Showing posts with label Sinn Fein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sinn Fein. Show all posts

Dr John Coulter ✍ All this Dublin dosh coming to Northern Ireland is merely the Leinster House establishment trying to buy the next Southern general election in a last ditch bid to outmanoeuvre the growth of Sinn Fein.

Ironically, Sinn Fein should already be in government in Southern Ireland, but the movement made one fatal electoral flaw during the last Dail showdown in 2020 - it didn’t run enough candidates!

No doubt the instructions coming to the party from the republican movement’s ruling Provisional IRA army council will be to ensure it has sufficient candidates on the ballot paper in the hope that enough TDs are elected to give Sinn Fein at least an overall majority in the next Dail general election, expected either later this year, or early in 2025.

Indeed, Sinn Fein was only kept out of power in 2020 because the two rival establishment parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - set aside their differences and formed an historic coalition pact in the Dail.

Sinn Fein boss Mary Lou McDonald will be hoping she has enough TDs elected to give her party an overall majority - a situation Sinn Fein has not enjoyed electorally since the 1918 Westminster General Election - which will guarantee she becomes Taoiseach.

Plan B would either be to persuade Fianna Fáil to break its pact with Fine Gael and enter a coalition government with Sinn Fein, or persuade enough Independent or Left-wing party TDs to prop up a Sinn Fein-led coalition government.

Sinn Fein was so keen to get the DUP back into Stormont this month, not because the republican movement has had a Biblical-style Road to Damascus political conversion to the existence of Northern Ireland and its partitionist parliament, but because it needs to convince Southern voters that it can become a responsible party of government.

The Sinn Fein back door plan to Irish Unity is to show to Southern voters, especially those who vote Fianna Fáil and particularly first time voters, that it can run a parliament in the hope that those Southern voters return Sinn Fein to power in Leinster House.

The real test of this republican strategy will come later this year in the European elections when Sinn Fein will be standing candidates in the Republic, which for the time being, remains part of the European Union.

The kick starting of Stormont has triggered the British Government’s promised £3.3 billion package with possibly more Westminster cash coming down the pipeline.

Southern voters will be watching Sinn Fein carefully to see how the republican movement spends those billions before definitely opting to give Sinn Fein the reins of power in the Dail.

In a bid to derail Sinn Fein’s spending spree in Northern Ireland, the current Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil administration has embarked on its own spending spree north of the Irish border.

But this could also be a Trojan horse for Sinn Fein, not for Unionism. If Sinn Fein does become a majority government in Dublin, it too, will embark on a massive spending spree in a bid to alleviate the huge lack of social housing in the Republic - a spending spree which could easily bankrupt Southern Ireland, with the so-called Celtic Tiger economy facing a collapse which it endured several years ago.

In this event, there will be no British millions to bail out the Southern economy as happened when the UK was still a key member of the EU.

Five years of Sinn Fein rule in the Republic could well wreck the state financially in the short-term, but it could guarantee long-term that Sinn Fein’s Irish Unity plans would be in the political dustbin for generations to come.

Southern voters may not be so forgiving of Sinn Fein if the party’s high-spending social housing policy results in soaring taxes and an economic wilderness.

It is becoming clear the current Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael spending spree for Northern Ireland is a double-edged political sword - showing how financially generous the present Dail government can be, and spending as much money as possible so that Sinn Fein has a very small budget if its happens to win the next Dail election.

And even if Sinn Fein makes gains in the European elections, its MEPs will be going back to an expected parliament which will have increased representations from both the centre Right and Far Right movements.

A thriving Far Right group of MEPs in the next European Parliamentary mandate will operate a rigid populist agenda, meaning they will keep the EU cash for their own member states rather than give it to the Republic to help with any Sinn Fein needed bail out because the republican movement drastically overspent on providing social housing.

But bluntly, Unionism should not be alarmed by the current Southern establishment spending spree in Northern Ireland. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are not trying to buy Irish Unity. In reality, they are setting up Sinn Fein for a financial fall.

The late Rev Ian Paisley, when he was a DUP MEP, said he was going to Europe to milk the European cow. Unionism and Loyalism should milk every penny from the current Southern administration because if Sinn Fein has any say in the next Dail government, as in the 1920s, the republican movement will inevitably spark a second civil war in the South - only this time not with guns and bombs, but with social housing, jobs and the Republic’s Celtic Tiger economy.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online

Dublin Parties’ Irish Unity Deposit Is Really Bid To Out-Spend Sinn Fein!

John Meehan writing in Tomás Ó Flatharta.

“Will Sinn Féin in 2024 still just be the “attack dog” of opposition, or will a vision of what it will look like in government be clearly articulated?” Una Mullally, Irish Times, asks a very relevant question.

In the early days of 2024 thoughts turn to the next general election in Ireland which will create the 34th Dáil Éireann no later than February 2025.

Before that, in May 2024, voters in the 26 county bit of Ireland elect local authority councillors and members of the European Parliament.

All reliable opinion surveys suggest Sinn Féin will be the biggest party after the next Dáil general election, and that the current FFFGGG (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Greens, Gombeens) coalition may stay in office.

The post here looks at relevant statistics :

Irish Elections Projections

Sinn Féin does not rule out coalition with the right-wing parties, and – once we ignore silly point-scoring – we can see that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens do not rule out coalition with Sinn Féin. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is explicit on this point :

Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin opens the door to coalition with Sinn Féin

The prospect of such a government should send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting supporter of the radical left in Ireland.

Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG), two tweedledum and tweedledee capitalist parties, have controlled every government running the southern 26 county bit of partitioned Ireland since a 1921 Treaty was signed with the former occupying power, Britain. A carnival of reaction followed on both sides of the Irish border.

Faced with a false choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the only rational policy for the left was and is: no coalition, on principle, with any right-wing party. 

Colm Breathnach explores the issue very well :

Socialists and Coalition with Sinn Féin – Colm Breathnach, Independent Left

People Before Profit calls for a left Sinn Féin government excluding, on principle, any coalition with the right-wing.

But is this likely?

An increasing number of left-wing observers are noting a Sinn Féin move to the “centre” (I prefer the word “right”). The Irish Times columnist Una Mullally explores this issue (see the article below).

Mullally asks a very relevant question:

Will Sinn Féin in 2024 still just be the “attack dog” of opposition, or will a vision of what it will look like in government be clearly articulated? The spats and point-scoring episodes are boring people. Voters don’t like politics being played, they want to see its (positive) impact on their lives.

The writer then zones in on the November 23 2023 racist riots in Dublin:

An example of these pointless games was in the aftermath of the Dublin riots in November, when Mary Lou McDonald posted a photo on social media of a person drinking from a can on a doorstep near the school on Parnell Square where that awful attack occurred. This was ill-judged in many ways, not least because on this same square, Sinn Féin has had its head office for years. Was their leader not uniquely positioned to do something more seismic within that immediate community than merely tweet?

Many Irish elected representatives have added fuel to the racist fire by saying that communities have not been “consulted” over housing the homeless.

This “consultation” criticism of state agencies (some of which has come from left-wing sources) over housing people in Ireland who have no roof over their heads (no matter where they were born) needs to be dumped. It is NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) politics. In practice it means the far-right can organise protests at targeted buildings, normalises racist publicity, and makes it easier to burn homes for the homeless.

In this context the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald attacks the rights of Ukrainians in Ireland who have fled from a Russian genocidal attack on their country.

See Garrett Mullan’s response here :

The comments of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD on Ukrainian refugees in Ireland are a mistake

The depressing factor in all of this is that polling and electoral evidence continues to show that the racist far-right in Ireland is weak and very unpopular.

A number of mainstream politicians are aware of this factor, so contradictions are coming out into the open.

Councillors from the government parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are using the “consultation” excuse over the burning of housing for the homeless – but, to his credit, the minister for Higher Education Simon Harris is pouring scorn on these excuses for racist arson :

Fire broke out in the vacant Shipwright pub in Ringsend on New Year’s Eve, with gardaí confirming it was the work of arsonists. It had been intended to be used as accommodation for 14 homeless families.

The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) has defended the service after some local politicians said they were not told of the plans to create homeless accommodation at the centre. Fine Gael councillor Danny Byrne was among those to criticise the DRHE, suggesting the attack might not have happened if there had been “clear communication” about the building’s planned use.

His party colleague, Mr Harris, said communication with communities was “extraordinarily important”. However, he said: “I don’t believe that in and of itself would have made a blind bit of difference because the people who torched a building – not prejudicing the investigation – aren’t people who wanted better communication. They’re people who are spreading hatred. Irish Times, January 4 2024

“Whataboutery” and “attack dog” criticism of a government minister is not a useful response to Mr Harris. On this single important question his point is valid. And here is a follow-up point: Simon Harris knows that Garda boss Drew Harris favours a “hug-a-thug” policy towards the far-right – Drew Harris Hug-a-Thug Policing Policy. Yet Simon Harris, along with his FFFGGG colleagues, defeated a PBP and Sinn Féin no-confidence Dáil resolution which would have ended Drew Harris’s garda boss job.

It should be clear that the need for principled anti-racist policies is closely related to left wing activists and elected representatives ruling out governmental coalition with the right-wing capitalist parties.

⏩Keep Up with  Tomás Ó Flatharta.

A Very Relevant Question Asked Of Sinn Féin

Aoife Moore ✏ The queen’s visit was a roaring success. She stayed for four days, and her programme was heavily oriented towards peace and reconciliation. 


She laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, and she visited Croke Park, site of the first Bloody Sunday massacre in 1920, when British forces opened fire on a GAA match.

On her fourth day, the queen visited Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The town’s Sinn Féin mayor, Michael Browne, met her and shook her hand. Browne had been told by party headquarters to boycott the visit in keeping with party policy, but he disregarded the order.

As Cllr Browne told The Nationalist:

I just said “I welcome you to Cashel your majesty and I hope you enjoy your stay” in Cashel. (. . .) She just said thanks very much. I am glad I met her. I can only see that her visit can do good. You could be protesting all your life. (. . .)  We are in fierce hard economic times and the fact she has come here might encourage more tourists to visit. If the economy is to take off again that is the sort of money we have to get into the country’ (. . .)

For her speech at Dublin Castle, the queen opened with a few words in Irish: ‘A Uachtaráin agus a chairde ‘, she said. At her side, President McAleese – who had suggested some Irish phrases the queen might use but assumed it wouldn’t happen – gasped ‘Wow’, and spontaneous applause erupted among the crowd of 172 guests.

The visit had been a roaring success, and Sinn Féin had missed out on it. In the aftermath, speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, [Gerry] Adams tried to defend the party’s stance, while also hinting at an openness to future engagement:

‘Many people I have spoken to, particularly from the North, have expressed a disappointment that she did not apologise in a more direct and clear way for British involvement in Irish affairs. [. . .]

‘If there is to be more benefit out of this, it will be if it moves beyond these important gestures and remarks’ [. . .].

‘It’s another step in the journey. It was the conditions created by the peace process which allowed this to happen.

‘It’s a page in a book – and we need to write the next page and the next page and keep moving the process on.’

Things moved on very quickly. Later that same year, as Sinn Féin’s candidate for the Irish presidency, Martin McGuinness, said he was prepared to meet all heads of state without exception, including the queen. The party knew it had been out of step with the rest of the island in its boycott of the queen’s visit, and wanted to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

What Happened When An IRA Man Met The Widow Of A Police Officer He Had Murdered?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ In the world we live, or exist in, certainly in the so-called western world the political system we live under is called ‘liberal democracy.’ 

It is a far cry from full, transparent democracy, and only means we get a vote every four or five years. Actually, in the 26 county Irish state constitutionally that term of office for a government can be legally as long as seven years, though this is never enacted by any incumbent. 

In Britain in real terms, and where no written constitution exists, there is a two or possibly three-party system, though in recent years more political parties have entered the race but the reality is it is still a two or three horse race. In the 26 county’s we have a system of voting called ‘the single transferable vote’ whereas in Britain the even less democratic ‘first past the post’ system of electing still exists. In real terms in Britain, it is going to be either the Labour or Conservative parties with perhaps the Liberal Democrats helping out one party or the other to form a coalition. In the 26 county’s it is usually a coalition of either Fianna Fail and perhaps Labour or Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens forming a coalition. Either way one of the ‘civil war’ (the pro and anti-treaty sides in the Irish Civil War) parties are the senior and deciding party in such a set up. 

Today a revitalised and certainly unrecognisable Sinn Fein have entered the former cosy little set up with the two old enemies, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail burying their differences and forming an unholy alliance to keep Sinn Fein out of government. Sinn Fein are promising the world, as do most of these stooges of the rich and powerful, while in opposition and, as per usual, the government parties are going all out to tell us why the policies of Sinn Fein are unrealistic and will never work. There is nothing new in this bullshit, as that is all these parliaments are, strategies and to that all I can say is, without having much faith in Sinn Fein, they have not yet been given a chance to fuck things up. 

One major promise of Sinn Fein is to introduce over a two-term period a fully ‘costed’ single tiered nationalised health service based loosely on the one operated in the United Kingdom (UK). The question is whether the real government, the rich and the powerful, will allow such a service to be introduced? I doubt it but will give Sinn Fein the benefit simply because things cannot be any worse regarding health in the 26-County’s. What perhaps Sinn Fein are not taking into account, is when the Labour government of Clement Attlee brought in the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 they did so on the back of the Second World War and today the wealthy are slowly clawing back the NHS into their private hands.

It is very important to differentiate between politics and economics. Many think they are the same, they are not. Yes, governments have budgets to manage the fiscal purse, public money, a minority factor in any capitalist economy, as most of the money belongs to private wealthy individuals. In the 26-County state such people as Denis O’Brien, the Collinson brothers, Michael O’Leary all have larger budgets than do any incumbent government, most of which is banked outside the state. This is so these great patriots do not have to pay tax towards goods and services for the benefit of all, such things as health, housing, education and a decent standard of living for everybody. Much the same system of free market economics is the case in Britian and all ‘liberal democracies’ around the globe. Elected governments are pretty powerless to do anything about these people’s tax avoidance as this, unlike tax evasion, is perfectly legal. In Ireland the state loses up to and beyond 22% of revenue through tax avoidance by the wealthy. When the 26-County state has an open and shut case to collect tax from huge companies like Apple they simply refuse to do so. Why? Because they know these people are larger and more powerful, certainly economically, than the elected government! Or they give us some tale about these firms bringing employment, shit paid, but nevertheless employment!!

These people are often referred to as ‘the ruling-class’ and the clue is in the word, ‘ruling’. Whoever sits in government in the Dail these people will still be in charge, certainly economically and economics will always trump politics in a ‘liberal democracy’ and that has been proven in the past. For example, when in 1964 a well-meaning Harold Wilson and his Labour Party were back in government in Britain, he thought he was, as Prime Minister, to be in charge. He soon found out this was not the case. He soon found out the Governor of the Bank of England decided economic policy, in general, and he just enacted these policies on the Governors ‘advice’. On the political front, with no economic detriment Wilson had a little more success, perhaps his greatest legacy was refusing the US demand for British troops in Vietnam, but this was purely political not economics.

So, in a ‘liberal democracy’ we get the vote every four to five years and elect a party to govern the affairs of the wealthy. We can then all wonder off back to work for these very same wealthy people and absolutely nothing changes, exploitation for profit continues as do redundancies when these wealthy people have no further use for us. Never mind though, we can still bluff ourselves we are really in charge because we get the vote!!

What then is a ‘plutocracy’? A plutocracy is when the wealthy are in charge, usually unelected, as a class. They are the government. Examples of ancient such ‘plutocracies’ would be the city states of Athens, ironically credited with being the originators of democracy, Carthage and Rome. These were ancient plutocracies but what of today? Are our so-called ‘liberal democracies’ really ‘plutocracies’ disguised as democratic systems? After all, in the workplace owned by the wealthy there are no democratic structures there, only socialism would provide such structures, but I am deviating. Perhaps the only democratic principle in the workplace is the election, where applicable, of the trade union representative, or ‘shop steward’ every year, sometimes longer but never longer than five years. We do not elect the boss, or even the chargehand. Many of the wealthy owners of the means of production, having got wealthy out of the wealth created by the proletariat, tell their employees; ‘this is not a democracy’ so get back to work or collect your cards!

Are our ‘liberal democracies’ really ‘plutocracies’? I would suggest they are because irrespective of who we vote into government, the wealthy or ruling-class remain static and still rule. Even in totalitarian evil regimes like Nazi Germany the wealthy were still in power, many were members of the Nazi party. The Nazis were funded by Germany’s wealthy, Theisen, Krupps Armaments and steel producers, Siemens electronics and many others. So, once again a plutocracy, which the Nazis made no secret of, providing it was the wealthy of Germany and not Jewish business!

If the wealthy feel in any way threatened by the policies of a party in government opposition, they will first of all, as was the case with both Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn of the British Labour Party, discredit them via their media. If that does not work and such a person becomes Prime Minister, they will economically undermine that person’s governments policies. If that doesn’t work, as was the case in Chile, they will liquidate that person, dissolve the government, and put their own person into governmental power. Salvador Allende was shot and Augusto Pinochet put in charge. As Karl Marx said well over a century ago “the bourgeoisie force the proletariat to take dangerous, low-paying jobs, in order to survive”. This is as true today as it was in the days of Marx, Engels and, a little later, James Connolly, Jim Larkin, Richard O’Carroll and William O’Brien. Today we have had union leaders like Arthur Scargill, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Health and Safety officer back in the early seventies, and today Mick Lynch of the RMT speaking out against such a system. The question remains, do we live in a ‘democracy’ even a liberal one, or a ‘plutocracy’? Who holds real power, the government or the wealthy?

To briefly summarise, in a ‘liberal democracy’ we elect a party to government or, in the 26-County’s usually a coalition of parties, who all usually go back on their election pledges. Once in office they set about governing for the benefit of the wealthy, the affairs of the wealthy and a few crumbs left over for the majority of the electorate, the working-class.

A ‘plutocracy’ is government by the wealthy, for the wealthy and only the wealthy. It is they as a class who actually govern, or misgovern, and not representatives of that class as is the case in a ‘liberal democracy’. This is why many more far-sighted people see governments in ‘liberal democracies’ as “stooges” of the capitalist class, or the wealthy. The differences between the two systems are minimal to say the least! Is it worth going out to vote? Yes, it is the only democratic right we have, even if it is pretty meaningless, but nevertheless do exercise it. Finally, to quote Ken Livingstone “if voting changed anything, they’d abolish it!!!”

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Capitalism 🔴 A Democracy or Plutocracy?

Dr John Coulter ✍ While there can be no doubting that political Unionism and Loyalism received one heck of a loud wake-up call after the Provisional IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, easily snatched the crown of being the largest party in Northern Ireland’s local government scene, the council poll should also serve as an equally loud warning to the Dublin establishment parties as to what is coming down the track at them potentially at the next Dail General Election.

If the Northern Sinn Fein surge is replicated in the Republic’s next General Election, then Leinster House will be firmly in the hands of Sinn Fein TDs and Taoiseach Mary Lou McDonald will be leading a majority Sinn Fein government.

Much as it sticks in my throat as a Unionist to admit this, but the IRA’s political wing ran an almost perfect council election campaign in Northern Ireland in terms of voter turnout, vote management and especially propaganda stunts, such as the Coronation attendance.

If there was any fault which the IRA’s ruling Army Council did not tell Sinn Fein, it was that the party made the same mistake as in the last Dail General Election - Sinn Fein did not run enough candidates across Northern Ireland’s 11 super councils.

Even the most enthusiastic of pundits was predicting that while Sinn Fein would become the largest party at council level in Northern Ireland, it was estimated Sinn Fein would peak at around 130 councillors Province-wide.

Instead, Sinn Fein returned 144 councillors - up from 105 in the 2019 local government poll. Given the precise nature of Sinn Fein’s vote management, had the party run more council candidates this month, Sinn Fein could have even pushed through the 150 councillor total.

Indeed, the only way the Dublin establishment could keep Sinn Fein out of government in Leinster House was to form an historic political shotgun marriage between traditionally bitter enemies Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

So just as Unionism and Loyalism need an urgent conversation about greater electoral co-operation, so too, do Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil - and indeed anyone who is not Sinn Fein - need an urgent conversation to establish a new Pan Nationalist Front in the Dail if the Provisional IRA’s political wing is to be denied the ultimate double whammy - in power in both the republic and Northern Ireland simultaneously.

If the DUP agrees a Windsor Framework cash compromise which will enable the party to trigger the Stormont power-sharing Executive, Unionism will have to swallow the bitter medicine of having to serve under a Sinn Fein First Minister even though the posts of First and deputy First Minister are supposed to be joint.

But knowing the Sinn Fein propaganda machine, Sinn Fein MLA Michelle O’Neill will easily be spun in PR terms as Northern Prime Minister.

The key issue now becomes - have all the Southern parties and Independent candidates enough political savvy to form a cohesive Pan Nationalist Front to once again deny Mary Lou McDonald both the Taoiseach and Tanaiste offices?

The problem any new Southern-based Pan Nationalist Front against Sinn Fein faces is that there is a new generation of first-time voters and young voters as well as middle class voters for whom the atrocities of the Provos during the Troubles are merely dates and times in history books.

Sinn Fein has been very effective in its revisionism of Irish history and especially in its ‘we must move forward’ campaign. It has been able to keep its republican heartlands on board with commemorations for dead IRA terrorists, without the wider Southern community becoming too annoyed about terrorist atrocities and massacres in Northern Ireland or the murder of Gardai in the Republic.

If the Southern opinion polls are accurate and Sinn Fein does make significant gains in Leinster House, then this will be the most historic situation Sinn Fein has been in since the 1918 Westminster General Election when the entire island was part of the British Empire.

In that immediate post Great War poll, Sinn Fein raked up around 70 of the 105 House of Commons seats on offer to assume the mantel of the largest political party in Ireland. But Sinn Fein was incapable of doing democratic government.

Having established the a Dail and negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, instead of using it as a springboard for eventual all-island Irish Unity, Sinn Fein split over the Treaty sparking a bloody civil war which saw more IRA people executed by the pro-Treaty Free State forces than were killed by the Black and Tans during the previous War of Independence.

Put bluntly, does Sinn Fein have the political maturity to run a democratic government north or south in geographical island, or would its loony Left-wing policies - especially on social housing - bankrupt the Irish Republic, bearing in mind - post Brexit - there are no British millions to bail out the Celtic Tiger economy if Sinn Fein tries to covert Southern Ireland into some kind of old-style communist East German mythical utopia?

Perhaps what could kill off any notion of Irish Unity for at least a generation to come, would be a good dose of Sinn Fein in government in both Stormont’s Parliament Buildings and Dublin’s Leinster House?

Up until the 1981 republican hunger strikes, Sinn Fein was nothing more than a social club to mark the failure of the 1916 Easter Rising as well as an apologist for Provisional IRA terrorism.

The republican movement realised the power of the ballot box when the first IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won the Fermanagh South Tyrone Westminster by-election in 1981. After his death, the seat was held by Sands’ election agent Owen Carron.

Then again, the republican movement cannot get over that it is merely a protest organisation. The British Government was effectively willing to give in to republican demands after the second hunger striker, Francis Hughes, died in 1981. So why did republicanism insist on letting the other eight IRA and INLA hunger strikers die?

In short, Sinn Fein’s political Achilles heel is that it doesn’t know when to wind its neck in and say ‘enough is enough’. It needs to constantly protest and ‘be agin something’.

So Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour et al have some political soul searching to do before Christmas. Do they form a genuine, workable Pan Nationalist Front that no matter how many TDs Mary Lou McDonald walks into Leinster House with, she will again be denied the top posts in the Dail?

Or, do they accept the polls, allow Sinn Fein into government and watch this traditional party of protest wreck the economies north and south of the Irish border. Sinn Fein’s new East Germany vision would be punished at the polls in later years.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online

New Pan Nationalist Front Needed To Derail Sinn Fein Rollercoaster

Anthony McIntyre ☠  Circa 1999, in a piece penned for one of the Sunday papers, I quipped  that the definitive book on the peace process had been written before the process had ever begun, George Orwell’s Animal Farm

I had read it in 1978 in Cage 11 after receiving a copy from Gerry Kelly while sojourning in Cage 9 for a day due to 11 being given a tarmacadam facelift. I often reflected on it during the blanket protest, even telling the story out the door to a merciless ribbing from Pinta McKnight for grossly, and wilfully, overstating the treacherous role of Moses the Raven. The book had a lasting effect on me. I remembered it long after Gerry Kelly had seemingly forgotten it.

When I wrote that piece in 1999, it prompted the usual howls of indignation: I was a cynic who had called it wrong and would have to eat my words. The criticism failed to impact me. I sensed the metamorphosis from pig to man would be complete. What I was unable to predict with the same certainty was that the summersault would be executed with a perfect 10.

Sinn Fein’s God Save The King rendition might be the standout moment on its journey from guard dog of radical republicanism to establishment lap dog, but it was not its last. In recent days other cows were sent off to the abattoir. They were not as sacred as previous ones that were put to sleep, but because the cow meat is irritable to the establishment palate, it has no place on the banquet table.

God has had his work cut out keeping up with the needs of Sinn Fein to unburden itself of anything the political establishment cannot accommodate. God must not only save the king but has also been beseeched to save NATO and Pesco as well. It is not another throwing overboard of previous policies but merely a refinement "in a way that’s contemporary . . . It’s not about throwing long-held policies out the window — it’s about what’s achievable." The boilerplate defence of the reformist.

Sinn Fein is simply a reformist party that jettisoned every piece of radical baggage to make it fit for purpose in the world of establishment politics. Being wholly mistrustful of revolutionaries I am not implacably hostile to reformists. There is something more honest about them: they are political horse traders keenly aware of what is possible when playing by the rules of the status quo game. Pragmatism, not principle, is the currency they deal in.

What makes Sinn Fein’s tight embrace of reformism so easy a target for its detractors to mock is the planetary gap it has traversed in its bid to escape its radical past and land safely on its conservative present, all the while pretending to have done no such thing. No party on this island has performed more u-turns than Sinn Fein nor moved further to the right.

As the political system prepares itself to accommodate Sinn Fein as partners in government it incessantly works to ensure that the defiance which for long characterised republican opposition is drained to the point that not a single vestige from the era of Bobby Sands will be left in place to operate as a brake on the party’s absorption into the status quo.

The Marxist theoretician Nicos Poulantzas for many years pointed out how the state could accommodate erstwhile radicals without ever ceasing its vital function of uniting the dominant bloc, disuniting the dominated bloc and mediating the relationship between the two, always to the benefit of the former. All the reformist can obtain in the absence of a fundamental restructuring of society - which reformism is not about, being content with 'what is achievable' - is formal power. The real power continues to circulate around the same power centres as it always did, its levers, like the fruit tree that for eternity beckoned but betrayed Tantalus, always out of reach of the reformist. 

What is happening with Sinn Fein is the political equivalent of Darwinian natural selection. The system has modified the party through the relentless pressure of incremental modification in order to make it adaptable to the establishment environment. What radical policies and ideological positions exist are ruthlessly culled by system selection, bringing to the fore those elements that can survive within the system. The crucial thing with natural selection is that the creature is changed by the environment, not the environment by the creature.

The moral of Animal Farm is that farmers don't become pigs - pigs become farmers. 

Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Victory To The Farmers

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Ireland is full of historical recurrences reappearing in slightly different guises but essentially a remake of past events. 


The Good Friday Agreement in many respects is no different to this trend, as it mirrors the Treaty of Limerick, 1641 and the Anglo/Irish Treaty of 1921/22 by way of a sell-out. 

Like the GFA, the Treaty of Limerick was consisted of two parts: the first was a military surrender by the forces of King James II to those of King William III and the second was a guarantee of religious and civil liberties to Catholics in Ireland which were ignored greatly. The military agreement led to what is historically called  the “Flight of the Wild Geese” 1691/92. The GFA was also two separate agreements, the Multi Party Agreement (MPA) and the British/Irish Agreement (BIA), the latter being annexed to the former to give the GFA legal status. Like the Treaty of Limerick and the 1921/22 Agreement the latter which sold The Republic down the river, the GFA brings Irish unification no closer as the British Secretary of State can veto many aspects if he/she does not think “it is the right time” for say, a border poll. In fact, arguably the GFA is the sell-out of sell outs!

Since the signing of the “Terms of the Agreement”, leading to the “Anglo Irish Treaty” on 6th December 1921 no Irish Government has accepted partition as a done deal. Even the W.T. Cosgrave administration, pro-treaty, harboured hopes, based on the ill-fated Border Commission, that partition would be temporary. When de Valera came to power in 1932, he abolished many of the minor details of the treaty and in 1937, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis in London, he drafted his constitution of that year. Articles two and three of that constitution laid claim to the area covered by the six counties governed by Britain. Admittedly he did not do much to achieve the reconquest of the occupied areas but at least he had it written into the constitution of the time - the Dublin Government laid claim to the land, which has now been removed. Today we hear broadly accepted narratives like “Ireland and Northern Ireland” which accepts that two countries exist on the island of Ireland. Such discourse is used by both the twenty-six-county administration and the London Government as well these days as Sinn Fein.

Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 it has become noticeable that both Sinn Fein (P) who were then the political voice of the IRA and the Dublin Government have accepted partition as a living entity which, at least for the foreseeable future is here to stay. This is a historical first insofar as recognition of partition goes, even superficially, because part of the GFA was the removal, or replacement of articles two and three written into the 1937 constitution. 

As for Sinn Fein? Well, what can be said? They have, at very best, parked the bus, at worst driven it over a cliff as regards ending partition. From the twenty-six-county government we have grown to expect nothing less but Sinn Fein, the party who gave political weight to the IRAs military campaign for thirty years, surely nobody expected this did they? I remember a friend of mine and former comrade in the IRSP back in 1988 commenting saying “the Provos are talking of a non- use of weaponry.” So perhaps this about turn in political direction is not such a huge surprise after all! Some party members who, it is alleged, once held high ranking positions in the IRA are now sitting pretty as TDs in the Dail on a high salary. What then of the young volunteers they sent out on active service and, again in many cases, are now pushing up daisies in Milltown or other graveyards across Ireland? 

Like their predecessors who accepted the treaty in 1921/22 and formed the first “Executive Council” of Cumann na nGaedheal in league with the British they have probably conveniently forgotten the republican dead they themselves bear much responsibility for. These young men and women did not die for this. They did not sacrifice their young lives in order that certain elements of the leadership could enjoy well paid cushy numbers in politics, part of which is the betrayal of the republican ideal and certainly forgetting as an immediate issue the ending of partition. 

Again, there is nothing new about this, it has happened before and even as recent as the mid-sixty’s veterans of the War of Independence and the Civil War were sitting in Dail Eireann. In fact, Sean Lemmas, Taoiseach during the mid-sixties himself was a former fighter in both conflicts and did nothing to end partition, something he once thought worth going to war over! When Fianna Fail came to power in 1932, they were the anti-Treaty party in the Irish Civil War. Despite this, veterans and families of who fought on the anti-Treaty side had huge problems obtaining their IRA pensions even after de Valera introduced to 1934 Pensions Act which covered anti-Treaty veterans. Treatment of former volunteers from both sides was not good as unemployment after the Civil War was high as was emigration. For further reading on this I recommend No Middle Path,  Owen O’Shea chapters 14-20.

Today the modern Sinn Fein(P) appear to have forgotten the young volunteers who put them, inadvertently, where they are. Would it not have been more honest (that’s a joke) to have told the young volunteers something along the lines of; “you are all going out today to fight for not The Republic and ending partition by driving the Brits out, but even more importantly so we, in the leadership, can retire on well-paid salaries to Dail Eireann, now that is worth fighting for isn’t it.”? Would that not have been a more honest appraisal of events? Admittedly, not many if any would have volunteered but the leadership's consciences would have been clear!

The shift in policies by Sinn Fein is tantamount to Margaret Thatcher announcing she wished to enter talks with the Dublin Government about handing the six counties back! After this she may have announced compulsory trade union membership as a condition of employment and a massive nationalisation of industry programme before travelling to Argentina for talks over the Falklands/Malvinas!! Like all former revolutionary parties which enter the various bourgeois parliaments around the globe, and Sinn Fein (P) are no exception, they join a right-wing conveyor belt. They cease to be revolutionary in any shape. Both the Irish and British Labour Parties at their inception were, at the time, considered revolutionary. They were formed at a time when liberal democracy was in its infancy. Socialist politics at that time were revolutionary. Once they gained popularity, more so in Britain than the twenty-six-counties, and seats in the parliament the right wing charged begins. It becomes unstoppable and the net results are today’s variants of those once revolutionary parties founded by revolutionary thinkers. Today Sinn Fein epitomise such a shift!!

Let us skip forward now to the so-called “Northern Ireland Protocol” and the ability of a few hundred seventeenth century religious nutters to disrupt it. In fact, unless the Democratic Unionist Party agree to every I being dotted and T being crossed the whole thing, along with that joke of a so-called government, Stormont, collapses. Even if the new deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is negotiating on the “Northern Ireland Protocol” is satisfactory to both the UK and EU sides but not the DUP then there is no deal! Sinn Fein and the twenty-six-county government are bending over backwards to accommodate the DUP, even though this party does not represent a majority in the six counties. Sinn Fein are now the largest party in Stormont but insist on allowing the DUP to act as if they are. 

Even by the undemocratic standards of liberal democracy this is a joke beyond jokes. So, we have a situation where 25 DUP MLAs are holding the government of the 26 counties and 27 EU member states to ransom!! 25, 26, 27 how nice, neat and convenient for the DUP. How much longer are the majority going to be bullied by the minority of the DUP? If an agreement is reached tomorrow morning or, by the time of publication of this blog has been reached it will only be with the approval of the DUP. Therefore, in any future negotiations it will be the DUP, irrespective of how many people they represent, even as low as 20%, who will call the shots!! That is worrying, very worrying indeed. One night on TV a loyalist was caught off guard when he was asked; “if in a referendum a majority voted for a united Ireland, would you accept that verdict”. He answered an unreserved “no”. This then is very much in line with DUP thinking it would appear.

While the DUP deliberate over whether they will condescend to support any deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is trying to negotiate with the EU the people of the six-counties have no local government, no goods and services or any of the things promised by these parties, including the DUP in the election. Sinn Fein, the largest party in the assembly appear to be allowing the DUP to act as if they are the largest gang! Is this not taking the “chuckle brothers” bollocks a bit too far? The DUP, and their allies in the ERG (European Research Group) in Parliament only care about their own right-wing political aims. The electorate can go and whistle. Is it not time for the people, going without their daily needs due to no assembly sitting, courtesy of the DUP, is it not time for them, republican, loyalist, unionist, nationalist and neither to kick out the self-interested DUP once and for all? Equally, is it not time for Sinn Fein to stand up to this gang of proto-fascists with more than a religious tinge?

As for Sinn Fein (P) (I use the P to differentiate from Republican Sinn Fein who do not go along with this folly) I cannot recall anywhere in the world a party which has binned or, to be kind, done such a dramatic U Turn on their political position in such a short time span. The British Labour Party are now unrecognisable to that of 1905 and have been since the abolition of Clause IV, a commitment to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, under Tony Blair back in 1997. 

This transformation, though gradually coming since the early eighties, has taken the best part of a century to achieve. The Irish Labour Party probably started their reforms six years after their formation in 1912, in 1918, under the leadership of Thomas Johnson when, in 1918 they agreed to stand “aside” in the general election of that year thus giving the Sinn Fein of the day a clear run. Would James Connolly have accepted the “labour must wait” position held by Sinn Fein as they pushed the labour party aside? I doubt that very, very much. 

So, let us move a little further afield and Germany or, to be a little more precise, West Germany. Founded in 1875 the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are the oldest political party in the country, now a unified Germany. They adopted a Marxist position for the first eighty-four years of their existence until 1959 at their Bad Godesberg conference they agreed to reform and drop Marxism as their political position thus taking a bourgeois avenue. They too are unrecognisable compare to the original party. Here are three large parties in different countries who have abandoned their positions in favour of reforms and gentrification. It took all of them a number of years to a greater or lesser extent. It took Sinn Fein (P) the time it for the ink to dry on the GFA they had signed to start their reforms publicly. Gone has the thirty-two- county democratic socialist republic, gone has the demand for an immediate British withdrawal, in fact gone have most of the policies, including immediate Irish unity, which had made this variant of Sinn Fein a household name. And what of the IRA? Well, we can forget they ever came about, won’t mention them again and hope nobody else does eh!

So, we have Jefferey Donaldson, leader of the DUP calling all the shots with no apparent opposition either from the British Government, the EU or the twenty-six-county government now accompanied by Sinn Fein (P). Why not give Jeff Dono (sic) and his mob the keys to Number Ten and to the European Parliament, and, while we are at it, Dail Eireann kicking out Sunak and the MEPs of other countries and the TDs of the twenty-six-counties. Where could these leaders go? Broadmoor springs to mind as a permanent residence!!

🖼 Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist

What Would The Men And Women Of Easter Week Have Made Of This Farce?

Irish Times ✏ After nearly 20 years playing the ultimate long-game, can the party leader transform it from one-time political pariahs into a party of government?

Jennifer Bray

Implacable and stubborn, ruthlessly pragmatic, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who is now five years in the party’s top post, is also described by those who know her as possessing extraordinary stamina and self-belief.

Those who look at her with a more critical eye, however, judge her to be a wily opportunist desperate not to fall foul of the public, someone who talks a big game about change but has yet to prove she can bring it about.

Depending on who you ask, she was either plucked from obscurity and primed for leadership over 20 years, or a canny grafter who has made countless personal sacrifices to stamp her way to the top of the traditionally male-dominated arena of Irish politics.

One person who has watched her at close quarters says she rules Sinn Féin with as much iron discipline as Gerry Adams did before her, always keen to emphasise to anyone who needs reminding, North or South, that she is the boss.

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

Mary Lou McDonald Faces Her Biggest Challenge Yet, Five Years After Rising To The Top Of Sinn Féin

Matt Treacy In a book I published five years ago, I referred to the danger that Sinn Féin’s placing all its hopes for the achievement of a united Ireland on a possible border poll involved the risk that one day they would be exposed like Han Christian Andersen’s Emperor.


Many readers will be familiar with the phrase and with the plot which revolves around two conmen who persuade the Emperor that only he is smart enough to see something that is completely impossible to achieve. Anyone who wished not to be thought stupid went along with the pretence until it all rather embarrassingly fell apart.

That is not to claim that the achievement of a united Ireland is a fantasy. The fantasy and the pretence is that it can be achieved through a border poll – or even that such a poll is likely to be held any time soon, as within even ten years, in the first instance. (The only valid poll, in my opinion, would be a 32-county poll asking exactly the same question north and south on same day.)

I borrowed the title of that book, A Tunnel to the Moon, from former H-Block blanketman and presider over the discussion site The Pensive Quill, Anthony McIntyre, who likened the probability of a united Ireland being achieved through the Good Friday Agreement to the prospects of reaching the moon through a terrestrial tunnel.

Today’s Ipsos poll published in the Irish Times once again, and for the umpteenth time, proves that this is so. 50% of those polled in the Six Counties stated that they support Northern Ireland remaining in the United Kingdom. Just 27% said they favoured Irish unity. Another 18% said that they did not know, and 5% that they wouldn’t bother voting at all.

There is little comfort to be garnered by Sinn Féin from the poll, particularly given the significant numbers of Catholics (more than 20%) who are effectively unionists, whatever party they may vote for. The only crumb is that 55% of those surveyed in the north said they would like to see a referendum, or border poll, on the issue.

Unfortunately for Sinn Fein a poll remains in the gift of the British government – as the party know well themselves from the deal they signed up to in 1998.

For a party so much devoted to the Good Friday Agreement and its partitionist institutions, they don’t appear too well acquainted with the actual text.

Certainly not with the relevant section, Annex A, Schedule 1(2) which sets out that:

Subject to paragraph 3, the Secretary of State shall exercise the power under paragraph 1 (to hold a poll)if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland.

There is no such evidence and there has not been such evidence over the past quarter of a century. In 1998, the combined vote for parties who supported a united Ireland in the Stormont Assembly was 40%. In May last, this had risen by less than 1% to 40.8%. There is virtually no chance that that figure will reach close to 50% and convince the British government to call a poll.

Likewise, while some nationalists have resorted to the distinctly unrepublican hope that the Fenians will outbreed the Orangies at some stage – deeply ironic given the strong support for abortion within Sinn Féin and the SDLP – the recent Census provides little solace either.

While persons identifying themselves as Catholics or from a Catholic background now comprise the largest religious group, at 45.7%, that is not synonymous with those who identify themselves ethnically as Irish. Interestingly that figure of 29.1% is remarkably close to the 27% in the Ipsos poll who support Irish unity. It is also close to the sort of support Sinn Fein get in elections, 29% in fact last May. Similarly, the vote for unionist parties was over 53%.

The almost 60% who identify as British, Northern Irish or ‘British and Northern Irish’ is likewise not too far from the number who state that they wish Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK. Indeed, some of that number are likely to support the other, albeit marginal, option of an independent Northern Ireland.

So on what possible grounds are Sinn Féin claiming that either a referendum/poll on unity is likely, or that it would lead to a vote in favour of Irish unity? Mind you, as one Twitter wag has observed, their hyperactive social media brigade has been unusually quiet today.



No doubt they will come up with a new directive from the Politburo in the coming days that will allow the believers to continue to hone their shovels for another assault on the moon. Many of their activists believe pretty much anything anyway, as was also recently pointed out by Anthony McIntyre when he observed that the only people he knew in Belfast who believed that Gerry Adams was never in the IRA were people who had been in it at the same time.

But do they even believe in it themselves? Or is the border poll an essential comfort blanket and a never never promise designed to provide the ongoing and perhaps perpetual illusion that a movement that effectively surrendered its core objective a quarter of a century ago is still on course for victory? Except that their victories now are on par with setting out to climb Everest and raising your flag on Cave Hill.

What the figures do show when assessed on a national basis is that there is a majority in favour of a united Ireland. Just as there was in 1918, the last time there was a 32-county vote on the issue. The entire point of Partition, which republicans opposed, was that it blocked the establishment of a 32 county stat, through every means including state terrorism.

How to bring that about, with protections for the currently other main national/ethnic group on the island, remains the key.

If things proceed as they are, this question will be irrelevant within a generation. “Irish unity within the EU” – as is the “vision” of Sinn Féin – is as meaningless as the “vision” of those who sent young men to charge at German trenches for Home Rule.


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Unity Poll Pours Cold Water On Sinn Féin Border Poll Fantasy

Matt TreacyIt is not every day that Sinn Féin pays homage to someone who has worked for the British Home Office (stop sniggering down the back ….)


But one such former servant of Whitehall and leading anti-racism guru, Dr. Lucy Michael, managed to get name checked on several occasions in contributions made by Sinn Féin TDs to the love in on the proposed “hate speech” Bill.

I say TDs advisedly as very few TDs write their own Dáil speeches and Sinn Féin is now top heavy with left activists on one part of the NGO circuit. The left- liberal NGO business is to the post bellum post-nationalist Sinn Féin what the ITGWU once was to the Workers Party. Which explains the Shinners’ almost total surrender of policymaking in key areas to “advocacy” companies, and the clear lack of historical self-knowledge on the part of the staffers.

No better illustrated than by the fact that it was left to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín to point out the total incongruity of a party that was once banned under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act now indicating that it is supporting a Bill that “will encroach on people’s ability to speak freely and respectfully about issues of real importance.”

 

Now, others might claim that Section 31 was required because Sinn Féin at the time it was in force supported the Provisional IRA before it surrendered as part of Sinn Féin’s house training. However, as was pointed out by other opponents of Section 31, the atmosphere put in place by such state censorship – backed by the sacking of the RTÉ authority in 1972 following an interview with IRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stiofáin – led to much wider restrictions.

Soon it became the norm for RTÉ in particular, pushed by the same type of left activists now behind the current “hate” legislation, to cast suspicion on anything that they considered to be even vaguely nationalist, or reeking of “hush puppy” Provoism. We have exactly the same mentality now deployed against critics of a wide range of establishment holy cows. If this Bill is passed it will have the imprimatur of the state and the enforcing powers of some new form of political policing.

And all enthusiastically backed by Sinn Féin. It would be amusing were it not so pathetic.

Their enthusiasm for censorship is indicated by the fact that of the 13 speakers in the debate, 6 were from Sinn Féin and all basically parroting the same NGO script. Several of said NGOs got a mention including the far-left Far Right Observatory which was referenced as an alleged authority by Kildare SF TD Patricia Ryan.

Ironically, some might say, because it was not that long ago that Deputy Ryan herself was the target of a pile on by similar characters when she referred to a modular housing project for refugees in Newbridge. Indeed, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that had the legislation which is being pushed by the far left and supported by Sinn Féin was in place when she made her remarks that she might even have had her own collar felt by the Diversity Cheka.

Lest I be accused of exaggeration here, Ryan was accused of being one of “those who take advantage of vulnerable people to further their hateful agenda” when she rightly referred to concerns that her constituents had in relation to housing and the seeming priority given to refugee accommodation. Although perhaps after a visit to the FRO Room 101 she is now one of those “susceptible to this hateful messaging” who has taken advantage of the means she now recommends to “educate to prevent reoffending.”

Tóibín also pointed out to the ideological underpinnings of the proposed Bill and that it has specific targets. Not least being that persons who “adhere to the scientific understanding of gender” are potentially targets of this, as they have already been – and he referred to J.K Rowling and to the hysterical backlash against women who recently articulated that view on RTÉ’s Liveline – informally through the left liberal control of much of the means of cancelling dissenters.

He bluntly asked the Minister if she believes, as do many of the supporters of this Bill, that “women saying that a woman is an adult female is transphobic and hate speech?” We shall await her response with interest.

The whole problem with the Bill was similarly illustrated by Minister Helen McEntee in her opening speech. She referred to tackling “crimes motivated by prejudice, hate or bigotry” as the motivation of the Bill. Attacking people is already a crime, as are a whole range of other offences that in many cases are obviously motivated by hate. Presumably most murders, other than those carried out by professional hitmen, are motivated by some degree of antipathy to the victim.

Which leads one to question why there is a need for any other legislation, especially given that many actual crimes go undetected and leniently treated in the view of many, including the victims of such crimes. Would Urantsetseg Tserendorj have been less likely to have been murdered had this legislation been in place? Hardly. The person charged with her murder claimed that his intention was to rob any person he presumably believed to be less likely to be able to defend themselves.

Nor is there any reason why there ought to “protected groups” in Irish society who have their very own laws to protect them. Groups which the Minister defines on the basis of “race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, descent, sexual orientation, gender, including gender expression or gender identity, sex characteristics or disability.”

Pretty much everyone could be included in such a wide ranging definition, but of course they are not. What chances would Enoch Burke have were he to take a case against the avalanche of hate he has been subjected to in many quarters, not least the social media which the left liberal pearl-clutchers are so angsted about, were he to claim he was being hated on for being a white, Irish, heterosexual, Protestant male? None.

The reason being of course is that there is no NGO which has decided to set itself up as the self-appointed defender of such a minority. There is no money in culchie prods with Biblical names. There are hundreds of millions in claiming to be the protector of other minority groups, most of whom probably are not even aware of, and certainly do not benefit from, the existence of some of the groups reverentially referenced by leftie TDs.

The only other TD to place their opposition on the record was Paul Murphy who amidst a ream of slogans and crèche Marxism pliants about racism and fascism and capitalism – all of which are “disgusting” – did at least recognise that sections of the Bill provide the state with potentially sweeping powers to prosecute legitimate forms of protest and expression, including from the left.

Unfortunately, Sinn Féin have so immersed themselves in the Marxoid waters of resentment and victimisation while expelling any remnant of the republican defence of free speech, that they no longer even see that.

As Peadar Tóibín noted republicanism ought to mean that “each individual has and should have an equal right to that articulation of views and the equal articulation of speech.”

Something, of course, which the people who told Peadar to “fuck off out of this office before something happens” have never believed in.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Hate Speech Bill Is Section 31 For Our Times

Anthony McIntyre  ☠ I have said to friends at times, not always to the approval of some ex-prisoners, that I would consider voting Sinn Fein in a situation where I considered it a vital bulwark against the far-right assuming power.  

I can also conceive of voting for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in similar circumstances, even Labour despite its history of abandoning those its name would mislead you into thinking it should genuinely represent. The lessons of history lead me to feel it would be foolish not to vote strategically.
 
Rightly or wrongly, I have never seriously considered the likelihood of the far-right emerging as a serious force on the Irish political landscape. This society is fortunate in that its far-right is a magnet for idiots, led by oddballs with a Fuhrer/Duce complex. My ruminating, therefore, on the circumstance in which I might vote Sinn Fein is something of a thought experiment. But given the ascendancy of Georgia Meloni in Italy, it would be imprudent to wax complacent.

My wife who despises the far-right and distrusts Sinn Fein in equal measure, has caused me to consider whether Sinn Fein would make any effort to stop the far-right if there were votes in not stopping it. She feels that when push comes to shove the party will seek to surf any far-right wave if it is big enough, and that Sinn Fein is the natural home for the far right in Ireland, given their armed Catholic nationalist roots. Its existence is why, she feels, the far right has not been able to secure a stronger foothold here, despite attempts to mimic the rise of the US & UK far right. She also believes that comments by the party leader in the Dail were a dog whistle to far right sentiment. 

Was Mary Lou McDonald guilty of anything other than imprecise phrasing when she said the current government has failed to look after “our own people"? It is hard to imagine her harbouring racist sentiment, and there was nothing in her comments that made me feel Taoiseach Micheál Martin was right in claiming she was "playing both sides." Her point was that government policy was catastrophic to refugees and Irish citizens alike. Yet, there have been a number of occasions when the party has found itself accused of playing on anti-immigrant sentiment. Padraig MacLochlainn, Patricia Ryan and Michael Mulligan have all found themselves on the receiving end of criticism, with the right wing outlet Gript joyously proclaiming that Sinn Fein sees what way the wind is blowing on immigration. 

It is important to distinguish between elected representatives voicing concern about infrastructure problems and them playing the racist card. At the same time, given the party’s chameleon shapeshifting, it is not easy for seasoned observers to divest themselves of the suspicion that Sinn Fein would embrace far-right ideology if by failing to do so, political careers would be jeopardised. 

That careerist ambition within Sinn Fein runs deeper than in any other political party on the island as is evidenced through a cursory glance at everything it has turned on its head to ensure that those careers are kept on track.

There are people within the party who I am confident would never facilitate the far-right regardless of the cost to their political careers. Most of them would be at the activist level, motivated by something other than a political career. In the engine room where the careerists congregate, the principle count would take a sharp nose dive in the direction of the gravy train.

Looking back over Sinn Fein’s voyage, the rightward shift has been unrivalled by any other party on the island. Fine Gael, and the DUP – they are probably no more right wing that they were thirty years ago. The same cannot be said of Sinn Fein. That does not mean that Sinn Fein can be characterised as a right-wing party, just that its journey has been inexorably to the right, not to the left.

There appears to be no braking system that can be applied to the careerist urges. Those opposed to the numerous departures and summersaults made over the years have never stopped them. They have been forced to either jump overboard of their own volition, walk the plank, or stay for the journey towards whatever inexorable destination has been laid out by the leadership.

So when Mary Lou McDonald asserts that Sinn Fein is on the right path, a lot of the party's critics for once seem eager to agree with her.

 ⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

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