Republican News · Thursday 16 May 2002

The last lap - SF team closes the gap

Bairbre de Brún, Gerry Adams, Seán Crowe and Frances McCole at a press conference on Tuesday

BY MÍCHEÁL MacDONNCHA

A couple of weeks ago I travelled by bus from Dublin city centre to Monaghan town. On the way I saw posters of Sinn Féin candidates and in every case, in every constituency along the main road from Dublin to Derry through Monaghan, the Sinn Féin candidate is well capable of capturing a Dáil seat for the party tomorrow.

I travelled through Dublin Central, where Bertie Ahern's machine is so worried about the challenge from Sinn Féin's Nicky Kehoe that they put up special posters to tell voters that Fianna Fáil is "the republican party". In Dublin North West Sinn Féin's Dessie Ellis is a serious contender in a three-seater, an achievement on a par with Martin Ferris in Kerry North. Across the county line in Meath, Joe Reilly is poised to snatch victory in a second Battle of the Boyne. In Collon and Ardee, Arthur Morgan's posters reminded me that the Wee County can make Big News on Friday. And as I crossed the Louth/Monaghan boundary a home-made hoarding told me "You are now entering Ó Caoláin country".

I got off at Monaghan bus depot but if I had continued I would have been into Tyrone, a county split between two Westminster constituencies, both represented by a Sinn Féin MP. During the last Westminster election we spoke of the Greening of the West of the Bann. But on Friday 17 May we might well be seeing the Greening of the Liffeyside, the Boyne and Dundalk Bay. Such is the progress of Sinn Féin.

Mind you, breaths are still bated. No seat is a certainty and so much will depend on turnout this Friday. But in the final week of this general election campaign, I for one have never seen such confidence among Sinn Féiners in any previous election in the 26 Counties. That is on-the-ground confidence, not based on polls or spins or tired pundits.

I have seen this confidence at several levels.

My own work has let me see many angles. Here in the Dáil, where I have worked with Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin for the past five years, the 'threat' from Sinn Féin is a deep undercurrent among our opponents. In Cavan/Monaghan our campaign has been motoring for months. Caoimhghín has been getting a great response on the canvass, especially in Cavan and South Monaghan, where our vote is expected to rise significantly.

Gerry Adams with Dublin candidates Daithí Doolan, Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Larry O'Toole

My home constituency is Dublin North East, where Larry O'Toole is in a very tight contest for the third seat in a three-seater. The driving force behind Larry's campaign is Andy Kavanagh. If there were Oscars for Best Director of Elections Andy would be already making his (untearful) acceptance speech. It was said of James Joyce that should Dublin be destroyed it could be rebuilt from his books. If Dublin North East was flattened Andy could provide the blueprint, as there is not an inch of footpath that he and his teams have not traversed dozens of times at the cracking pace he sets. Andy's young daughter Lindsey last week won the Silver Medal in the World Kickboxing Championship in Greece. In Dublin North East, the Bronze Medal for Larry will do fine.

I am sure Sinn Féin workers in every key constituency can tell similar stories of huge progress made and the hard work of recent years about to be reaped. Of course these are not the stories being told in the media. RTÉ has given Sinn Féin minimal coverage. In the print media our opponents have been given the widest scope for the most scurrilous attacks on us.

The nadir was reached last weekend, when Attorney General Michael McDowell used the columns of the Sunday Independent not to set out the policies of the PDs but to tell people of the "wasteland" that would be created if they voted for Sinn Féin, complete with a mock-up photo of a punishment attack.

I recall the early days of the peace process, when McDowell was foremost among those opposing dialogue with Sinn Féin. Albert Reynolds was a particular target of his vilification. Eight years ago next week, loyalist paramilitaries and/or British agents attempted to massacre hundreds of people attending a republican social function in Pearse Street in the Dublin South East constituency for which McDowell was then a TD. A republican from Finglas, Martin Doherty, was killed by the attackers he prevented from carrying out their bombing, thus saving many lives. The Dáil record shows that McDowell's reaction was to call for the banning of republican social functions in his constituency.

Like many others, McDowell changed course when he saw the way the wind was blowing and I recall sharing a platform with him in a UCD debate, where I welcomed him on board the peace process. Little of McDowell's anti-republican venom was heard in the intervening period when, we are told, he enjoyed his well-paid job as Attorney General. But as he scrambled for attention from the voters of Dublin South East, McDowell rediscovered his old McCarthyism and the Attorney General became the Witchfinder General.

From tomorrow, the poisonous McDowell and his ilk will have many more witches, reds under beds, subversives and upstarts to worry about.

Mary Lou McDonald, Gerry Adams and Aengus Ó Snodaigh are pictured at the launch of the Sinn Féin's party political broadcast