THE weekend Sinn Féin Ard Fheis was full of enthusiasm and passion with great speeches covering every issue imaginable and the delegates voting through policy motions that will help shape Sinn Féin politics in the time ahead. The speeches, particularly from Michelle O’Neill and other national leaders, demonstrated the strength and relevance of the party across our island.
In her Presidential address, Mary Lou skilfully critiqued the many failures of the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael government while presenting Sinn Féin as the alternative government, with policies and a leadership that can deliver real solutions and a better life for all citizens.
An underlining theme that ran throughout the Ard Fheis was the issue of Irish unity and on that Mary Lou confidently asserted our ability to “unify Ireland.” She said: “We need a mature, respectful conversation about constitutional change.” But she added: “Be in no doubt – unity referendums are coming. By end of this decade, people north and south must have their say. The Dublin and London governments can’t continue to tread water. It’s time to plan and prepare. That means a green paper on Irish unity, a Citizens’ Assembly, a Minister for Reunification at the Department of An Taoiseach, a new government with a clear-cut commitment to holding referendums.”
The theme of Unity was also front and centre in a fringe meeting that this year focused on the life and activism of our friend and comrade Rita O’Hare, who died last year. Several hundred people packed into the room where a panel discussed Rita’s contribution to the struggle for freedom and self-determination and then listened as people in the audience reminisced about their personal memories of Rita. I chaired the event and was joined by Rita’s husband Brendan Brownlee, Dawn Doyle and Danny Morrison.
“Let’s work for it, believe in it, let’s make Irish Unity happen”. @MaryLouMcDonald pic.twitter.com/9WGdrLFyNj
— Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) September 30, 2024
Rita correctly believed that Irish unity is at the heart of the politics of change. It is at the core of our republican politics, our anti-colonial, anti-sectarian desire for social justice and for equality. All the speakers touched on this, on the need for planning and cohesion and the obligation on United Irelanders to harmonise the national and the local.
I read an extract from the speech Rita gave at Bodenstown in 1996 which for me sums up her republicanism and is as much a manifesto for change today as it was almost 30 years ago when she spoke at the graveside of Wolfe Tone. Rita said: “The future we seek is for a transformation of Irish society. We seek constitutional change which places in the hands of the Irish people the sovereign power to determine our own future.”
If Rita teaches us anything about a life in struggle it is about the power of activism – the ability of a single person to make a difference, to make a stand and by their example to encourage others to make a stand and to ask ‘What can I do to advance Irish unity?’
Richard McAuley was the last speaker at the Rita gig. He told us, as she was close to dying, how she answered that question for him. As he and I were leaving her he went in for a last word and she looked at him defiantly, lifted her clenched fist and gave him his orders – ‘Win.’
That was the message which summed up the spirit and energy of the Ard Fheis.
Ireland should have got up and left too
LAST week most of the governments of the world turned their back on Israel as Benjamin Netanyahu took to the rostrum at the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. Netanyahu claimed that “no army has done what Israel is doing to minimise civilian casualties” and as he described the United Nations as an “anti-semitic swamp” and an “anti-Israel Flat Earth Society,” scores of UN delegates got up and walked out. Regrettably, the Irish government representatives stayed.
Many of the leaders of other nations who addressed the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly took the opportunity to condemn Israel for its genocide in Gaza and the West Bank and for its current assault on Lebanon. Almost 1,000 civilians have been killed in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon in the last week, including the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah (below). The threat of a wider conflagration is now very real.
Netanyahu has dismissed a call for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, his army appears has launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, though its long-range fire power makes any invasion unnecessary in military terms. It has also begun attacking targets in Yemen. And all the while the people of Gaza and the West Bank continue to die from bombs supplied by Israel’s western allies.
TARGETED: Israel assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during ceasefire negotiations
Netanyahu’s political strategy and military campaigns are aimed at wreaking devastation on the Palestinian people – and now the people of Lebanon – while seeking to create the ‘Greater Israel’ with stolen Palestinian land that Zionism has worked for over a century to achieve.
It won’t work.
However long and hard the suffering and injustice imposed by colonial powers the fact is that over the last 100 years, particularity in respect of the European Empires, there are countless examples of oppressed people defeating their more powerful occupier.
Speaking at the UN, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas defiantly told the Assembly: “We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave. Palestine is our homeland. It is the land of our fathers, our grandfathers. It will remain ours and if anyone were to leave, it would be the occupying usurpers... Stop this crime. Stop this now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel.”
Having failed to make clear its opposition to Israel’s genocide by withdrawing from the General Assembly when Netanyahu rose to speak, the Irish government should now do the right thing and enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill.
South Africa links remain very strong
IRISH republicans have had a long and enduring relationship with the African National Congress. In 1995 I travelled to South Africa to meet its senior team of negotiators who successfully achieved an end to apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela as President. In the midst of the negotiations around the Good Friday Agreement some of those senior figures travelled to Ireland to hold public meetings and go into the prisons to talk about their experience of negotiations. That relationship has remained strong over the years, thanks in part to the hard work of Declan Kearney, Sinn Fein Party Chairperson.
The Deputy President of South Africa, Paul Shipokosa Mashatile, addressed the Ard Fheis on behalf of his government. In a significant and historic contribution, Deputy President Mashatile asserted his government’s support for Sinn Féin in our “fight for the unity of Ireland”.
FRIENDS: Mary Lou McDonald, Paul Shipokosa and Declan Kearney
In his speech Deputy President Mashatile emphasised the strong bonds of friendship between Ireland and South Africa. He said: “Ireland was a strong supporter of the liberation struggle, particularly the Irish anti-apartheid movement... We are indebted to you and there are no words to express our gratitude for the role you have played in supporting us... today we want to let you know that we are with you in your fight for the unity of Ireland.”
He reminded the Ard Fheis of the contribution President Cyril Ramaphosa and the former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari made to the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking of the conflict in the Middle East and the decision of South Africa to take Israel to the International Court of Justice, Deputy President Mashatile said: “South Africa will not remain silent in the face of brutal murders, we will not tolerate the violations of people’s rights, we must prevent the ongoing violence against the people of Palestine.”
He concluded: “Our message as the African National Congress and the people of South Africa to Sinn Féin is simple but unequivocal which says solidarity forever. I want to say that the people united will never be defeated.”
