Top Issue 1-2024

19 April 2007 Edition

Sinn Féin must use General Election to change political landscape

19 April 2007

Some times it's hard to see the wood for the trees might be an apt enough description for the realignment of Irish politics which is currently evolving. But be sure of this, there is an unprecedented realignment occurring, and modern republicanism is the main catalyst for these changes. So comrades need to have a perspective on the causes and effects of our role, in order to manage the republican dynamic as we prepare for power and move towards government in a national republic. Free article

HEALTH FOR ALL : Bungling management of our health services highlighted

19 April 2007

As the term of the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats government limps to a close the Coalition finds itself presiding over chaos in the health services. The nurses and midwives are protesting. The negotiations for a new contract for consultants have broken down. The scandalous scheme to allocate public land and tax breaks to developers of private for-profit hospitals is in deep trouble but is being forced through by Health Minister Mary Harney. Free article

Dáil General Election Profile : Mary Lou McDonald, Dublin Central

19 April 2007

Dublin Central, taking in most of the capital's north inner city, will probably be the most keenly-watched election count in the General Election. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is odds-on to hold his seat with a huge majority but can he bring in the customary second Fianna Fáil candidate in this four-seater and will MARY LOU McDONALD MEP cause an electoral tremor in Leinster House by taking a seat for Sinn Féin? Sinn Féin Councillor Nicky Kehoe was just 79 votes short of the last candidate of the four elected in 2002. With Nicky and the equally tireless Councillor Christy Burke spearheading her campaign, Mary Lou is aiming to make the breakthrough this time. Married to Martin and with two young children - "Gerard, just a year now, and Iseult, who is three and three-quarters (the fraction is important)" - Mary Lou knows how hard it is for working couples but she wants more people like them and activists from the community sector to be represented in mainstream politics to deliver for their communities. When the Sunday Tribune went on the canvass trail with Mary Lou in Cabra last week, it seemed a little taken aback at the level of support and recognition for Sinn Féin, Mary Lou and Nicky Kehoe. It also noted Mary Lou's easy way with people, her humour and her natural friendliness: "Her eye contact is Clintonesque, unwavering." Mary Lou, the Tribune notes, "is a serious operator in her own right [who] doesn't go for the easy answers" to hard questions on the doorstep. BRENDAN KERR caught 20 minutes with Mary Lou between the Stormont peace talks, the European Parliament and the canvass trail. Free article

Dáil General Election Profile : Pearse Doherty, Donegal South West

19 April 2007

Pearse Doherty (29) is Sinn Féin candidate for Donegal South West and the youngest candidate standing in the county. In a constituency where the standing TDs have each been in place for twenty years and more, Doherty feels that the people of Donegal have an appetite for change. Coming from a background of enforced emigration, he believes that the haemorrhage of young blood from his native county has taken a terrible toll on the community and must be reversed. Here he talks to Ella O'Dwyer. Free article

Na nua-Éireannaigh agus Poblachtánaigh

19 April 2007

Ceist. Cad é na bunprionsabail atá fite fuite le poblachtánaigh agus inimircigh, na bunprionsabail a cheanglaíonn an dhá dhream le chéile agus na bunprionsabail a choinníonn an bheirt acu múscailte? Free article

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Use the postal and special voters' system to claim your vote

19 April 2007

Tallyer offers this guide to ensure you can vote even if you cannot go to the polling station Free article

Cúlchaint

19 April 2007

Beidh mé meánaosta agus meánaicme go luath. Caithfidh mé athrú mhór a dhéanamh i mo shaol. B'fhéidir go dtitfidh mé i ngrá le bean ó Fionnghlas. Olfaidh mé ocht phionta Bulmers gach oíche agus beidh mé in ann canadh an 'Hucklebuck' ar an karaoke gach Satharn. Free article

The Matt Teacy Column

19 April 2007

I have long been fascinated by the political thought of the Argentinean Trotskyist Juan Posadas. Oh and just before someone sitting in a pub in Camlough drinking a bottle of Buckfast Abbey starts to mutter about what the f… this has to do with sport, Posadas played professional soccer for Estudiantes in the 1930s. As a young fella he also hurled with the Christian Brothers in the La Plata primary schools league under the name Sean Mac an Posada so he was a Gael. Racy of the soil in fact. Free article

Media View

19 April 2007

Dr Frank Luntz is the latest buzzword in media circles, with Irish Independent columnists having an orgasm every time his name is mentioned. Free article

Fifth Column

19 April 2007

To boldly go where RTÉ has not gone before

Phasers (set on ‘stun’, of course) might be needed to calm Brendan O’Connor at the Sunday Independent when a Belfast arts festival shows an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that predicts Irish reunification by 2024 but has been kept off the terrestrial air by RTÉ and BBC.
In an episode called The High Ground, Chief Medical Officer... Free article


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