Adams calls for unity to oppose tory cuts

Well, the election across the water is over and we have a tory led government to deal with. For us in the South I believe the manner in which the party in the North deals with the cuts to come will be of massive importance. If we can point to the North and say look what we have achieved in fighting to maintain jobs and services, then come the next election down here we will have added credibility.

If however the party simply allows the cuts to happen then we will be in big trouble in terms of our claim to be a party that supports the ordinary working people of this island.

anyway, here is an article from this week's An Phoblacht


http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39898

Party leaders urged by Adams to unite against cuts



Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP, MLA has written to other party leaders in the North seeking a meeting to discuss an agreed strategy against any proposed cuts by the British Government.

Speaking in Stormont on Monday, Adams said: “I have today contacted the other party leaders to put to them a proposal that we should meet to work out an agreed strategy to oppose any proposed cuts from an incoming British government.

“I believe that it is imperative that all parties in the Executive act with a unity of purpose to safeguard public services, to defend frontline services in health and education, and to promote investment in our economy.”

Referring to last week’s election, Adams said that, whatever the outcome of the negotiations in London, both the Tories and Labour have indicated that there will be considerable cuts in public spending.

“These proposed cuts would have a detrimental impact on public services and jobs. They would undermine the ability of the economy here to recover from the recession. This is unacceptable. If we are to protect those most disadvantaged in our communities, if we are to promote economic growth, then the parties here must unite on a positive agenda.

“I am proposing that we unite under the tutelage of OFM/DFM to prepare to go to the next British government from this Assembly with a united opposition to the planned cuts.”

The Red C poll and the challenge for Sinn Féin

Read this letter in An Phoblacht this week and for me it is the crucial challenge for the future of Sinn Féin. We can continue to have great success in the North , but without this being mirrored in the South Sinn Féin will fail to meet its objective of a free, united and just Ireland. http://www.anphoblacht.com/letters/2010-05-06


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The RedC poll

SINN FÉIN is slipping in the South. The latest RedC poll (showing Sinn Féin down four points to 6%) augurs badly for Sinn Féin at the next general election.

If we keep on with the same hallowed but failed strategy, Sinn Féin will be eclipsed by the Labour Party and no amount of canvassing or leafleting will halt this trend.

We need to come up with a new strategy to appeal to the 26-County electorate. Wishing that Sinn Féin will have seven or more elected TDs is not going to do it – it requires radical action. There is no way that we can expect to increase our Dáil representation through on-the-ground campaigning alone. We must compete at a national level.

There is a widespread view that we are a Northern party – not an all-Ireland party. What we must do is to show the electorate that our public representatives in the South are at the heart of Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin needs to be seen to have a strong Southern leadership. Power can no longer be seen to devolve from the North to the South. We need a new vision of power sharing – within our own party.

I look forward to the publication of this letter and I hope it kick-starts an overdue debate.

In solidarity,
RUADHÁN Mac AODHÁIN,
Dublin.

As Pat Doherty might say...

What a marvellous win for Sinn Fein in Fermanagh South Tyrone.

But today its more apt to quote Arlene Foster : "This will lift the whole country ". I think you might be right Arlene. You might just be right.

Boy was it close but what a testimony to the hard work of the whole party to stand its ground against the orange order candidate and the rather paltry attempt by the SDLP to aid him.

The republican struggle is not about electoral politcs and is not epitomised by electoral politicals. It is epitomised by the hard work, tenacity and commitment to win through and step by step build the republican project in the 32 counties as demonstrated by Michelle Gildernew and all the Sinn Fein team who supported her.

This not just another electoral result. This is a testimony to the trust that voters in FST and across the 6 counties placed in SF yesterday.

Indeed this was a marvellous win. Fair play to Michelle and all the team. You did us proud.

Donegal to finally get its chance?

The Sinn Fein Leinster house team are going to move the writ for the Donegal South West bye-election.

Back on the 8th June 2009 Pat the Cope Gallagher retired his TD position to take up a salary of just under 100k as an MEP (with pension intact mind you).

At that time 19,895 Donegal residents were unemployed (June '09). Only a year earlier it was 10,352 (March '08). Early this year it pushed through 21000 and continues to rise.

But some people are beating the recession. Jim McDaid has a job but wont turn up to it. Pat the Cope has a job and a pension, and Mary Coughlan has a job but cant do it.

This situation has to end. Donegal's unemployed have been abandoned by these three hidalgos who'd rather skim the cream than work for their constituents.

Lets hope the writ gets moved successfully, Pearse gets elected and Donegal gets a champion for its unemployed and those struggling to make ends meet.

Good facegroup to follow for any future Pearse campaign is Get Pearse elected

29 years ago today Bobby Sands died

The Lonesome boatman

In the middle of the sleeping lake
The Lonesome boatman dwells,
Around him rise the bracken hills
The dreamy glens and dells.
The skies are red and rolling
Tinted in the twilight’s velvet hue
The ragged scarecrow peers in relief
To where the crackling crows have flown.

The lonesome boatman doesn’t move
His clothes are old and worn
Oh, lonesome boatman reveal to me why,
Why you look forlorn.
Is it life’s sorrows
Or a forgotten memory that you have found
Or do you listen to the wind
For the boatmen you’ve seen drown?

Oh, lonesome boatman, there’s a gleaming star
High above your head.
The waters glisten in the dusk
Are they tears that you have shed?
Oh, lonesome boatman, the birds are here,
The morning shadows fall.
Oh, friends, why must you be
But a dying shadow on my lonely cell wall.

The Lonesome Boatman by Vol. Bobby Sands (1954 - 1981)

VOTE SINN FÉIN IN FERMANAGH SOUTH TYRONE

The Language Freedom Movement - Redux

Fine Gael has been making more and more frequent noises to do away with compulsory Irish at leaving cert level. Their arguments against the retention of leaving cert Irish are a mix of the valid and the tendentious.

 

Certainly valid because the teaching of Irish by the southern state is a tolerated failure. Tendentious because it leverages the number of students opting not to do the Irish exam as a support of their position to scrap compulsory Irish rather than successfully disproving the argument that its indication of demographic change in Irish schools were an increased number of students may not have been present at the national school cycle to study Irish and decide to not bother at leaving cert.

 

The one point where they are on strong ground is that the teaching of Irish in the south is an abysmal failure. I suspect that their decision to end compulsory Irish is more to do with their outlook on the place of Irish, its relevance and also a misplaced sense that in an agreed Ireland compulsory Irish may have no place rather than a genuine desire to increase the no. of speakers in the state.

 

Considering the FGers will surely be the next Government then it looks like compulsory irish is dead and buried. Compulsory Irish as a policy failed pretty much everyone I know and I would not mourn its loss - meaningless gesture that it was. However there must be a quid pro quo here. If compulsory irish in Leaving cert goes then maybe those inevitably surplus teachers should be redirected to the junior and national school cycles ( And is that what this is about - a way of dropping more teachers). Kids should be fluent in Irish by the time they leave national school. If we as a state can move closer to that then who cares about compulsory Irish in leaving cert. But will Fine Gael do that. Or will they tolerate the same poor return on Irish teaching as they have always done and let the language weaken further.

 

The Examiner reports:

 

Fine Gael is calling for the ending of Irish as a compulsory subject, claiming students would be better off using their school time to study subjects they are interested in.

New figures show 15.8% of the 55,000 students who sat the Leaving Cert last year chose not to do the Irish exam. The number choosing not to do it has increased by about 600 a year since 2006.

Education Minister Mary Coughlan said: "While Irish is an essential subject that must be studied by all students other than those who have been granted an exemption, there is no obligation on students to sit an examination in the subject."

Fine Gael's education spokesman Brian Hayes claims the numbers are not down to exemptions, or an increase in students who have recently arrived in the country, but the fact that students are "voting with their feet".

He said: "If 15% of all kids who have to do Irish don't even turn up for the exam it's an example of the crisis the language is facing in schools."

Fine Gael believes Irish should not be compulsory after Junior Cert, but rather than damaging Irish this would "liberate the language" according to Mr Hayes. "It will get people doing the language who want to do it," he said.

"If you don't have a particular ability for languages you shouldn't have to waste your time, two hours a day, five days a week on Irish when the time could be used for other subjects," he said.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/end-compulsory-irish-says-fg-as-14000-drop-subject-118897.html#ixzz0mx3M6BcO