Republican News · Thursday 14 August 2003

Building the political alternative

A Chairde,

In a recent hysterical rant (Irish Times diary, 15 April), several flying bats came in for a pasting, amongst them Sinn Féin, Woodstock, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, the UN, Bill Clinton and a curious new entity called 'Woodféin'. The latter is apparently a hybrid of the cultures of Woodstock and Easter 1916.

Hysteria aside, the diarist actually performed a service in that he placed Sinn Féin in such company. Apart from the therapeutic effects of naming his phobias, the writer (a Mr Myers), clearly fears the popularity of Sinn Féin with the younger generation. It would appear that many years of hard work - from policy documents such as 'Towards a Lasting Peace', down to the current manifesto, have indeed placed Sinn Féin at the forefront of the progressive forces in Irish life.

The younger generation sense this, to the bewilderment of the conservative/reactionary forces.

In a recent article by Seán Mac Brádaigh (An Phoblacht 24 July), there is a call to 'make alliances with other progressive forces and build Sinn Féin as the credible political alternative to conservatism'.

Far from creating a 'New Sinn Féin' (analogous to New Labour) and ditching its core principles, this would merely be the continuation of what is fundamentally a philosophy of social justice. The principles are timeless, but the forms of expression will and must be suited to the time.

Sinn Féin, with its first hand experience of the struggle, has a huge contribution to make in building the political alternative to conservatism, not only nationally but globally.

Mark Fleming,
Oslo.

Information needed

A Chairde,

I have been asked to look for information on Frank Ellard, who died on 1 February 1928. He is buried in St Finbar's Cemetery in Cork. His name is listed on the Last Post, which is dated up to 1975. The information is being sought by relatives in England.

If anyone has any information on this person, could they contact Mícheál Hennessy, c/o Sinn Féin shop, 136 Barrack St, Cork.

Micheál Hennessy
Cork City

Grateful Ardoyne ex-POWs

A Chairde,

The committee of Amach Agus Isteach, republican ex-prisoners from Ardoyne, would like to send our thanks to all those who made our recent, Lá Na bPriosúnach/Prisoners' Day, such a success.

We would like to thank Liam Shannon, Cathaoirleach, National Graves Association, for the loan of the excellent artefacts of Volunteer Tom Williams, and the great photos of our fallen patriots. Thanks also to Eileen Hickey and Johnny Haddock, from The Irish Republican Museum, West Belfast, for the loan of the brilliant range of prison crafts and artefacts, from Armagh, An Ceis Fada and Maghaberry.

A special thanks to Joe Cahill and his wife Annie for attending the exhibition and the function later that night, an inspiration as always.

We owe gratitude to May, Maureen and Michael Doherty and Annie Conrad for their loan of some great paintings and handicrafts from Crumlin Road Gaol and Long Kesh. Thanks to the committee and staff of Ardeoin GAC for the use of their premises.

Finally, a grateful thanks to Mrs McCabe for the tea and sandwiches. Please accept this letter as a token of our appreciation. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.

Máirtín Óg Meehan (Rúnaí).
Ardeoin
Béal Feirste

Committed to gender equality

A Chairde,

I am writing in reply to a letter from Jolene Groogan who expressed her disappointment at the female youth weekend.

The concept of an all-female youth weekend was floated by a number of female Ógra activists at the beginning of this year.

As everyone within republican circles is aware, we have serious difficulty recruiting female members and also retaining the ones who do decide to join. I have lost count of the number of times that young women have joined Ógra groups across the country and have subsequently left, due in part to the fact that they were the only female in a group of 5, 10, or 20 males. By coming together as a unit, young females realise that there are other women around the country in similar situations to themselves and can discuss and formulate ways to help overcome some of the intentional and unintentional discrimination that they have endured within the party.

Of course, if initiatives such as the females' weekend were taken in isolation, then they would serve no useful purpose, however this is not the case. It was Ógra Shinn Féin who proposed and eventually secured a successful vote at this year's Ard Fheis in relation to 50/50 male and female representation on the Ard Chomhairle. At a national level a number of young women hold cúige youth officer positions. The youth department remains committed to gender equality within Sinn Féin.

I accept Jolene's argument that in some sense, we are preaching to the converted in relation to gender equality, however the weekend goes beyond this. Political skills training, adventure sports and an interaction between experienced female republican activists and the future generations will form the backbone of activities.

Hopefully, the participants will come back equipped in part with arguments to further the gender equality issue within youth structures.

Chris Ó Rálaigh
National Development Officer
Sinn Féin Youth Department

Conference rip-offs?

A Chairde,

As republicans, we should be concerned at the practice of local authorities spending vast quantities of public money sending councillors to conferences that appear to be of no benefit to councils or the public at large. It appears that the expenses allocated to councillors attending these conferences far exceeds the cost of attending them. If true, this would mean that some people are using these conferences to make profit for themselves out of the public purse.

ecdotal evidence suggests there is much abuse of the conference set-up, with some councillors signing into more than one conference at a time and claiming expenses for attending both. Indeed, according to information that I received in a Freedom of Information request, two Sligo councillors, members of both Sligo Borough Council and Sligo County Council, were each paid large amounts of money by both Councils to attend the Parnell Summer School in Wicklow last year. Whatever justification they claim for attending these conferences, there is none for receiving two sets of expenses for attending the same conference. Whether this is actually legal or constitutes fraud needs to be investigated urgently. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that quite often councillors merely sign into conferences and go back home right away without ever taking part in the conference itself, content that their expenses can now be collected.

It is imperative that the actions of all politicians and political institutions are completely above board, accountable and transparent and that financial gain at public expense is not being obtained by any politicians misusing their position. An inquiry into the present system of conference expenses would be a step in the right direction. If everything is above board, then all councillors should welcome such an inquiry as they will have nothing whatsoever to hide. If however, some councillors oppose this, then they need to be asked what are they hiding?

As republicans we should take the lead in exposing this scandalous waste of taxpayers' money. Hopefully, our TDs can put pressure on both the Dáil Public Accounts Committee and the Local Government Audit Service to investigate whether there is any fraud or misuse of public funds and whether the public are getting value for money from the huge expenditure involved in sending councillors to conferences.

Gerry Casey
Maugheraboy
Sligo