The elections are over – the struggle continues

MAY 5th was not just the day voters in the Six Counties went to the polls – it was the 30th anniversary of the death on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh of IRA Volunteer Bobby Sands, elected Member of Parliament for Fermanagh/South Tyrone.
There was a poignancy of the coincidence of the dates of these events that was keenly felt by republicans and nationalists.
The election in 1981of Bobby Sands as MP and the election of Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew as anti-H-Blocks TDs was a watershed in the republican and prison struggle.
Elections in 1981 were an important area of struggle for republicans. Elections 30 years later are also an important area of struggle.
On May 5th 2011, we remembered – as we do every year – the sacrifices of Ireland’s hunger strikers, those who served as republican POWs and political prisoners, and those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom, inside and outside the jails.
On May 5th 2011, Sinn Féin consolidated its position as the biggest nationalist party in the Six Counties and the largest radical force across the island of Ireland. The Assembly and local election gains add to the ever-growing political strength of Sinn Féin reflected in the election of 14 TDs and three new senators.
Sinn Féin now has more first-preference voters than Fianna Fáil. Almost 400,000 people across Ireland have given Sinn Féin their first-preference votes in the last four months.
Sinn Féin’s performances in the elections were a real demonstration of all-Ireland politics in action.
Inside and outside the Executive, Assembly, Dáil and Seanad, Sinn Féin ministers, TDs, MLAs, senators, councillors and activists will use every opportunity to forward the radical republican alternative to the social and economic crises facing families, north and south, east and west, and will forge ahead with the all-Ireland agenda.