visual presentation was an ingenious solution to a concern some within the DUP had expressed about Mr. Paisley and I sitting side by side at the same table.
Sinn Féin, and this blog in particular, were very focussed on the need to create a moment which could not be dismissed. There had been a number of false dawns and a few very important moments wasted by the silliness of some commentators. This time everyone needed to know something special had occurred. Something that couldn't be trivialised or dismissed.
So Ian and I sitting side by side was an important image. It was resisted almost up to the last minute by the DUP negotiators. Sinn Féin refused to concede. Then someone had the bright idea of arranging the tables in an inverted V shape which allowed us to sit side by side but for sensitive DUP types not at the same table. And it worked.
Last Wednesday, four years later, the Assembly at Parliament Buildings concluded its first ever complete four year term.
In most other societies that would be the norm. In this it was a first. And, quite an achievement, marked in part by the friendly banter of former opponents.
Since the Good Friday Agreement was accomplished in April 1998 there have been three Assemblies elected. None of the previous Assemblies succeeded. All were the victim of an intransigence based on the old politics, a failure of leadership by the Ulster Unionist Party, and the usual machinations of the British government.
The last four years have had their difficulties. Disagreements within the DUP and a change of leadership created problems. Jim Allister sought and failed to provide a hardline unionist alternative to the DUP. The SDLP and UUP tried to play the game of being in government and out of government at the same time and only succeeded in making themselves seem increasingly irrelevant. And there has been the economic recession and the decision by the British government to cut a huge slice off the north's financial budget.
And then there have been violent efforts to undermine the institutions. These too have failed.
The Assembly and local government elections will take place on May 5th – the 30th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Bobby Sands.
There will be political disagreement between the parties during the campaign. That's natural as each seeks to maximise their support. The SDLP and the UUP will again seek to present Sinn Fein and the DUP as the problem parties – a tactic they tried to use last time and which failed.
In recent days the UUP has looked like a party at war with itself and Michael McGimpsey's disgraceful decision not to go ahead with the £40 million radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin, which the Irish government was paying one third of, has drawn widespread criticism.
But the fact is that progress has been made. Decisions have been taken by locally accountable Ministers that are benefiting citizens, whether in education or agriculture or regional development or job creation. The peace process is entrenched and the institutions are functioning. In west Belfast Sinn Féin has succeeded in securing investment into significant projects like Conway Mill and An Culturlann, as well as creating jobs.
So, the focus for supporters of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement is obvious. Build support for the institutions while electing those parties you believe can best articulate and advocate for you and your political goals.
It is also important that in the election campaign which has now begun, as witness the election posters appearing on lampposts, that citizens endorse those parties determined to secure the full implementation of the Agreement and which seek to defend it from any threats.
There are still a number of serious matters arising from the Good Friday and other agreements that have not implemented.
This blog raised these in Taoiseach's questions in the Dáil last week. I reminded Enda Kenny that the various agreements call for the creation of a North-South Parliamentary Forum; an Independent Consultative Forum; a Bill of Rights; and the introduction of an Irish Language Act.
There was also a commitment by the Irish government in 1998 to legislate for northern representatives to be able to speak in the Dáil.
And there is the threat posed by a British Conservative government, allied to the UUP, which last week decided that from this Monday the critical policy of 50-50 recruitment to the PSNI is to end.
This is a grievous retrograde step which risks damaging the progress that has been made in recent years to build a policing service that has the support and confidence of the nationalist community. It must be challenged.
So, a lot of good work has been done. But the next term of the Assembly has to see even better delivery in the provision of employment; a reduction in poverty; a better health service, and much more, including greater co-operation north and south . See you on the election trail.
But more recently there have been different kinds of milestones. Moments of hope. The beginnings of new friendships and the possibility of a new and better future.
Four years ago, on Monday March 26th, Ian Paisley and this blog led respective party delegations into the member's dining room in Parliament Buildings at Stormont. This event followed years of work and some very focussed months, weeks and days of negotiations. Ian Paisley and I sat at the centre of our parties delegations.
Beside and behind us set our colleagues. At 12 noon the television feed went live and the first thing viewers saw was Ian Paisley and this blog sitting together looking at the camera.
It was one of those moments when it was clear to everyone that something important was taking place. The scene was set for the formal opening of the Assembly on May 8th.
This visual presentation was an ingenious solution to a concern some within the DUP had expressed about Mr. Paisley and I sitting side by side at the same table.
Sinn Féin, and this blog in particular, were very focussed on the need to create a moment which could not be dismissed. There had been a number of false dawns and a few very important moments wasted by the silliness of some commentators. This time everyone needed to know something special had occurred. Something that couldn't be trivialised or dismissed.
So Ian and I sitting side by side was an important image. It was resisted almost up to the last minute by the DUP negotiators. Sinn Féin refused to concede. Then someone had the bright idea of arranging the tables in an inverted V shape which allowed us to sit side by side but for sensitive DUP types not at the same table. And it worked.
Last Wednesday, four years later, the Assembly at Parliament Buildings concluded its first ever complete four year term.
In most other societies that would be the norm. In this it was a first. And, quite an achievement, marked in part by the friendly banter of former opponents.
Since the Good Friday Agreement was accomplished in April 1998 there have been three Assemblies elected. None of the previous Assemblies succeeded. All were the victim of an intransigence based on the old politics, a failure of leadership by the Ulster Unionist Party, and the usual machinations of the British government.
The last four years have had their difficulties. Disagreements within the DUP and a change of leadership created problems. Jim Allister sought and failed to provide a hardline unionist alternative to the DUP. The SDLP and UUP tried to play the game of being in government and out of government at the same time and only succeeded in making themselves seem increasingly irrelevant. And there has been the economic recession and the decision by the British government to cut a huge slice off the north's financial budget.
And then there have been violent efforts to undermine the institutions. These too have failed.
The Assembly and local government elections will take place on May 5th – the 30th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Bobby Sands.
There will be political disagreement between the parties during the campaign. That's natural as each seeks to maximise their support. The SDLP and the UUP will again seek to present Sinn Fein and the DUP as the problem parties – a tactic they tried to use last time and which failed.
In recent days the UUP has looked like a party at war with itself and Michael McGimpsey's disgraceful decision not to go ahead with the £40 million radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin, which the Irish government was paying one third of, has drawn widespread criticism.
But the fact is that progress has been made. Decisions have been taken by locally accountable Ministers that are benefiting citizens, whether in education or agriculture or regional development or job creation. The peace process is entrenched and the institutions are functioning. In west Belfast Sinn Féin has succeeded in securing investment into significant projects like Conway Mill and An Culturlann, as well as creating jobs.
So, the focus for supporters of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement is obvious. Build support for the institutions while electing those parties you believe can best articulate and advocate for you and your political goals.
It is also important that in the election campaign which has now begun, as witness the election posters appearing on lampposts, that citizens endorse those parties determined to secure the full implementation of the Agreement and which seek to defend it from any threats.
There are still a number of serious matters arising from the Good Friday and other agreements that have not implemented.
This blog raised these in Taoiseach's questions in the Dáil last week. I reminded Enda Kenny that the various agreements call for the creation of a North-South Parliamentary Forum; an Independent Consultative Forum; a Bill of Rights; and the introduction of an Irish Language Act.
There was also a commitment by the Irish government in 1998 to legislate for northern representatives to be able to speak in the Dáil.
And there is the threat posed by a British Conservative government, allied to the UUP, which last week decided that from this Monday the critical policy of 50-50 recruitment to the PSNI is to end.
This is a grievous retrograde step which risks damaging the progress that has been made in recent years to build a policing service that has the support and confidence of the nationalist community. It must be challenged.
So, a lot of good work has been done. But the next term of the Assembly has to see even better delivery in the provision of employment; a reduction in poverty; a better health service, and much more, including greater co-operation north and south . See you on the election trail.
March 22, 2011
THE CONTINUUM.
Last Saturday morning was a cold sharp day in New York. This blog travelled to Calvary Cemetery in Woodside in the Borough of Queens to attend a commemoration in memory of the 1981 hunger strikers.
Over the years I have been in many such places. But Calvary is on a different scale to anything this blog has ever experienced before. It is huge. It is so big that it is divided into four parts and together they hold over three million souls.
Calvary Cemetery was established in 1847 and opened the following year. It is said that there were 50 burials a day and that half were Irish. Mostly victims of An Gorta Mór – the great hunger. They were some of the hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women and children, who had fled starvation and poverty in Ireland for the new world, only to catch cholera or some other illness. They died in fever camps and ports the length of Canada and the USA.
Saturdays' commemoration was fittingly at the Patriots Plot. A large Celtic Cross marks the spot where the Irish Republican Brotherhood decided to open a republican plot in 1907. It is dedicated to the memory of those who rose in rebellion against the British during the Fenian campaign in 1867.
Although that rising failed the IRB stayed true. For decades it planned and organised. Nine years after the Patriots Plot was opened the IRB was at the heart of the Easter Rising of 1916, the proclamation of The Republic and the formation of the IRA.
Larry Downes, who is the President of Friends of Sinn Féin in the USA, gave me an old report from the New York Times of the burial of John Neary. He was the first to be buried the Patriots Plot.
But Neary's connections with republican struggle predate even the Fenian Rising. He was involved also in the abortive rising of the Young Irelanders in 1848 and after that, like many hundreds of thousands of others of his generation after the great hunger, he was forced to leave Ireland.
Many went to the USA. Others scattered around the globe and many moved to England. John Neary was one of those. But he was soon a committed and active Fenian.
He was one of those involved in 1867 in planning the escape of Thomas Kelly and Timothy Deary, two leading Fenian activists as they were being taken to prison in Manchester. Kelly and Deary escaped but three of those involved in helping them - William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien - the Manchester Martyrs, were executed.
Many of those involved in that escape later made their way to the USA and were present here in Calvary Cemetery when John Neary was finally laid to rest forty years later.
The Patriots Plot, and those who lie there, are a reminder of the long continuum of struggle for freedom in Ireland. They also symbolise the hugely significant role that the Irish in America has played down through the centuries in assisting that struggle.
The 1916 Proclamation makes this connection explicit:
'having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America ..'.
Others, like Joe McGarrity and Clann na Gael played a crucial role in funding the Rising and then providing arms and political support during the Tan War. After partition and the counter revolution and the disastrous civil war many republicans were forced to leave Ireland and they went to the USA. But they never forgot their homeland.
In 1969 when the most recent phase of conflict erupted Irish America stepped forward and again provided invaluable support for the oppressed people in the north and for the struggle.
The Clann and Noraid and a host of other organisations came forward to help prisoners and their families, bring children to the USA for holidays away from the conflict, and lobbied US leaders to oppose British policy in Ireland.
A very effective information campaign, often spontaneous, ensured that British propaganda was challenged. And there were some also who, as in previous generations, gave direct support and assistance to those engaged in armed actions – the IRA.
One consequence of the conflict was the attempt in the 1970's by the British to criminalise the prisoners and through them the struggle for freedom. In 1980 the men in the H Blocks and women in Armagh embarked on the first hunger strike. On March 1st 1981 the second hunger strike commenced. Bobby Sands was the first hunger striker.
On Saturday morning as this blog reminded a large crowd of Irish Americans that on that day 30 years previously Bobby was on the 19th day of his hunger strike. Two days earlier on St. Patrick's Day 1981 Bobby concluded the secret prison diary that he had been keeping.
His last words in that diary on March 17th are a reminder of the spirit and resolve of the Irish people over many centuries to achieve freedom: "If they aren't able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won't break you. They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show.
It is then we'll see the rising of the moon."
Bobby died on hunger strike along with his nine comrades: Francie; Raymond; Patsy; Joe; Martin; Kevin; Kieran: Tom and Mickey.
Their courage and self sacrifice caught the imagination of Irish American activists who rallied in their tens of thousands in support of the prisoners. The extraordinary courage of the prisoners gave strength to the struggle. The hunger strike was a watershed moment in Irish history. And Irish America played a key role in that and subsequently in the efforts to build the peace process.
So, those buried in the Patriots Plot in Calvary Cemetery, 3,000 miles from home, played their part. It is right that as republicans in Ireland remember the hunger strikers and all those to gave their lives in pursuit of freedom that we also remember those who went before them and who died in the far flung corners of the world.
March 19, 2011
Connections with west Belfast
Frederick Douglass mural on the Falls Road
However far this blog travels there are connections to west Belfast to be found everywhere, usually in the people I meet.
Like the man from Lenadoon, who left Belfast when he was five for Canada. He used to come back each year to visit family in Beechmount where he met me at the age of 14 as I was campaigning in an election. Today I met him again in a hotel in New York. He was here for a hockey game.
Sometimes the connections are through former political prisoners from west Belfast who are to be found in all parts of the globe or former residents who emigrated but have never forgotten their home and are proud of where they came from.
And occasionally the connection is surprising and the coincidence startling. For example.
On St. Patrick's night I attended the traditional St. Patrick's Day White House event hosted by President Obama. The place was packed. There were a few of us from Ireland, including the Taoiseach. But this was a night for the hundreds of Irish Americans from all parts of the USA who had been invited to be the President's guest for the evening. There were State Governors, business people, politicians, lawyers, community activists and many others. They were having a great time.
And then President Obama made his speech in the course of which he too spoke about connections; the connections between Ireland and the USA. And he cited the example of Frederick Douglass, a black writer and speaker and political activist, who escaped the brutality of slavery and wrote a best-selling book about his experience.
The book was called a 'Narrative of a life of an American Slave' and it was published in 1845. Fearing for his safety Douglass' friends persuaded him to travel to Ireland and Britain. He spent four months in Ireland where he addressed packed meetings and told of his experience as a slave. He was befriended by Daniel O'Connell who was then at the height of his power as the 'great liberator'.
In his speech President Obama said: "O'Connell was a fierce opponent of slavery, and he began calling Douglass "the black O'Connell of the United States."
The President also described how Douglass "quickly found common ground with the people locked in their struggle against oppression".
What's the connection with west Belfast? For a very long time one of the most evocative images on the international wall of murals on the Falls Road was one of Frederick Douglass!
But the coincidences didn't stop there. Todd Allen, a good friend from Jersey, was in Washington with our group. He told me afterward that his friend Don Mullan, who many readers will know wrote a definitive book on Bloody Sunday which was subsequently turned into a very successful film, is currently involved in a project to have a statue of Frederick Douglass erected in Cork.
Don joined us after the White House event and told us of his hopes and efforts to erect the Douglass statue and his intention to republish Douglass's book. For that he would like to use a photo of the west Belfast mural on the front cover but when he went recently to photograph the mural it had been replaced temporarily by one to mark the hunger strike anniversary.
This morning this blog rang my good friend Danny D who painted the mural. Danny has a photo but likes the idea of repainting the Douglass mural to mark the visit to Ireland in May of President Obama.
And for those of you who are interested in Frederick Douglass it would be worthwhile going onto the internet and reading about the extraordinary life of former slave who contributed significantly to the campaign to end slavery in the USA but who also spoke out against discrimination against women and native Americans and who understood the importance of education and equality in any society. Better still when Don republishes it to get a copy.
In a speech in 1867, Douglass said "Let no man be kept from the ballot box because of his color. Let no woman be kept from the ballot box because of her sex".
His is an astonishing story of how determination and courage and conviction can overcome great obstacles and brutality and how one person can make a difference to the wellbeing of citizens.
So when you watch President Obama on his visit to our country have a look at Danny D's new mural of Frederick Douglass and of how Douglass made a connection and "found common ground with the (Irish) people locked in their struggle against oppression."
March 13, 2011
Celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge
Getting our pic taken in City Hall
On Thursday evening this blog called into the Dundalk Institute of Technology where gaeilgeóirí where holding an event to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge – the week of Irish – which this year began on March 5th and concludes, as it does each year, on St. Patrick's Day next week.
The following morning I was in Belfast City Hall where a series of events had been organised to also mark this unique celebration of the Irish language. The choir from Bunscoil Phobal Feirste on the Shaws Road in West Belfast where there and treated us to some beautifully sung songs in Irish and young people from the Meanscoil joined us later.
At one point a group of tourists who were being show around the City Hall were invited in to listen to the children. They thoroughly enjoyed it.
Seachtain na Gaeilge is a non-profit organization which was set up in 1902 by Conradh na Gaeilge. Its objective is to promote the use of the Irish language in Ireland and overseas. It does this by organizing a festival each year, ending on St. Patrick's Day.
This year events began on March 5th. They take place all over the island and in Britain, the USA and elsewhere. The events themselves vary enormously and include music, cultural events, street céilís, sporting events, and much more.
This blog is very enthusiastic about the language. I enjoy being able to speak Irish and to read it and have even written some poems in Irish. I am not as fluent as I would like but now that I will be spending several days each week in the Dáil this blog will be signing up for the Irish language classes that are run there.
Like every language or sport or skill the key is sticking at it. I use Irish on every occasion I can. And as those I rely on to keep me right with my pronunciation and understanding keep tell me, it can be difficult but the hard work is worth it when it all comes right.
There are several Irish medium schools in Louth and West Belfast, which has a thriving Gaeltacht quarter, has witnessed enormous progress in recent years.
But there is still a lot of work to do.
There are new censuses taking place north and south in the time ahead. The figures for the south published in 2004 record that there are 1.5 million Irish-speakers there, an increase on the 1.43 million Irish-speakers identified in 1996. The last census in the Six Counties recorded Irish-language-speakers at 23 per cent in West Belfast and 16 per cent in Derry – and it has grown since then.
So, make sure you make best use of the census when the opportunity arises to fill it in. Plans by government departments, particularly in respect of education will be shaped by the census results.
And, if you see any Seachtain na Gaeilge events on and are interested in the Irish language, even if you don't' have any words or just a cuplá focal, drop in and participate. You won't regret it.
Brian Moore
This blog has learned with great sadness of the death at the weekend of Brian Moore.
Brian will be best known to most republicans as the irrepressible and politically perceptive cartoonist Cormac who for many years was a regular feature in Republican News and then in An Phoblacht/Republican News after the papers merged.
His weekly contribution to the paper touched on the big issues of the time; the war, repression, sectarianism, collusion and much more. His cartoons lampooned the British Army and RUC; the British government and media. If he witnessed injustice he turned his satirist's pen loose.
His cartoons were incisive and funny. And for many readers the back page was the first they read to see what gem 'Notes by Cormac' held for them.
Brian was a republican and a socialist. He supported the struggle for freedom and the peace process.
In the 70's he published political comics and he contributed to other publications, including the British weekly Socialist Challenge and Fortnight magazine.
Brian was also a song writer and performer. He founded 'The People of No Property' with whom he sang.
His death is a huge loss for his family but also to the wider republican community.
On behalf of Sinn Féin and of republicans everywhere I want to extend my sincerest condolences to Brian's partner Máire and their son Cormac, to Máire's son Conor and Brian's brothers Gerry and Danny and his sister Maura, and his family circle and friends. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire air.
Here are just a few of his cartoons.
March 10, 2011
First Day in the Dáil
Yesterday was an important day. The first formal day of the new Dáil. The enhanced Sinn Féin team of 14 TDs arrived to play our part. We gathered under a blue sky at the Mansion House in Dawson Street around 10.30am, the site of the meeting of the historic First Dáil in January 1919.
Earlier I had attended a ecumenical service in Saint Anne's, the church where Wolfe Tone was married. We walked the short distance along Molesworth Street to Leinster House. The Sinn Féin TDs were accompanied by scores of smiling family members and constituency party activists who were there for the occasion. Everyone was in good form. There was a very real sense that Sinn Féin had achieved a remarkable success and that we are now going into the Dáil stronger and more experienced than at any time since partition.
The Dáil chamber was packed. It's smaller than it looks on television or in photos. But it is much bigger than the chamber at Stormont. It was interesting watching Fianna Fáil trying to poke holes in the government's programme while at the same time claiming all the work as theirs.
The Sinn Féin team robustly set out our stall.
Behind the excitement and good humour of the day there was also a real sense that the election is now well and truly over and it's down to business.
The battle lines for the 31st Dáil have been drawn.
In all the day was a bit surreal. It is easy to see how parties and TDs can and do become divorced from the impact of their decisions on citizens.
The Dáil is in its own little bubble in which peoples lives are reduced by some to bald statistics and where some politicians talk in terms of billions of euro without, it appears to this blog, really understanding the human or financial cost to the state of the decisions they are taking.
I took the opportunity to remind them of previous republican TDs Kieran Doherty who died on hunger strike in 1981 and Paddy Agnew and others, like Martin Hurson and Kevin Lynch and Mairead Farrell who stood in that famous election of June 81.
And this blog made it plain that Sinn Féin is about Irish unity and we will use the opportunity now available to us to advance this goal in the time ahead.
For those readers interested I am including my remarks to the Dáil.
A Cheann Comhairle,
Tá mé fíor bródúil as bheith anseo inniu mar Theachta Dála don Lú agus oirthear na Mí agus mar cheannaire ar Shinn Féin.
Is mór an onóir dom guth a thabhairt dóibh siúd nach bhfuil ionadaíocht acu ins an Dáil.
Ar feadh 30 bliana rinne mé ionadaíocht ar son pobal Iarthar Bhéal Feirste.
Ach go dtí seo ní féidir le daoine as an taobh sin tire bheith tofa anseo.
So, I am very proud to stand here as an Ulsterman and an Irish republican from County Antrim.
It is a great honour to represent Sinn Féin in any capacity but it is especially gratifying to receive a mandate from your peers.
Ba mhaith liom ár mbuíochas a thabhairt do achan duine a thug a vóta do Sinn Féin agus achan duine a d'oibrigh ar son Sinn Féin.
I especially want to commend our candidates, including the republican TDs here today, and our families,
For almost 30 years I represented the people of west Belfast.
I am humbled and appreciative of the heroism, the generosity and courage of that community.
I am equally honoured to represent the citizens of Louth and East Meath and alongside our councillors there I will continue the pioneering work of my predecessor Arthur Morgan in that Dáil Ceanntair.
It is also a great honour to be part of the Sinn Féin team in the Oireachtas and we will build upon the project started here by Caoimhghín in 1997.
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican party. Our primary political goal is a United Ireland.
Our focus in the new Dáil will be to advance this goal and to deliver on our manifesto to the very best of our ability and to hold the government to account.
Ní mé an chéad duine ó Bhéal Feirste a toghadh mar Theachta Dála.
30 years ago this June my friend Kieran Doherty, a political prisoner on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh, was elected as TD for Cavan/Monaghan.
Paddy Agnew was elected for Louth.
And others, including Kevin Lynch, Martin Hurson and Joe McDonnell received very sizeable votes in other constituencies.
Agus mo chara Mairead Farrell, whose anniversary is this week, stood in Cork north central.
Bobby Sands was returned as MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone.
So, a Ceann Comhairle, Sinn Féin is part of a proud continuum of struggle for a real republic, for freedom and equality, and against oppression which goes back to 1916 and beyond.
The oppression visited upon our people by a foreign government in past times was unacceptable.
The economic oppression suffered by citizens under a native government in these times is just as unacceptable.
Caithfear stad a chur leis.
Níl mórán difir idir polasaithe Fhine Gael agus polasaithe Fhianna Fáil.
An bhliain seo chaite tugadh cibé cuid a bhí fagtha de sobharnacht an stát seo don EU agus don IMF.
In the election for the 31st Dáil the people voted against corruption, sellout and economic oppression. They voted for change.
The Fine Gael party in particular benefited from that desire for change.
But the reality is that Fine Gael and Labour's Programme for Government implements Fianna Fáil's policy.
Despite their promise of 'new ways, new approaches and new thinking', this government offers little of this.
The Fine Gael and Labour programme is a far cry from the Democratic Programme of the 1st Dáil.
That document declares that sovereignty extends, 'not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation.'
Our natural resources, especially our oil and gas which are worth billions, have been given away.
As Luke Kelly put it ….
"For what died the sons and daughters of Róisín?
Was it greed
Was it greed that drove Wolfe Tone to a paupers death in a cell of cold wet stone?
Will German, French or Dutch inscribe the epitaph of Emmet?
When we have sold enough of Ireland to be but strangers in it"
To whom do we owe our allegiance today
To those brave men and women who fought and died that Róisín live again with pride?
Or the faceless men who for Mark and Dollar,
Betray her to the highest bidder"
That is the big question facing this 31st Dáil.
The First Dáil was committed to a Programme to improve 'the conditions under which the working classes live and labour.'
There is no whisper of this in the 2011 Programme for Government.
The reality today is that more than 100,000 children in this state live in poverty.
450,000 people are unemployed.
Braitheann teacht ar sheirbhísi poiblí atá riachtanach ar nós seirbhísí cúraim leanaí, seirbhísí sláinte agus oideachas ar chumais íocaíochta seachas ar riachtanais shóisialta.
1000 citizens a week are forced to emigrate.
Families who cannot afford their mortgage repayments, fear eviction.
Sinn Féin will oppose any eviction of any family from their home!
Social protections have been slashed to satisfy the diktats of our new international masters.
The Universal Social Charge, welfare cuts and stealth taxes mean people can't pay their weekly bills.
The ghost estates that litter our countryside stand as monuments to corruption and greed.
The Programme for Government produced by Fine Gael and Labour does not tackle any of this.
It is a right wing Programme driven by a resurgent, right wing Fine Gael.
It commits the government to implementing Fianna Fail's austerity programme and to the madness of pouring public money into toxic banks.
Access to vital public services such as healthcare, childcare and education is determined by ability to pay rather than social need.
There is no meaningful jobs stimulus to push the economy out of recession.
There are increased charges on low and middle income families in the form of water and property taxes.
There will also be a sell-off of strategic state assets to multinational companies whose sole interest will be profit.
And Irish citizens will pay the price !
This government will cut 25,000 public sector jobs and further undermine our public services and our small and medium native businesses.
In short this is a Fine Gael Programme for Government supported by the Labour Party.
Voters were told 'Gilmore for Taoiseach'. Sinn Féin said if you vote Labour you will get Fine Gael. This is what happened.
Mar shampla tchifidh teaghlaigh atá ar mheán ioncaim agus ar ioncaim íseal íocaíochtaí i bhfoirm uisce.
Ach, tá bealach eile ann. Sé sin seasamh suas ar son muintir na hÉireann agus ar son Éire.
Caithfear saoirse eacnamaíochta a bhaint amach don tír seo !
Tá saoránaigh ag lorg polaitíocht nua.
There is an alternative.
Citizens are looking for a new kind of politics.
A politics that empowers and includes them.
A politics that doesn't pander to the elites and the greedy and seeks to build a new kind of Ireland.
It means making a stand for Ireland, standing up for our country and our people.
If politics is reduced to this chamber then it will be the old politics.
Sinn Féin will campaign on all these issues in and out of this Parliament and across this island.
I am calling on citizens to make a stand for themselves, for their neighbours, for their communities, for the vulnerable, for the disadvantaged.
This is a time for active citizenship, for democratically and peacefully asserting our rights as citizens.
It cannot be left only to this parliament.
There is no more important time; no more relevant time for republican politics and core republican values.
The people of this island are no mean people.
We live in a great country.
There is a genius, a brilliance, a wisdom and culture, there is history and tradition in our communities.
Caithfear tógáil ar na buanna iontacha seo.
Agus déanfaidh muid teaghlaigh tuaithe agus cathrach a chosaint.
Sinn Féin will oppose Fine Gael efforts to downgrade the Irish language.
We will defend the interests of working families, both urban and rural.
We will demand that this new Government hold a referendum on the banking bailout.
We will campaign for the abolition of the Universal Social Charge and we will hold Fine Gael and Labour to their promise to reverse the cut to the minimum wage.
And Sinn Féin will oppose, tooth and nail, the introduction of household water charges and property tax on family homes.
We will oppose attempts to sell off or privatise state assets or public services, including the health service.
Cuirfidh muid in aghaidh aon phríobháidiú ar an seirbhís sláinte.
Sinn Féin will continue to put forward constructive proposals to create jobs.
Politicians should lead by example.
Sinn Féin will introduce legislation within 100 days to cut Ministers salaries by 40% and TDs salaries by 20%.
Sinn Féin will also raise issues of importance to people in the north and we will expose the economic and political damage being done by partition to both states on this island.
Partition makes no economic sense and is a barrier to the creation of jobs.
A United Ireland makes sense.
A single island economy makes sense.
It makes economic sense.
It makes political sense.
Déanann sé ciall Éire a h-aontú!
Above this chamber flies our national flag. The flag of this nation – all 32 counties of it.
Green, White and Orange.
The future unity of the people of this island is represented in those colours.
Sinn Féin is proud of the leadership work of Martin McGuinness and our team in the Assembly.
This government must actively support the peace process and the historic mission to make friends with our unionist neighbours on the basis of equality.
Sinn Féin's commitment, as we seek to repair the damage done by a bad Fianna Fáil and Green Party government, and confront the bad policies that this new government will seek to implement, is to make progress on all of these fronts.
The Taoiseach talks about recreating our proud republic!
That means giving expression to the words of the Proclamation – Forógra na Cásca and the Democratic Programme of an Chéad Dáil which demand freedom, and equality and sovereignty and the empowerment of citizens across all 32 counties of this island.
It means moving beyond rhetoric.
Taoiseach change never comes easily.
Like politics and life it is a matter of choices.
Those of us who stand by the Republic, the real Republic, a new truly National Republic, will have our work cut out in this institution.
But, out there, despite the distress, there is a vitality which cannot be extinguished.
The Irish people may be bruised but we are not beaten. We are not broken.
We are unbowed. So there is hope. And because of that everything is possible.
Earlier I had attended a ecumenical service in Saint Anne's, the church where Wolfe Tone was married. We walked the short distance along Molesworth Street to Leinster House. The Sinn Féin TDs were accompanied by scores of smiling family members and constituency party activists who were there for the occasion. Everyone was in good form. There was a very real sense that Sinn Féin had achieved a remarkable success and that we are now going into the Dáil stronger and more experienced than at any time since partition.
The Dáil chamber was packed. It's smaller than it looks on television or in photos. But it is much bigger than the chamber at Stormont. It was interesting watching Fianna Fáil trying to poke holes in the government's programme while at the same time claiming all the work as theirs.
The Sinn Féin team robustly set out our stall.
Behind the excitement and good humour of the day there was also a real sense that the election is now well and truly over and it's down to business.
The battle lines for the 31st Dáil have been drawn.
In all the day was a bit surreal. It is easy to see how parties and TDs can and do become divorced from the impact of their decisions on citizens.
The Dáil is in its own little bubble in which peoples lives are reduced by some to bald statistics and where some politicians talk in terms of billions of euro without, it appears to this blog, really understanding the human or financial cost to the state of the decisions they are taking.
I took the opportunity to remind them of previous republican TDs Kieran Doherty who died on hunger strike in 1981 and Paddy Agnew and others, like Martin Hurson and Kevin Lynch and Mairead Farrell who stood in that famous election of June 81.
And this blog made it plain that Sinn Féin is about Irish unity and we will use the opportunity now available to us to advance this goal in the time ahead.
For those readers interested I am including my remarks to the Dáil.
A Cheann Comhairle,
Tá mé fíor bródúil as bheith anseo inniu mar Theachta Dála don Lú agus oirthear na Mí agus mar cheannaire ar Shinn Féin.
Is mór an onóir dom guth a thabhairt dóibh siúd nach bhfuil ionadaíocht acu ins an Dáil.
Ar feadh 30 bliana rinne mé ionadaíocht ar son pobal Iarthar Bhéal Feirste.
Ach go dtí seo ní féidir le daoine as an taobh sin tire bheith tofa anseo.
So, I am very proud to stand here as an Ulsterman and an Irish republican from County Antrim.
It is a great honour to represent Sinn Féin in any capacity but it is especially gratifying to receive a mandate from your peers.
Ba mhaith liom ár mbuíochas a thabhairt do achan duine a thug a vóta do Sinn Féin agus achan duine a d'oibrigh ar son Sinn Féin.
I especially want to commend our candidates, including the republican TDs here today, and our families,
For almost 30 years I represented the people of west Belfast.
I am humbled and appreciative of the heroism, the generosity and courage of that community.
I am equally honoured to represent the citizens of Louth and East Meath and alongside our councillors there I will continue the pioneering work of my predecessor Arthur Morgan in that Dáil Ceanntair.
It is also a great honour to be part of the Sinn Féin team in the Oireachtas and we will build upon the project started here by Caoimhghín in 1997.
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican party. Our primary political goal is a United Ireland.
Our focus in the new Dáil will be to advance this goal and to deliver on our manifesto to the very best of our ability and to hold the government to account.
Ní mé an chéad duine ó Bhéal Feirste a toghadh mar Theachta Dála.
30 years ago this June my friend Kieran Doherty, a political prisoner on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh, was elected as TD for Cavan/Monaghan.
Paddy Agnew was elected for Louth.
And others, including Kevin Lynch, Martin Hurson and Joe McDonnell received very sizeable votes in other constituencies.
Agus mo chara Mairead Farrell, whose anniversary is this week, stood in Cork north central.
Bobby Sands was returned as MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone.
So, a Ceann Comhairle, Sinn Féin is part of a proud continuum of struggle for a real republic, for freedom and equality, and against oppression which goes back to 1916 and beyond.
The oppression visited upon our people by a foreign government in past times was unacceptable.
The economic oppression suffered by citizens under a native government in these times is just as unacceptable.
Caithfear stad a chur leis.
Níl mórán difir idir polasaithe Fhine Gael agus polasaithe Fhianna Fáil.
An bhliain seo chaite tugadh cibé cuid a bhí fagtha de sobharnacht an stát seo don EU agus don IMF.
In the election for the 31st Dáil the people voted against corruption, sellout and economic oppression. They voted for change.
The Fine Gael party in particular benefited from that desire for change.
But the reality is that Fine Gael and Labour's Programme for Government implements Fianna Fáil's policy.
Despite their promise of 'new ways, new approaches and new thinking', this government offers little of this.
The Fine Gael and Labour programme is a far cry from the Democratic Programme of the 1st Dáil.
That document declares that sovereignty extends, 'not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation.'
Our natural resources, especially our oil and gas which are worth billions, have been given away.
As Luke Kelly put it ….
"For what died the sons and daughters of Róisín?
Was it greed
Was it greed that drove Wolfe Tone to a paupers death in a cell of cold wet stone?
Will German, French or Dutch inscribe the epitaph of Emmet?
When we have sold enough of Ireland to be but strangers in it"
To whom do we owe our allegiance today
To those brave men and women who fought and died that Róisín live again with pride?
Or the faceless men who for Mark and Dollar,
Betray her to the highest bidder"
That is the big question facing this 31st Dáil.
The First Dáil was committed to a Programme to improve 'the conditions under which the working classes live and labour.'
There is no whisper of this in the 2011 Programme for Government.
The reality today is that more than 100,000 children in this state live in poverty.
450,000 people are unemployed.
Braitheann teacht ar sheirbhísi poiblí atá riachtanach ar nós seirbhísí cúraim leanaí, seirbhísí sláinte agus oideachas ar chumais íocaíochta seachas ar riachtanais shóisialta.
1000 citizens a week are forced to emigrate.
Families who cannot afford their mortgage repayments, fear eviction.
Sinn Féin will oppose any eviction of any family from their home!
Social protections have been slashed to satisfy the diktats of our new international masters.
The Universal Social Charge, welfare cuts and stealth taxes mean people can't pay their weekly bills.
The ghost estates that litter our countryside stand as monuments to corruption and greed.
The Programme for Government produced by Fine Gael and Labour does not tackle any of this.
It is a right wing Programme driven by a resurgent, right wing Fine Gael.
It commits the government to implementing Fianna Fail's austerity programme and to the madness of pouring public money into toxic banks.
Access to vital public services such as healthcare, childcare and education is determined by ability to pay rather than social need.
There is no meaningful jobs stimulus to push the economy out of recession.
There are increased charges on low and middle income families in the form of water and property taxes.
There will also be a sell-off of strategic state assets to multinational companies whose sole interest will be profit.
And Irish citizens will pay the price !
This government will cut 25,000 public sector jobs and further undermine our public services and our small and medium native businesses.
In short this is a Fine Gael Programme for Government supported by the Labour Party.
Voters were told 'Gilmore for Taoiseach'. Sinn Féin said if you vote Labour you will get Fine Gael. This is what happened.
Mar shampla tchifidh teaghlaigh atá ar mheán ioncaim agus ar ioncaim íseal íocaíochtaí i bhfoirm uisce.
Ach, tá bealach eile ann. Sé sin seasamh suas ar son muintir na hÉireann agus ar son Éire.
Caithfear saoirse eacnamaíochta a bhaint amach don tír seo !
Tá saoránaigh ag lorg polaitíocht nua.
There is an alternative.
Citizens are looking for a new kind of politics.
A politics that empowers and includes them.
A politics that doesn't pander to the elites and the greedy and seeks to build a new kind of Ireland.
It means making a stand for Ireland, standing up for our country and our people.
If politics is reduced to this chamber then it will be the old politics.
Sinn Féin will campaign on all these issues in and out of this Parliament and across this island.
I am calling on citizens to make a stand for themselves, for their neighbours, for their communities, for the vulnerable, for the disadvantaged.
This is a time for active citizenship, for democratically and peacefully asserting our rights as citizens.
It cannot be left only to this parliament.
There is no more important time; no more relevant time for republican politics and core republican values.
The people of this island are no mean people.
We live in a great country.
There is a genius, a brilliance, a wisdom and culture, there is history and tradition in our communities.
Caithfear tógáil ar na buanna iontacha seo.
Agus déanfaidh muid teaghlaigh tuaithe agus cathrach a chosaint.
Sinn Féin will oppose Fine Gael efforts to downgrade the Irish language.
We will defend the interests of working families, both urban and rural.
We will demand that this new Government hold a referendum on the banking bailout.
We will campaign for the abolition of the Universal Social Charge and we will hold Fine Gael and Labour to their promise to reverse the cut to the minimum wage.
And Sinn Féin will oppose, tooth and nail, the introduction of household water charges and property tax on family homes.
We will oppose attempts to sell off or privatise state assets or public services, including the health service.
Cuirfidh muid in aghaidh aon phríobháidiú ar an seirbhís sláinte.
Sinn Féin will continue to put forward constructive proposals to create jobs.
Politicians should lead by example.
Sinn Féin will introduce legislation within 100 days to cut Ministers salaries by 40% and TDs salaries by 20%.
Sinn Féin will also raise issues of importance to people in the north and we will expose the economic and political damage being done by partition to both states on this island.
Partition makes no economic sense and is a barrier to the creation of jobs.
A United Ireland makes sense.
A single island economy makes sense.
It makes economic sense.
It makes political sense.
Déanann sé ciall Éire a h-aontú!
Above this chamber flies our national flag. The flag of this nation – all 32 counties of it.
Green, White and Orange.
The future unity of the people of this island is represented in those colours.
Sinn Féin is proud of the leadership work of Martin McGuinness and our team in the Assembly.
This government must actively support the peace process and the historic mission to make friends with our unionist neighbours on the basis of equality.
Sinn Féin's commitment, as we seek to repair the damage done by a bad Fianna Fáil and Green Party government, and confront the bad policies that this new government will seek to implement, is to make progress on all of these fronts.
The Taoiseach talks about recreating our proud republic!
That means giving expression to the words of the Proclamation – Forógra na Cásca and the Democratic Programme of an Chéad Dáil which demand freedom, and equality and sovereignty and the empowerment of citizens across all 32 counties of this island.
It means moving beyond rhetoric.
Taoiseach change never comes easily.
Like politics and life it is a matter of choices.
Those of us who stand by the Republic, the real Republic, a new truly National Republic, will have our work cut out in this institution.
But, out there, despite the distress, there is a vitality which cannot be extinguished.
The Irish people may be bruised but we are not beaten. We are not broken.
We are unbowed. So there is hope. And because of that everything is possible.
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