15 March 2001 Edition
Sinn Féin's awake in `98 country
Republican bus route for Wexford ...calling at Enniscorthy, Wexford Town, Gorey, New Ross, Campile, Fethard-on-Sea etc etc
Maurice Roche and Michael McVeigh stand beside the bus that has been renovated as a Wexford Sinn Féin travelling centre. The bus is an innovative and skillfully adapted achievement. ``It's excellent,'' says Maurice, ``and all thanks to Michael here, whose skill and energy saw the work done in just seven weeks.'' Michael modestly denies his central role and says that the work was completed by members of three local cumainn, assisted by many young people and others who volunteered their services. ``We hope, `` says Michael, ``to take it into every corner of the county, to every small village, to let people know what republicans stand for and how to contact us. Inside, the bus boasts a video player and screen with a rich assortment of tapes from the past 30 years of conflict. Multimedia how are you!
New Ross Councillor John Dwyer, Sinn Féin's candidate for Wexford, officially launched his general election campaign at a recent meeting attended by party chair Mitchel McLaughlin. Here, Dwyer talks to ROISIN DE ROSA about how he came into politics, and how he sees the party's development in the county.
``I believe we have to see a complete change in politics in this country, away from the politics of corruption, of wheeler dealing, the politics of the parties which like to call themselves republican but have long forgotten and betrayed the ideals that drove the men and women in 1916.
It is this really that drove me into politics and into Sinn Féin, from the trade union work in which I was engaged. I left school and went straight to work in Hartmans, assembly line work, which was soul destroying. Straight away, I landed into an industrial dispute where a man had been sacked unjustly. We fought on the picket line for his right, and the right of all of us, to be treated with some dignity.
Then the H-Block hunger strike began. There was strong support in the factory. We told the boss we would be holding five minutes' silence as a mark of respect for Bobby Sands. The shop steward continued working during the five minutes. Within two months he was deposed and I was elected to replace him.
I was in a bookshop and happened on some writings of Connolly. I saw how those in the trade union movement, who consistently claim to be a part of the republican and labour tradition, had air brushed what they didn't like from Connolly's philosophy to purvey a revisionism and an animosity towards republicans.
They wanted to write out of history the national struggle and suppress the view, clearly held by Connolly, that the national and the socialist struggle were two sides of the one coin. They purveyed the lie that Connolly was entirely opposed to the use of armed struggle. It was all lies which the labour movement was expected to swallow. It was a distortion of our labour tradition.
And we were expected to swallow the whole notion of partnership, which I believe represented a very poor deal for those on low wages. The Social Partnership locked these workers into low waged poor conditions, often without any union representation at all. We see the results today. We haven't looked after these people, nor the people who are still without jobs, or those who have recently been made redundant and have no work to go to.
The figures show Wexford to be an extremely disadvantaged county which has been left behind in many respects. We have to take this on. We have to look to much more than Mary Harney's Task Force, with fly-by-night multinational companies that come as fast as they go.
Mainstream parties are just playing games with politics to ensure their own self-preservation.
For instance, politicians when talking to constituents, say that they are totally opposed to the Campile incinerator, but they still remain loyal members of their party which is attempting in government to foist incinerators onto this county. People aren't fooled by this anymore.
These councillors declare themselves utterly opposed to a superdump at Barntown, and yet they are the same councillors who for 20 years have refused to examine the alternatives to burning or dumping. It is a con job to persuade local people that they are representing local interests and deserve their vote, when in fact they neutralise each other, in the crucial council votes, so their party's government policy is implemented, against the interests of the people.
Everyone could see with house price increases that the poorer people would be priced out of the market. For the Minister of Housing to do nothing is really shocking. That there is £2.5 billion in the kitty and we still have hundreds of people sleeping on the streets, and thousands who need medical treatment, that is an appalling indictment of their politics. We need radical change.
In New Ross we in the UDC took over housing at the Maudlins, an estate built for a private development, so we could try to meet some of the needs of those on the housing list. It was simply implementing the equality agenda. Some councillors might not have liked the idea to begin with, but no one can disagree that it is simple justice that everyone is entitled to quality housing, not second rate housing dubbed `social housing'.
Local politics has become such a bureaucratic system designed to stall things, to prevent change, especially on social issues. It is a system designed to make politicians feel important, and to keep them in place, without ever looking how to change the great injustices that are inflicted on people in their daily lives. Sinn Féin is challenging this. This is what Sinn Fein is about, the only party committed to the pursuit of an equality agenda.
One of the things I most dislike about being a councillor is that a 65-year-old woman comes to me to ask me to make a two-minute phone call to secure something for her to which she is entitled. People have been left behind and forced to work a system of patronage, and clientelism.
I don't think Sinn Féin will get sucked into this system because we empathise with the people who are struggling for what is their right. Local government has to become accountable to local people.''
Maurice Roche and Michael McVeigh stand beside the bus that has been renovated as a Wexford Sinn Féin travelling centre. The bus is an innovative and skillfully adapted achievement. ``It's excellent,'' says Maurice, ``and all thanks to Michael here, whose skill and energy saw the work done in just seven weeks.'' Michael modestly denies his central role and says that the work was completed by members of three local cumainn, assisted by many young people and others who volunteered their services. ``We hope, `` says Michael, ``to take it into every corner of the county, to every small village, to let people know what republicans stand for and how to contact us. Inside, the bus boasts a video player and screen with a rich assortment of tapes from the past 30 years of conflict. Multimedia how are you!
New Ross Councillor John Dwyer, Sinn Féin's candidate for Wexford, officially launched his general election campaign at a recent meeting attended by party chair Mitchel McLaughlin. Here, Dwyer talks to ROISIN DE ROSA about how he came into politics, and how he sees the party's development in the county.
``I believe we have to see a complete change in politics in this country, away from the politics of corruption, of wheeler dealing, the politics of the parties which like to call themselves republican but have long forgotten and betrayed the ideals that drove the men and women in 1916.
It is this really that drove me into politics and into Sinn Féin, from the trade union work in which I was engaged. I left school and went straight to work in Hartmans, assembly line work, which was soul destroying. Straight away, I landed into an industrial dispute where a man had been sacked unjustly. We fought on the picket line for his right, and the right of all of us, to be treated with some dignity.
Then the H-Block hunger strike began. There was strong support in the factory. We told the boss we would be holding five minutes' silence as a mark of respect for Bobby Sands. The shop steward continued working during the five minutes. Within two months he was deposed and I was elected to replace him.
The labour tradition
I was in a bookshop and happened on some writings of Connolly. I saw how those in the trade union movement, who consistently claim to be a part of the republican and labour tradition, had air brushed what they didn't like from Connolly's philosophy to purvey a revisionism and an animosity towards republicans.
They wanted to write out of history the national struggle and suppress the view, clearly held by Connolly, that the national and the socialist struggle were two sides of the one coin. They purveyed the lie that Connolly was entirely opposed to the use of armed struggle. It was all lies which the labour movement was expected to swallow. It was a distortion of our labour tradition.
And we were expected to swallow the whole notion of partnership, which I believe represented a very poor deal for those on low wages. The Social Partnership locked these workers into low waged poor conditions, often without any union representation at all. We see the results today. We haven't looked after these people, nor the people who are still without jobs, or those who have recently been made redundant and have no work to go to.
The figures show Wexford to be an extremely disadvantaged county which has been left behind in many respects. We have to take this on. We have to look to much more than Mary Harney's Task Force, with fly-by-night multinational companies that come as fast as they go.
Playing games
Mainstream parties are just playing games with politics to ensure their own self-preservation.
For instance, politicians when talking to constituents, say that they are totally opposed to the Campile incinerator, but they still remain loyal members of their party which is attempting in government to foist incinerators onto this county. People aren't fooled by this anymore.
These councillors declare themselves utterly opposed to a superdump at Barntown, and yet they are the same councillors who for 20 years have refused to examine the alternatives to burning or dumping. It is a con job to persuade local people that they are representing local interests and deserve their vote, when in fact they neutralise each other, in the crucial council votes, so their party's government policy is implemented, against the interests of the people.
Everyone could see with house price increases that the poorer people would be priced out of the market. For the Minister of Housing to do nothing is really shocking. That there is £2.5 billion in the kitty and we still have hundreds of people sleeping on the streets, and thousands who need medical treatment, that is an appalling indictment of their politics. We need radical change.
In New Ross we in the UDC took over housing at the Maudlins, an estate built for a private development, so we could try to meet some of the needs of those on the housing list. It was simply implementing the equality agenda. Some councillors might not have liked the idea to begin with, but no one can disagree that it is simple justice that everyone is entitled to quality housing, not second rate housing dubbed `social housing'.
Bureaucracy stalls change
Local politics has become such a bureaucratic system designed to stall things, to prevent change, especially on social issues. It is a system designed to make politicians feel important, and to keep them in place, without ever looking how to change the great injustices that are inflicted on people in their daily lives. Sinn Féin is challenging this. This is what Sinn Fein is about, the only party committed to the pursuit of an equality agenda.
One of the things I most dislike about being a councillor is that a 65-year-old woman comes to me to ask me to make a two-minute phone call to secure something for her to which she is entitled. People have been left behind and forced to work a system of patronage, and clientelism.
I don't think Sinn Féin will get sucked into this system because we empathise with the people who are struggling for what is their right. Local government has to become accountable to local people.''