Irish Republican News · November 3, 2003

Sinn Féin mount All-Ireland campaign

Sinn Féin members of the 26-County parliament in Dublin joined the election trail in Belfast to emphasise the party's all-Ireland agenda.

Sean Crowe (Dublin South West), Arthur Morgan (Louth), Aengus O Snodaigh (Dublin South Central) joined North Belfast Assembly candidate Gerry Kelly outside Sinn Féin's Antrim Road Constituency Office.

``Sinn Féin is the only all-Ireland party'', said Mr Kelly. ``We are the only party who people vote for in Kerry and Derry, West of the Bann, West of the Shannon and in Belfast and Dublin.

``Last year in the elections in the 26 Counties the people returned five Sinn Féin TDs. Those TDs and their election teams along with other activists from the 26 counties will play a crucial role in the Assembly election campaign.

``They are proven winners and they along with their teams will be going into key constituencies over the next 4 weeks. These include places like East Derry, North and South Antrim, South Down, South Belfast and North Belfast. They will also assist in the republican heartlands West of the Bann.

``Sinn Féin is coming at this election in a positive manner. The feed back on the doorsteps so far has been excellent and I believe that we are going to have a good election.

``Our message is positive and our focus is on the future.''

WOMEN AS EQUALS

On Saturday, Sinn Féin held its National Women's Conference today as the party announced that it is running its largest number of women candidates in winnable seats in the Assembly elections.

Speaking on on women in decision-making, Sinn Féin EU Candidate for the Six Counties and former Health Minister Bairbre de Brun said:

``As a party striving towards an Ireland of Equals, Sinn Féin fully supports the Equality Agenda and its implementation throughout society. Central to this is the need for gender balance, gender proofing and gender equality in the decision making process. We believe that women's inequality is a structural problem, with men dominating all our cultural, social, economic and legal infrastructures. Women are not fully represented in either national politics or in local government decision-making structures.

She said her party was committed to the establishment of targets and timescales for achieving equality of representation for women in public life, and equality of outcome in employment, education and training.

``A culture of change is required throughout society to ensure that there is better representation and better working practices for women in politics. It is crucial that we all play a part in creating changes to the political systems to encourage more family friendly practices.

``Sinn Féin will work with all those committed to promoting equality at all levels of society and we will bring the same commitment to change to our own party.

``We will make this a real issue in terms of our policies, the issues that we campaign on and the candidates that we put forward for election.

``Indeed in the upcoming Assembly elections we will be standing the largest number of women candidates ever in winnable seats and the issue of equality will be central to our entire campaign.''

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