Time for the Irish Government to make good on the promises of 1916

A GENUINE IRISH REPUBLIC | AS WE APPROACH 2016 . . .

BY CIARÁN QUINN

When Sinn Féin senators proposed to bring forward recommendations as to how voting rights could be extended, it was opposed by the Government parties

MICHAEL NOONAN, in his introduction to the 2012 Budget as the Fine Gael/Labour Finance Minister, told the Dáil:
“On this day 90 years ago, on 6 December 1921, the Treaty was signed. The Treaty restored Ireland’s sovereignty which for so long had been lost.”
Getting the first line of the Budget so wrong was not a good omen for what followed. Just as the measures included in the Budget betrayed the claims about fairness and job creation, so his open paragraph betrayed the republican rhetoric that Fine Gael and Labour sometimes trots out.
It was a failed attempt to rewrite history. Minister Noonan, not for the first time, ignores the inconvenient truth that the Treaty set up partition; that Ireland never had its sovereignty restored.
The increased presence of Sinn Féin in the Seanad and Dáil has caused hysterical reactions from parties that had previously got by with wrapping the green flag and the Starry Plough around them.
A lot of this has been due, in part, to the competence of the Sinn Féin team in questioning and holding the Government to account and in the party developing and promoting of achievable alternatives to the failing policy of cuts and paying off bondholders.
The presence of Sinn Féin in the chamber is a direct challenge to the cosy narrative that the current political class in the South are the torchbearers of the flame passed down by the generations since 1916.
The presence of Sinn Féin members in the Oireachtas is a constant reminder that there is still work to be done to end partition and bring about the Republic envisaged in 1916.
Sinn Féin will continue to remind Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour that, despite the trappings of parliament and ministerial office, they have failed over the past 90 years to progress the process of reunification.
It is telling that that the three parties, when in Government, have failed to develop a plan to achieve reunification. They have failed to develop a Green Paper for Irish Unity and have opposed progressive proposals to secure the rights of members of the Irish nation. They have even failed to tackle explicit partitionism when it arises.
A case in point was the Presidential election. It was entirely expected that some media commentators would all but say that ‘No Northerners need apply’ because they had suggested the same of Mary McAleese.
What might have been surprising to impartial observers was that the candidates were unchallenged when they blithely claimed to be a President for only the 26 Counties when the title is ‘President of Ireland’.
During the campaign, Sinn Féin and a group of concerned Irish citizens living in the Six Counties raised the issue of voting rights. In the Programme for Government, Fine Gael and Labour had agreed a Constitutional Convention to review and update aspects of the Constitution.
Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil are all on record in supporting the extension of voting right to citizens living abroad. This would be in line with current international best practice and would allow Irish citizens living in the USA the same rights as American citizens living in Ireland. Voting rights for all Irish citizens were not, however, included in the explicit list of issues for consideration by the convention. Gerry Adams raised the issue directly with the Taoiseach, who was ‘open to the suggestion’. But when Sinn Féin senators, in their first Private Member’s Motion, proposed mandating the convention to examine and bring forward recommendations as to how voting rights could be extended, it was opposed by the Government parties.
In the debate, Government speaker after Government speaker rolled out the old chestnut that they would like to support the motion but now is not the time and that it is a complex technical issue that requires greater consideration, etc, etc.
The continuation of partition is not only an affront to the democratic rights of the Irish people — it works against the competitiveness of our economy, undermines our research and development potential, fails our labour market and unemployed, and impacts on the delivery of our public services.
The present economic crisis should be an opportunity to progress the issue of harmonisation and greater all-Ireland co-operation. But the Budget unveiled by Michael Noonan increases the differentials with VAT increases. It pits business against business. This has already seen the call to not shop across the border and support ‘Irish produce and business’, where Irish produce is defined as solely from the 26 Counties.
The policies and actions of the Government parties are further entrenching partition.
The continued existence of two competing economies in recession on an island of six million people makes no economic sense. The continued development of separate public services across the island increases costs and affects services.
The economic challenges now facing Ireland should promote greater co-operation as we seek to grow our national economy, increase trade across the country, increase exports, invest in greater research, development and innovation, and deliver quality, efficient and effective public services.
Now is the time for the Government to consider a new approach that delivers for all our people across our island nation, for the Government to make good on the promises of 1916 in advance of the upcoming centenary, and for the Government to begin the process of planning and delivering reunification and the establishment of the Republic based on the principles of the Easter Proclamation.

Derry City to host Uniting Ireland forum

BLOODY SUNDAY WEEKEND 40 YEARS AFTER MASSACRE OF CIVIL RIGHTS MARCHERS

BY ANDREW McCARTNEY
Chair of Derry Sinn Féin

JANUARY 28th will be another challenge for Derry City when, over the weekend of the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Derry Sinn Féin hosts one of the series of Uniting Ireland conferences held throughout the country.
This will be held in the Millennium Forum and will be attended by a number of high-profile figures. It is our intention to put over one thousand people into the forum to hear our vision of a New Ireland and how we intend to achieve it.
The last time we held a conference in the Forum was in 2007 on policing, when we set out our strategy and approach to this important subject. At that conference we had a packed hall and we intend to do so again on the crucial issue of what sort of society and country we can share.
At the Uniting Ireland conference in Newry in November of last year, two Ulster Unionist MLAs attended. One of them, John McCallister, a unionist with a strong interest in agriculture and environmental issues in the community and voluntary sector and who has served on the Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety and the Committee for Regional Development, was on the platform debating the pros and cons of a United Ireland with republicans.
January 28th will allow all those who want to debate the merits or otherwise of a United Ireland the opportunity to do so and I hope that unionists will take the opportunity to broaden the dialogue.
I encourage as many people as possible to come along and take part in the debate or to at least listen to the contributions that will be made.
Derry has been at the forefront of being imaginative when it comes to previously contentious issues such as marches. That demonstrates that dialogue works. I hope that all of us - nationalists, unionists or whatever you designate yourselves - can use this opportunity to engage not in political grandstanding but in a constructive dialogue in where we can look at the past and the present and prepare for the future.

www.unitingireland.ie