SINN FÉIN CAN WIN THIS ELECTION. During the General Election campaign I have been in several constituencies. In Dublin, in Drogheda, Dundalk, and Donegal and some other places in between. People are clearly fed up with the cost of living, the crisis in public services, especially in health and housing, childcare and disability services. Sanctions urgently needed against IsraelLast Wednesday was World Children’s Day. It was first established in 1954 as Universal Children's Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare. It is also the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.Solidarity and Condolences to the family of Pat DonaghyAs I finish this column I got the sad news that Pat Donaghy has died. Originally from Tremoge near Carrickmore in County Tyrone Pat emigrated to the United States in the 1950s. Like many others he went looking for work because work was sparse for northern nationalists in unionism’s apartheid northern state. He was in his late teens. His older sister Nora sponsored him. Pat was the sixth of fifteen children. Phyllis, Peggy and Bella along with Nora had already emigrated. Other siblings born after Pat and the older sisters also emigrated.
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21:43
The local & the national, mind your language & Lá breithe Richard.
The local and the nationalI have been doing a wee bit of canvassing in the General Election in the South. The response has been positive. There are clearly some who see election campaigns, including this one, as opportunities to write Sinn Féin’s obituary. Sorry to disappoint. Like all parties fighting elections there will be moments of gain and moments of pain. That is in the nature of electoral politics especially in volatile times. However, if your political ideology and the leaderships connection with the base is strong then all challenges can be overcome. That’s one of Sinn Féin’s strengths.Mind Your Language. Throughout Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinians countless social media posts by Israeli politicians, officials and its occupying forces have highlighted the racism that underpins Zionism and that is being used to dehumanise the Palestinian people.Lá breithe RichardRichard is seventy-two. He reached that lofty age on Sunday. If he lasts for a few more months he will have lived longer than any of his ancestors in his branch of the historic clann of McAuley. That’s quite an achievement. Congratulations RG. I hope you live forever.
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14:19
Time for a Change of Government.
Time for a Change of Government.The southern general election was called last Friday. In just over two weeks’ time 174 Teachtaí Dála (TDs) will be elected to the Dáil – an increase of 14 over the number elected in the 2020 general election.On Sunday I was in Dublin for the Save Moore Street rally but afterwards I was in Caledon Road and St. Mary’s Road in East Wall with a Sinn Féin canvas team urging voters to give their number 1 vote to Mary Lou McDonald and their number 2 vote to Janice Boylan. The response was very good.Judicial Review lodged in defence of Moore StreetThe battle to save the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site has entered a new and critical phase with the decision by the Moore Street Preservation Trust to seek leave for a judicial review of the decision by An Bord Pleanála to allow the developer’s plan to proceed. Almost two decades after the campaign to protect this important historic part of the Easter 1916 revolutionary story the campaign has reached a decisive moment.New Mural in support of PalestiniansAt the weekend a new mural was unveiled in Andersonstown in west Belfast highlighting the shared experience of struggle and solidarity between the peoples of Ireland and Palestine. Well done to Marty Lyons and Michael Doherty and the organisers.
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20:04
Defend Moore Street.
Prison Poems by Bobby SandsIn a recent interview Christy Moore remarked that the death of Bobby Sands robbed us of a great writing talent. Christy was praising the quality of the work Bobby created in the harsh conditions he endured. He was making the point that you can only imagine what Bobby might have gone on to produce in different circumstances where his creative imagination could have been nurtured and not repressed. But of course this was not to be. Bobby led the second hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he was the first of the ten men who fasted to death in that awful summer of 1981. Rally to Defend Moore St this weekendThe campaign to protect the 1916 Moore St Battlefield site from demolition is moving up a gear. As regular readers will know An Bord Pleanála - the planning authority in the South – gave the go ahead recently for the Hammerson development plan which will see much of this historic site reduced to rubble.Irish government fails PalestiniansMore massacres. More children dead and maimed. More civilians killed by the Israeli government in a series of deadly assaults in Gaza and Lebanon. Health workers, journalists, and children continue to be the preferred targets for a right wing Israeli government that is being armed, funded and empowered by its western allies.
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17:30
Sanctions Now.
Cage Eleven. This coming weekend O’Brien Press are republishing my book – Cage 11 - about my experience of life in Long Kesh between August 1975 and February 1977. Available from most good bookshops including from www.sinnfeinbookshop.com and An Fhuiseog 55 Falls Road www.thelarkstore.ie No Parking remember Father Des Wilson many moons ago lamenting the narrowness of streets in Turf Lodge and Ballymurphy. “The City Planners don’t think the working class should have motor cars” he said one day as we tried to manoeuvre our way by tightly packed vehicles in Ballymurphy Drive. Sanctions Now In April 2009 as part of a Sinn Féin delegation I entered the Gaza Strip. The blockade of the area by Israel was two years old at that point. The UNWRA staff, school teachers, doctors, university students, elected representatives and workers we met were dignified and courageous, quiet but resolute. They were the survivors of an Israeli siege and a military incursion in 2008/09 that had left many dead and key facilities devastated. From the minute we passed through the Erez Crossing into Gaza under the gaze of Israeli watchtowers and the huge security wall that surrounds the enclave my overwhelming sense was of entering into a huge open air prison. Today I am horrified at what continues to unfold each day in that place. The Gaza City I saw 15 years ago is gone.
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