Making it Count




34 comments:

  1. Great to see a bright young republican give the people of Ardoyne a credible alternative. Maith thu Dee agus adh mhor ort. Young Tommy Doherty in the Lower Falls area is also a great fella, it'd be great to see the like of these lads rewarded for the massive amount of work they do in their communities

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  2. Best of luck Dee , also to Tommy, Its now time for the people of Ardoyne and the lower falls to show what they are made off. Dont stand for any intimidation, there's enough of that from PSNI/RUC/SF.

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  3. Sean
    I agree but people still not filling in forms because of the 'Northern Ireland' ID.0

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  4. Fionnuala-

    This is the first and last elections that that term will be used in such a way-the following year the new forms will be more Irish friendly-

    Saying that it is a persons own choice if they don't want to fill
    in the present form-

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  5. Michael Henry
    Sinn Fein's Rosie Mc Corley told people to tick that box ??
    Where does that leave us.?

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  6. We have republicans calling other republicans traitors and sell outs for sitting in a British controlled stormaont or councils enforcing British rules. Then the same people ask other republicans to no forgrt to fill in the British application forms requestion British permission that will allow an Irish person to vote in a British controlled election in Ireland.

    Where would you get it but Ireland, how many times can you be fooled by the same trick. Will any of those elected form an alliance with other parties in this British controlled council, a socialist party, will it be like the Workers Party - What have they ever done for the people, and like their brothers in Sinn Fein, What did they do with all the money they raked in over the years, they own all sorts of bars and clubs in place you wouldn't imagne, just like the shinners own all sorts of taxis and daily newspapers but no-one know where the money go's to. But funnily enough mose of those centered around Gerry and Martin are wealthy ex prisoners and yes men who are blinded by personal gain.

    Sorry no-one will be getting my vote and who gives a Brit the right o tell me when and when I can vote.

    "I would rather squander a young soul than get on my kneee and beg for the scraps from the masters table"

    Thats Friedrich Nietzsche too Maskers.

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  7. Johnny,

    it would be a question of which young soul is being squandered. Don't think I came across that one before from FN, but as with much else it is like me bringing a book home with a satisfied look on my face only to be told by the wife 'you have already got that one.'

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  8. I think we need some clarity around these issues.
    Eirigi ran for the council to give voters an alternative to Sinn Fein.
    We need some voice and I would say Dee Fennell would provide a very commendable voice but we need answers to some of the questions Johnny L asked.

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  9. Nuala,

    I think Johnny's questions were rhetorical, a way of expressing what we have all said over the years. I doubt if he is expecting much in the way of answers.

    Onto the issue of not voting - is representing people what republicanism about? How do they represent people if they totally ignore what people's electoral preferences are? Is there a problem in taking up an oppositional role in Stormont or Leinster House but refusing to cross the line to become part of the British administration? Or is it a case of damned if do and damned if don't - in the sense that once republicans go to the parliaments they are goosed and are part of the system anyway? What do we learn from the Marxists who have looked at this from every angle?

    I would vote Dee Fennell or Eirigi even though my instinct is like Johnny's and not vote. One problem with voting is that I have voted for more wasters since moving South than I ever voted for up North. There are some things we neaver learn.

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  10. Mackers,
    It would still be nice to hear from the proposed candidates because whether Johhnny was being rhetorical or curious he posed some interesting stuff.

    Even good people can be useless as can well intentioned people.
    When I got out of prison in the eighties I went to work for the Sinn Fein housing department, within a matter of months I left.
    I left because good decent people were coming through the door everyday and apart from spiel we were doing nothing.
    Every night I had to walk home snd pass those people and in the end it was a relief when I could say, no I'm not there anymore.

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  11. Nuala,

    I don't doubt the value of the critique Johnny made by way of questions. What is needed is more than the candidates telling you anything but ways of ensuring any candidate, regardless of what they say, cannot do what Adams and the likes did.

    Every night I had to walk home and pass those people and in the end it was a relief when I could say, no I'm not there anymore.

    I know that feeling so well.

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  12. I have used the Sinn Fein office on the Falls several times and always had excellent service and great people to deal with.

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  13. Mackers,
    That is the one thing Adams gets away with over and over again and people should be nailing him over it.
    Sinn Fein did nothing forr it's strongest constituency. Big Adams performance was totally dire but there he is now in the Free State, man of the people righting all wrongs.

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  14. Fionnuala-


    " Told people to tick that box ??
    Where does that leave us "

    Well if you want to vote next year
    you have to tick that box-
    I ticked that full form two months ago-
    Sinn Fein have asked people to tick it-but that is up to each person what they do themselves-
    I think Eirigi are opposed to those forms and might not stand in next years locals-The RNU and those who are running for the 1916 societies has independents have not said to people not to fill in those forms because both of them are running in next years locals-
    it is better to be up front to the people like Sinn Fein are-but each to their own-

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  15. Michaelhenry,

    whatever the merits of your argument about the need to sign forms to get into places you would otherwise be banned from, it is impossible to claim with any integrity that SF is upfront with people.

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  16. Michael Henry,
    I would not fill one in, simply because I could not tick that box.
    Your are absolutely right, that it is each to their own, it's just not for me.

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  17. My eyesight must be going or im just being lazy not checking before I post, sorry about the spelling mistakes.

    I have never registered to vote myself although I have been fooled into helping others get elected in the past, voting under everyone elses name. How stupid I was, that was in the days when Sinn Fein were committed to a 32 county socialist republic. When I think about it now, we helped create a monster, a Frankenstein that ended up turning into a parasite feeding off the very morals that made the republican movement what it was.

    Every line in the sand that was drawn was crossed and every vestige of socialist values dissapeared while the bank accounts of those in the leadership increased. For some in Sinn Fein, one paid job is not enough some of them have three or four and they will happily walk past without giving a fk, a former comrade who they know is scraping to make ends meet on the dole.

    Not content with maybe three or four jobs and ignoring their former comrades, they ensure their offspring and family members get whatever perks and easy numbers they have also. Socialists my bullocks.

    Are the sticks or were the sticks and their politicians and councillors any different than those Sinn Fein politicians and councillors and hangers on.

    Is any politician any different than the above, they all talk the talk and tell you they will walk the walk but in the end they follow their own path and its usually one thats laden with riches.

    The reality is people who put themselves into the public spotlight usually do it for their own selfish reasons, theres very few James Connelly's or Jim Larkins about but theres plenty of Blairs, Bushes and Adamses how can we know this current crop of new socialists are any different than those who fooled us before.



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  18. You know I am unregistered and dont vote as a result of past experience. Does it really matter who gets elected?. Reallity is no matter who gets elected they will only be there for as long as they will fit in to the political system. How many young radicals have survived in a political areana?. The political system we live with has a way of reconstructing young radicals and making them fit in. Although I accept that they mature and change naturally as is the case with how most adults behave in life generally . If you look at what SF had to morph into to be part of the system, I say no thank you sir. To me the whole electoral process consists of the voter and his/her golden ticket and those who try and persuade you to part with it. If they can persuade enough of us to hand them our golden ticket, that is when the reconstruction starts, yes about the same time the engine on the gravy train is fired up.

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  19. I personally didn't want to register this time,I always did before, (but, when I thought about people like Emily Davison who threw herself under the king's horse and got killed for it, well...). I Know where you're coming froming Fionnuala, it sticks in my craw and at the same time makes me want to vomit when a form says: "have you been resident in "northern ireland" etc. I ticked the box because I want my vote (to vote for something other than SF!). Believe me, that's a tactical move on my part (unlike SF's "tactical moves" which in reality were ditching Republican principles). I have seen AM unashamedly referring to this place as "northern ireland" on this and other blogs (which is his right). What I'm getting at is, Bernadette (Devlin) McAliskey is looked upon as a Republican, a radical and a forward thinker (and rightly so), but remember, when she was elected as an MP she swore an oath to the queen and britain. Remember their is a difference between people like me and SF, I don't mix up what a "tactic" and a "principle" means! SF must be rubbing their hands at the thought of people they regard as "hardline Republicans" refusing to tick that box, as it will give them a free run. Even a few independent Republicans/Socialists getting elected to stick a spoke in the works and the gravy train and expose these bastards for what they are would be worth it! Remember if they don't live up to their promises, we can vote them out next time (that's independent Republicans/Socialists). I recall talking to a couple of people of people after the last council elctions and they were telling me that Pat (Chopper) McCotter and John McCusker got a brilliant vote. They told me of their dismay and disappointment when people they had never heard of got elected for SF. (These people had lived in the areas all their lives and the SF people that got elected had never done anything for anyone in those areas, in fact, people didn't even know who they were). As I said before on this blog: put a billygoat up for election on the catholic side of west Belfast with a SF badge and it will get elected!

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  20. belfastgit,
    Like Dee Fennell, John Mc Cusker is one of those people if the odds were stacked you would want him in your corner.
    Sinn Fein spent more time attacking John and Pat and persuading voters that a vote for Eirigi was a vote for dissent than anything else.
    Their behaviour was quite despicable because they seem to fear a serious Republican Alternative more than they fear anything else.

    Sadly for me I couldn't tick the N Ireland box, but I know some people who said they would have ticked hell to get their vote.

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  21. Belfastgit,

    as a rule I use the North of Ireland. And I don't use NI 'unashamedly' - I am always selfconscious when I do use the thing. That would maybe more akin to 'ashamedly'!

    Generally, I don't get hung up on these things, although I would never use 'Londonderry'. Northern Ireland is a political term but can also pass muster as a geographic one. Londonderry is political through and through.

    But if I wanted to vote I would tick the box with no discomfort. Any cheque ever came to the house up North addressed to NI it was never turned away!!

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  22. Mackers,
    What you say makes total and perfect sense but I couldn't tick the box,
    I don't know why it just seemed to fill the page for me.
    I couldn't get around it in my head, which is perhaps what they want. All these staunch Republicans refusing to tick the box, however, I never seen myself amongst the super staunch but I just couldn't do it.

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  23. Here is a solution simply strike-out the word 'Northern'. After all the British habitually delete words on official documents.

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  24. Nuala,

    which I suppose is a lesson in why we need to be tolerant of people in their differences and foibles. No great logic in what we often do, it just has a feel to it that it is the right thing to do. aAnd often we run with our instinct.

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  25. I did not fill in the census form because of the Residency Box. It simply grates on me to recognize 'Northern Ireland' in such an official manner.

    To vote or not to vote that is the question. In light of the parliamentary record of republicans, past and present, I am deeply cynical. The allure of power quickly replaces political principles and radical manifestos. Entire political parties have succumbed to the gravitational pull of the parliamentary process. What chance does an lowly independent councilor have of resisting these pressures?

    Representative democracy has its limitations and those that play to its rules can only effect marginal change.

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  26. Alec,

    true and yet it is better that people have the right to vote than not. Being able to vote is better than being unable to vote. It annoys me when people call for it to be made mandatory for us to vote.

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  27. It is also a right not to vote. Withholding consent is a perfectly valid political statement of its own.

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  28. Very much so Alex. Thsoe who want it compulsory actually want to convey the fiction that we might actually like the bastards we are forced to vote for

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  29. AM
    LOL. I wasn't getting a dig in at you, cara, I just saw that you used "those" words in other postings.

    Fionnuala
    That is your right cara, I remember one time at a count looking on in disbelief (and failing to hold my laughter in) when two candidates were arguing that their box had been ticked, because a "voter" had wrote "cunts" across the ballot paper. One was arguing that the end of the "c" had ticked his box, and the other was arguing that the end of the "s" was ticking his! If you put that in a comedy show no one would believe it!

    Alec
    As I said earlier cara, I had to force myself to tick that box, believe me, my hand hovered over it for a long time! But, like I said to Fionnuala that is your right. I also said in my post that if for instance a Socialist/Republican/Independent gets elected and they don't live up to their promises, then I wouldn't vote for them next time around.

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  30. Belfastgit,

    I know you weren't but I found it funny all the same

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  31. belfastgit,
    That's the funniest thing. Fair play to the author.
    I simply couldn't mark it. I actually did what Frankie suggested, first time around I scored out the Northern but they returned the paper.

    I grew up in a house with parents who were for and against the absentionist policy, so I can see the argument from
    both sides.
    But I think just for once it would be great if people have fair and decent representatives.

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  32. Fionnuala,
    I actually did what Frankie suggested, first time around I scored out the Northern but they returned the paper.

    Why doesn't it say on the froms 'Tick here if you are Irish'? Didn't the GFA make that provision (the right to be called Irish)? I'd have sent it back with a copy of the GFA and ask them to read it.

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  33. Nice commment put out by Dee Fennell on Facebook.

    Just down getting some stuff together for Cherise Maye with her sister Kerry Mc Veigh from Freecycle Ardoyne, after her house fire yesterday. Clothes and toys and a tv to get them started, and have kept some other items over for when Cherise gets some accomodation sorted.

    This is exactly what the Freecycle is designed to do, helping people most in need and at their most vulnerable, with the help of the community. Everyone who has donated should be very proud, because everything will be going to those who need it most.

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  34. Dee Again from his Facebook page

    Freecycle Ardoyne tonight left more household equipment, furniture, toys and electrical equipment to Cherise Maye, whose home in Northwick Drive burnt down at the weekend. I also gave her some advice on local advice services she can contact to help her gain alternative accomodation, as she is having some trouble in this regard. She is currently staying with friends as all she has been offered is a hostel in the Upper Ormeau area. I will also be in touch with local housing associations and the HE on her behalf.

    She told me to thank the people of Ardoyne and beyond for all their generosity and well wishes. It is times like this that the district comes into its own, and despite the negativity the media tries to tar us all with, we have once again shown the true spirit of Ardoyne. Well done.

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