Republican News · Thursday 31 October 2002

Building the new Ireland

Elected reps from across the nation gather in Monaghan

Sinn Féin's "Working Together for a New Ireland" conference was an historic occasion. The conference brought Sinn Féin's elected representatives from all over Ireland together, perhaps for the first time ever, to discuss their way forward to promote the All-Ireland agenda of equality and justice.

Addressing over 200 people, including TDs, representatives on the Cross-Border bodies, local councillors, town commissioners and Assembly members, Gerry Adams pointed out: "No other party in the country could do this - Sinn Féin alone could bring our elected representatives together from across the whole island. I commend you all. It was only 20 years ago that Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin left the bank. We have come a long distance since then."

He went on, "We are a campaigning party, and you are the agents of change. You are perceived as the leaders in your communities. At present we are punching well below our weight."

"We need to make the All-Ireland Agenda a part of every activity. We need, all the time, to 'think national, while we act local'. All the time we need to consider how we can use our electoral strength to build a new Ireland. For this task we were never better placed." The conference was an important initial step towards this goal.

Group leader in Leinster House Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin; Conor Murphy, group leader in the Assembly and Martin Ferris, with a powerful speech, opened the conference. "I am confident," Martin said, "that I, alongside of other representatives, will sit in an all-Ireland parliament in an Ireland of equality and democracy.

"Our task is about the real power of people over the institutions that govern their lives. Power is not the gift of the political establishment. We are not there to replace the political establishment, but to achieve change." Or, as Caoihhghín said earlier, quoting Dublin Councillor Larry O'Toole: "We're about building a real alternative, not an alternative establishment."

Engaging in 32-county wide discussion

The conference was primarily an engagement of Sinn Féin political representatives to discuss together how to make the All-Ireland agenda part of all Sinn Féin activity and central to the action plans of the elected representatives. For many, it was the first time they had met other reps all across the country and had shared discussions together. They talked in small workshops, workshops that had a geographical spread, from Belfast to Clonakilty, town commissioners to Assembly members, TDs to councillors.

The discussions ranged widely over the issues, but focused particularly on the role of elected representatives in implementing the Good Friday Agreement and making the All-Ireland agenda an integral part of republican activity.

After Gerry Adams' keynote address, Bairbre de Brún led off a session chaired by Dublin Councillor Nicky Kehoe. "There are a wide range of equality issues to be implemented," she said, "and rights are not to be bartered with - the two governments understand this very well.

"People need to understand, they need to know what has not been implemented. The discussion needs to start, and it needs to widen. This is the work of our elected representatives. Establishment politicians do things on the ground to get elected. With us, it's the other way round; we get elected to get things done."

"We need women elected"

Bairbre was followed by Sean Crowe, Pauline Tully, and briefly, Adams again, who said in one of his interjections that all know so well: "The Equality Agenda applies everywhere, and most especially to the case of women. In the next local government elections we need women elected. It means women being in winnable seats. This means men moving to one side."

His point was taken up by Mary Nelis, who said, repeating a reference to Declan Kearney's article in An Phoblacht - The Road Map to the Republic, that "the Good Friday Agreement is the process through which to deliver a united Ireland. Let's implement the Agreement. Don't leave it to the Brits. They'll never do it."

Martina Anderson, who works in Stormont, led off the afternoon session, which was chaired by Mary Lou MacDonald, the party's political oversight coordinator, based in Leinster House. The session was about making the all-Ireland Agenda an integral part of all Sinn Féin activity, and she put it clearly to all the reps - that "unless you integrate the All Ireland agenda into your local activity as elected representatives, you will not be fulfilling your brief".

She was followed by two members of Sinn Féin's advisory team in Leinster House, Mícheál MacDonncha and Robbie Smyth, who both developed ideas and plans through which elected reps could advance this strategy.

Discussing the change that must come

After workshops, participants came back to a plenary session where Pat Doherty and Sean MacManus, Francie Molloy and Aengus Ó Snodaigh all spoke as well as many more elected representatives from the floor. "How times have changed," commented one participant. "All the reps were busting to get in with their contribution."

"How do we progress the all-Ireland Agenda - which is now a realisable ideal?" Aengus asked. "We need to take the discussion forward. We need to ask republicans: What about a 32-county police force? What do we want for a judicial system, for an education system, for an all-Ireland health system? We need to be asking these questions and to discuss together the sort of united Ireland people want to see."

As Sligo's Sean MacManus said, the conference was "a first, bringing all our political reps together, from North and South. It is the work that we began today that will make us into the catalyst for the change - change which must come for a united Ireland based on equality."