The change people desperately want

Thousands gathered in Cork on 27 August for the 42nd annual National Hunger Strike Commemoration. Sinn Féin Leas Uachtarán Michelle O’Neill delivered the main address at on the city’s Grand Parade.

O’Neill told those assembled that Sinn Féin wants to lead government North and South and that “as support for our programme of change continues to build, there now exists the prospect of a new government without Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for the first time in 100 years”.

The First Minister Designate in the Northern Assembly repeated her call for the DUP to accept the democratic outcome of historic elections in the north where the people voted for change.

First Minster O’Neill said, “The challenge for political leadership today is to build a process of reconciliation and healing to shape a better future for all. Today we are not only living through historic change. We are shaping it. A new dawn is breaking in Ireland.

“The growth in popular support for Sinn Féin and the demand for the change that we represent, here in the South and in the North, has never been greater. The northern State that my parents and grandparents were born into is no more. I stand for equality and justice. I and the Sinn Féin team are fully committed to deliver for everyone, where workers, families and communities always comes first.”

• Cork Hunger Strikers, 1920-1923 were honoured

O’Neill also said that, “The contrived unionist majority is now gone. Sinn Féin won two historic elections. We are now the largest political party in the Assembly, in local government in the north, and across this island.

“Sinn Féin’s positive message of making politics work for all and getting the Executive back up and working for everyone, was endorsed by people. I will never treat, and I will never allow, anyone to be treated the way that our parents and grandparents were treated.

“There is no contradiction in declaring and delivering on our firm commitment to power sharing with unionism and others in a Stormont Executive, while at the same time making the case and planning for constitutional change on this island.

“While the DUP continue to cause political disruption, dysfunction and chaos, the reality is that they have no credible alternative to power-sharing, and on the basis of equality. It is time that the DUP accepted the democratic outcome of last May’s historic Assembly election where the people voted for change.

“Their boycott is leading to misery for people who need an Executive in place to lift the cost-of-living burden, to tackle the health crisis, to attract investment, to create jobs, to deliver change, to plan for the future”.

• Sinn Féin representatives leading the parade

The Mid Ulster MLA said if controversial and cruel legacy legislation is passed in Westminster, the Irish government must confront this denial of human rights through an interstate case and international action against the British government.

O’Neill said, “The current legislation nearing completion in Westminster has one purpose, and one purpose only, to conceal the truth and protect British state forces. That legislation is anti-democratic, it is unjust, and it is a denial of the human rights of victims and their families who have campaigned for decades for the truth. The British government should withdraw this legislation.

“And if the British government do not withdraw this legislation, the Irish government should confront this denial of human rights through an interstate case and international action against the British government.”

• The crowd listen to the speakers at Grand Parade, Cork

Michelle O’Neill said that party leader and Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald can be the first woman Taoiseach in an Irish state failed by a century of Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil governments.

She said, “Sinn Féin wants to lead government in Belfast and Dublin. Mary Lou McDonald can be the first woman Taoiseach to lead Government in this State. She will deliver the change that people desperately want. The Irish people have been failed by a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green government that is tired, wedded to the past, and unable and unwilling to seize the great opportunities that exist to take Ireland to the next level.

“The story of Ireland in 2023, right across this island, is the unprecedented demand for change. Ordinary workers and families are looking to a new future shaped by opportunity, ambition, and equality. They want a political leadership with the energy and determination that matches their hopes.

“The last General Election in the South saw Sinn Féin win the popular vote. As support for our programme of change continues to build, there now exists the prospect of a new government without Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for the first time in 100 years. Let’s build that new and better Ireland, where all of our children are cherished equally and where our success will be judged by the laughter of our children.”