Republican News · Thursday 28 March 2002

Giving people a reason to vote

The crowd strolled in to the music of Tracy Chapman, "Talking about a Revolution", as the power point screen show flashed the history of the conflict onto the community centre wall in Blanchardstown, where the Dublin West election campaign for Mary Lou MacDonald was launched last Friday.

Mary Lou talked clearly and angrily about how local houses are boarded up against the thousands of people who are homeless; of the old people who are afraid to walk our streets at night because of an absence of community policing; about a two-tier health system, with provision for those with money, and queues for those without; of the absence of facilities for young people in an area that has the highest proportion of young people in the EU. And the music moved onto "It's Going to Happen" by the Undertones.

As the lights came on, there was Pat Doherty, MP, and Vice Chairman of Sinn Fein, Alex Maskey, West Belfast Assembly member and the first Sinn Féiner elected to Belfast City Council, aspiring TD and Dublin City Councillor, Nicky Kehoe. They all spoke, offering the people of Dublin West the opportunity to be a part of that history the flashing screen outlined, from civil rights to Bloody Sunday, to the H-Blocks, to the struggle on the streets for a better life, to an Ireland of Equals. It was professional, it was determined, and Mary Lou handled proceedings as if she'd been at it for a lifetime.

Away from the glare of public speaking, talking quietly, Mary Lou discussed Sinn Féin's approach with great intelligence. She talks about people's understandable reaction to the corruption of politics all around us. "The reaction of many people to the degeneration of current politics is not to vote at all. All the so-called most disadvantaged areas, where people have been hit the hardest, have one thing in common - they don't vote. I think people see not voting as an act of protest, almost an act of rebellion against the corruption in the system. Living right beside Abbotstown, well you can't blame them.

"But in reality not voting is simply giving permission to ignore you - which successive governments have been very glad to do. It would be a victory in itself if we, by standing candidates and offering people real change, could encourage people to vote, to take part. It would be a major achievement, and it would seriously shake up the state. So we're saying very clearly to people, that we hope they will vote this time."

Fingal County Council has put a weekly tax of €5 on bin collection and is trying to introduce a sticker system, despite the recent Supreme Court decision that failure to collect all bins in the area is a breach of the council's responsibility to clean up the waste.

"We're saying clearly to everyone, don't pay the charges," says Mary Lou. "A good recycling policy, starting with kitchen waste, the organic fraction, is of benefit to everyone in the country. It's just good government, as opposed to bad. We're always hearing it at the doors, 'I'm not paying, not just because it's a lot of money, week by week, but because it's wrong. They shouldn't be taxing us to do their job, and they shouldn't be handing over the job of recycling to a company to make money on an essential service. The other political parties and their councillors have allowed all this. And they've voted this tax on the people. Then they are coming to look for votes. They must think we are stupid.

"People say to me," says Mary Lou, "that the Sinn Féin project only appeals to the more disadvantaged people in our communities. But that is nonsense. Our project is about everyone. We want to build an Ireland of Equals, and this means a different society, where housing, education, or health needs of all are addressed. People have rights to these things.

"There is no reason to suppose that someone who happens to live in Castleknock, down the road from here, is a mean minded, greedy, individualistic Thatcherite, any more than someone who lives beside me in Blanchardstown. We all gain from an Ireland of equals, which is a society that cares for all, including the old, the sick, the young and doesn't base its investment decisions on brown envelopes, graft and corruption, and turning provision of state services across to shady 'shelf 'companies.

"The republican project has always been about all of the people in this country, not just a few of them. We want a better Ireland, an Ireland of humanity, not greed. Now we're giving people a chance to vote for this, and I hope they do."