Republican News · Thursday 16 May 2002

Vote for an Ireland of Equals

Vote Sinn Féin

As we go to print on Wednesday night, there is a palpable air of excitement and expectation. Sinn Féin election workers have been going at it hard for many months now and they all report a tremendously positive response. The results of a recent series of opinion polls appear to back up this optimism.

The message from Sinn Féin candidates is that they offer the only real alternative. People are responding to the party's work on the peace process and its proposals on health, housing, childcare, job creation, rural regeneration, equality and respect for the people's decision on the Nice Treaty.

Over the past three weeks, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs hid behind economists rather than deal with the real concerns of the Irish people. They have predictably avoided defending their records on the two-tier health system, on the housing crisis, on the issue of Irish unity and on a whole raft of other social and economic matters. They have avoided explaining their mismanagement of the wealth created by the Celtic Tiger over the past ten years

The real choice in General Election 2002 is a choice between those who are working to create an Ireland of Equals and those who have created an unequal and divided Ireland.

It is a choice between the only growing force in Irish politics and the stagnant array of parties who have failed to inspire the electorate.

It is a choice between political commitment and political careerism.

It is a choice between real change and more of the same.

When the next Dáil assembles, more Sinn Féin TDs from across the island will walk through the doors of Leinster House as a new era begins in Irish politics.

You can play your part in making this happen by voting for your local Sinn Féin candidate.