Countdown to success

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

David Cullinane

You might think that, flushed with the success of the Assembly elections, Sinn Féin is now taking it easy. You are probably imagining that the party's various election candidates are now, like the rest of us, only concerned with what's going to be filling their Christmas stockings.

You'd be wrong.

While our newly-elected MLAs may be looking forward to an admittedly well-earned break this Christmas, the party's EU and local election candidates for next year have only one thing on their mind at the moment — and it's not turkey and ham.

In the hard-working, determined style that has become synonymous with Sinn Féin candidates, these men and women are focused on midsummer of next year, and are thinking about how many seats will be won, what role the party's first MEPs will play in Europe, and how to handle increased responsibility on councils across the state.

The other story emerging from this campaign is the amount of new, young candidates being presented by Sinn Féin for taking seats. With the exception of Bairbre de Brún running for an MEP seat for the Six Counties, the party's other four candidates, Pearse Doherty — Connaught/Ulster, Marylou McDonald — Dublin, John Dwyer — Leinster and David Cullinane — Munster, are relatively unknown by the media.

Many of the local election candidates are known to their constituents, but in Dublin, for example, there are a number for whom this will be their first time standing.

Earlier this month, An Phoblacht met with the Munster EU candidate, David Cullinane, and the local election candidate for Terenure/Rathfarnham in Dublin, Sorcha Nic Cormaic. Both are 29 years of age, and they are the new youthful face that the party is becoming renowned for. While David ran in the General Election in 2002, this will be Sorcha's first election.

Both are young, both came from Ógra, both are interested in education, both are articulate, intelligent representatives for republicanism and both were more than willing to take the opportunity of articulating their ideas in An Phoblacht.

An Phoblacht: Sorcha, what got you interested in Sinn Féin to begin with?

Sorcha Nic Cormaic: As soon as I could vote, I started voting Sinn Féin. My Dad would have been republican minded, and I had an uncle who was interested as well, so I suppose I kind of grew up with it. I wasn't active, though, until I went to college as a mature student. For years I worked for this horrible, capitalist, greedy greeting card firm in Dublin. They would have their cards made in the Philippines for next to nothing and then would sell them for massive money. I left after a few years, feeling very disillusioned with big business. That was definitely the push I needed to go back to college.

Once there (I'm studying philosophy, archaeology, and classics in Galway), I wasn't long joining the Sinn Féin cumann in the college, and then in my first year's summer break I came back up to Dublin to help Deirdre Whelan and Seán Crowe with their election campaigns. I haven't looked back since.

When did you decide you were going to run for the party yourself?

Honestly, when I was first asked to stand, I thought, oh no, I can't do this. I'm still in college, so I didn't think I could afford the time. A few things changed my mind. Firstly, they offered to put a support structure in place for me in Rathfarnham that would help me organise my time, and take the weight off my shoulders. That has worked really well.

Then I had the full support of my family. They believed I could stand, and made me think it as well.

But the main decision making factor was the upskilling that Sinn Féin provided for me in the run-up to being nominated. They ran several courses on how to deal with publicity, public speaking, confidence building and so on, and afterwards I suppose I realised that you don't have to be a boring old politician to stand for election. It really opened my eyes to how politics should work.

You're a full-time student at the moment, as well as a Sinn Féin representative. Did the cuts to the Back to Education Allowance in November annoy you? (You now have to be unemployed for 15 months, instead of six, to qualify for BTEA).

Absolutely. I have to say, education is my primary area of interest. I don't know why, probably because I came to college later in my life, and I had a few years in the outside world to see how important education can be.

I qualified for the Back to Education Allowance, and there's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be in college if I hadn't got that financial help. And once I got in, I ended up meeting loads of people who came from disadvantaged backgrounds and who couldn't have gone to college if it wasn't for the scheme.

I don't understand the government's logic in cutting it at all. From what I can see, nobody was abusing the scheme. It was just a way for people who were finding it tough in the job market, or single parents, whatever, to gain access to third level without ending up in debt. I think it will be just as expensive, and very demoralising, to leave those people on the dole for over a year before they are allowed to do something that will ultimately improve their lives.

So far there are very few women nominated to run for Sinn Féin in the locals in Dublin. Do you think the party is failing to promote gender equality?

It's funny, because when I first joined Sinn Féin, through the college cumann, there were more girls than boys. The lads used to say that Sinn Féin should set up an equality department for men in the college. And it seems to be like that in a lot of colleges, where at least half the cumann is made up with women members.

So I suppose I was surprised when I relocated to a Dublin cumann and saw that the gender issue was a problem. Personally, I've never had problems as a woman in Sinn Féin, even though it is predominantly a male-orientated party. But then, I had a lot of skills training, which included confidence building, so I'm probably at an advantage.

I don't think the gender issue is something peculiar to Sinn Féin. Women are under-represented in politics as a whole. I do think the party is making progress in making sure that women are encouraged and supported in the party. And I think having quotas, like we do for the Ard Comhairle, really works, even though they're quite a thorny issue.

Are we going to capitalise on the Assembly elections, and be the story of the local elections?

I think every time we have success in elections it gives us a chance to get our message out even more. We are going to have massive success in June. It's no surprise that people are looking for an alternative to the current government. We're that alternative. We'll probably get our first MEPs as well. We stand out as the only alternative voice for Europe also, and I think people know that.

Do you think Sinn Féin is becoming a careerist party?

No way! Career politicians would not be interested in this party at all. Everyone knows we're about change, and that everyone in the party is treated equally. There's no room for egos. We're becoming more professional, but we not becoming careerist.

Your first role in the party was through Ógra. Do you think that Ógra helped you in any way?

Definitely. Ógra really introduced me to the whole idea of how a political party functions. You can spend most of your youth not knowing what's going on in politics. Lots of young people aren't big fans of the news, or reading the paper, and they don't get much information on politics in school, from what I can remember anyway. Ógra counters that. It makes it interesting to be involved in politics.

Ógra has a huge following in Dublin at the moment, but doesn't have any real structures in South Dublin. I'd love to see a structure set up there — that would make it more accessible to young people from my area.

David Cullinane, Waterford

An Phoblacht: Where do you come from and what is your background, David?

David Cullinane: I come from Ballybeg in Waterford originally, but I'm living in Lisduggan at the moment. I have a fairly political background. My parents aren't incredibly political-minded, but my grandparents are staunchly Fianna Fáil. It was a struggle to get them to vote for me in the general election. But even though they think 'Dev' is God, my mother and her six sisters are completely supportive of Sinn Féin. They all worked on the campaign when I ran last year.

I'd say I come from a predominantly working-class area. I'm involved in a lot of community development projects in Lisduggan.

When did you become interested in Sinn Féin?

Since I was ten, I've been watching current affairs programmes. And from an early age I've been attracted to Sinn Féin. I don't know the reason why, probably Gerry Adams. I've always been interested in history as well. Every exam I ever did in history I got an A.

For a long time, though, there was no Sinn Féin structure in Waterford. Four years ago the party reorganised and then a proper structure was put in place. I definitely would have joined earlier if there had been something to join. Now we have an office in the city, we're running eight candidates in the locals, and we think we'll win between two and five.

We spoke with Sorcha about Ógra, and she gave it a glowing reference. Do you feel the same about it?

Right now, in Munster, Ógra has been restructured and it is working really well. I started out in Ógra, working on the National Executive when Matt Carthy was National Organiser, and I really enjoyed my time there. Some of the debates we used to have were as good as the ones that would take place on the Ard Chomhairle.

I thing Ógra is sometimes dismissed by other members of the party. What they have to remember is that if it wasn't for Ógra there mightn't be people like Pearse Doherty, Matt Carthy, Jonathon O'Brien from Cork, or even myself. If it hadn't been for the Ógra structures tying people in, many of us might have just drifted off.

Running for a seat in Europe is a completely different ballgame to running in the local elections, and it will probably be the most difficult election you'll ever contest. How do you think you'll do?

We've been hurt in Munster because it's been dropped to a three-seater. But in the general election last time we polled very well, and that was with less than half the organisation we have now.

The other parties are starting to run scared of Sinn Féin. We're the ones the public wants to support, and we're the ones who are getting all the coverage, in Waterford anyway. In fact I heard that a delegation from the other parties went to one of my local radio stations to complain about the amount of coverage we were getting. But if you do the hard work, it's going to start to pay off.

I don't know if we can take a seat here, but we are going to go at it with winning in mind. As far as I know, we got more votes in Munster in the Europeans last time than in Dublin. If we can hold onto those 30,000 or so votes, with Clare having been taken out of the constituency, we'll be doing very well.

Do you that Sinn Féin is really promoting the negative, anti-European image that other parties claim?

I think we have to be careful not to allow our opponents to put us into a niche. We're not anti-Europe; we see what's wrong with it and we say it. We have a different vision. Our view of Europe is that it should be the people's Europe. Who can argue with that?

I don't think we should ever be afraid of voicing our opposition to certain elements of Europe, such as the new constitution. And we don't just criticise, we actually offer alternatives. Our Leinster House team is working constantly to ensure we are on top of policy in Europe.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that 40% of people voted no in the last referendum dealing with European issues, so there are a sizeable amount of people out there who share our vision on Europe.

Out of the eight Sinn Féin candidates running in the locals in Waterford, there is only one woman. Do you think the party is fulfilling its promise to reach a 30% quota of women in each election?

We do have a women's forum set up in Waterford and we have addressed the issue of quotas. Our progress is slow, but we're getting there.

My view in terms of women in politics is that, firstly, political parties have to create space for women to come on board. That can be done by organising even simple things, like having childcare facilities available. I think Lucilita Breathnach is starting to address these issues for the party.

I could never understand why so many women are willing to get involved in the community sector but steer clear of parties. I think the whole issue of quotas can redress the imbalance in our party, and probably in society as a whole, of not having enough women. I originally thought they were just tokenistic, but having seen them in action, I realise they are a necessary step. One of the reasons women tend to go into the community sector is the visible presence of other women in it.

With all the other strands the party is implementing, like equality training and so on, I think we will eventually have a situation where women are fully represented in Sinn Féin. And overall, I believe the quota of 30% is being met. It was in the Assembly elections, and now one third of our elected MLAs are women.

You and Sorcha are both young and are both relatively new to elections and Sinn Féin. Do you feel that the party is supporting you in this campaign, or is there still more emphasis on the older, more well known republicans who run in each election?

Everyone knows that our leadership is the most well known in the country, and that the fame of the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness works for the party. But there is, I suppose, a second tier coming through, and it's the more experienced republicans who are pushing that and supporting it.

I think Sinn Féin is the most progressive party on the whole island in terms of encouraging young people to participate and take part in politics. In the Assembly election, one of Martin McGuinness' running mates was Cora Groogan, who's only 22. Young people are part of the party's long-term plan, and as such, we are probably supported more than any other level of the party.

If you don't win a seat in June, will you run in the next general elections?

Yes, and Waterford will return a Sinn Féin TD. We are now the voice of the left in the county, and our profile in Waterford is now massive compared to four years ago. In three or four more years, you can imagine the position we'll be in.

If I do end up becoming a TD, my particular interest is going to be education. I think our policies in this area ('Educate that you may be free') are better than any other party's in the country. And I think every problem that we have in Ireland can be related to education. The good thing is, I think that the young people, who are now rising in our party, see that as a priority as well.