'Fields of Athenry' image of modern-day emigration at Seán South commemoration

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

‘We are now back to the emigration levels of the 1950s, with over 200 people per day leaving our shores.’

FINANCE MINISTER Michael Noonan’s role has been compared at a Seán South commemoration to that of the notorious Famine-era colonial administrator Sir Charles Trevelyan – of the ballad The Fields of Athenry – “for condemning Irish people to poverty and emigration in pursuit of the failed economic doctrine of austerity”.

Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha was speaking on Sunday at the annual Seán Sabhat Commemoration in Limerick.

He said that while there can be no comparison of the current recession with the scale and horror of the Great Hunger of the 1840s, “there is one important similarity: men like Trevelyan were wedded to the doctrine of laissez faire economics . . . rather than have a government interfere with the almighty market”.

He added:

“Today we have the doctrine of austerity which condemns hundreds of thousands to poverty and unemployment and emigration. And in that sense the modern equivalent of Trevelyan is Minister for Finance and Limerick Fine Gael TD Michael Noonan.”

The Sinn Féin councillor pointed out:

“We are now back to the emigration levels of the 1950s, the era of Seán Sabhat, with over 200 people per day leaving our shores.

“That is a shocking indictment of the disastrous austerity policies commenced by the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government that wrecked the Irish economy, and now continued by the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition.”

Mícheál Mac Donncha (right) continued:

“At one time Fianna Fáil was known as the Legion of the Rearguard. Now we have the Labour Party – the Legion of the Mudguard – the Mudguard for Fine Gael.

“For many of our people the economic and political situation is a cause of despair and hopelessness. It is our responsibility as republicans to lift their heads, to point out that there is an alternative, that a way forward is possible and achievable.

“Sinn Féin has presented that alternative in a series of comprehensive Alternative Budgets in recent years and in workable policy programmes to provide jobs and growth.

“In 2013, we must promote those policies, campaign with communities against austerity, form alliances for change and build Sinn Féin across this island into an unstoppable political movement that will be the catalyst for real and fundamental transformation in our country.”