If it is still there, copies should be made and sold as postcards just like the no return to Stormont mural of the mid 1990’s, for posterity and historical accuracy of course.
The oxymoronic outworkings of the of the evolution of the “republican revolution” in Ireland are confidently displayed on a daily basis by this who now front the “struggle”. Those who are either too stupid to understand or too smart to speak power to truth are to the forefront in selling/ reselling the “movements” line that the revolution is all going well, and, according to a long term “leadership strategy” that is so secretive that only they know about it and only they can speak authoritatively upon it.
The mural, just like the movement disregards the fact that the evolution of a revolution, while a contradictory concept, should only ever refer to the methodology employed by revolutionaries and not the end goal in itself. I was led to believe that the end goal we had fought for was a 32-county socialist republic. That end goal has now morphed to convincing the British Government to hold a border poll by the year 2030 and convincing the “soft Unionist” population of the north that life would be better in an agreed Ireland.
Watching the display at the Europa hotel, where the manager of the James Connolly Visitor Centre (PLC) admonished young Palestinians for showing the same determination and vigour in speaking out about hypocrisy and occupation that he showed many times in his erstwhile youth, I was minded of a song by “The The” circa 1989 and paraphrased the lyrics: if the real James Connolly was alive today he’d be gunned down cold by the IRA. Metaphorically speaking of course as we are all told to believe that the IRA of my generation no longer exists and if they did, they wouldn’t have the capacity to harm a butterfly.
The usual Sinn Fein tactics were deployed, attack the messenger, distract from the reason behind the protest and then find an acceptable line to sell to the party faithful. And so it all began, the young Palestinians at the Europa, were “dissidents”. The Palestinian Authority we are told had asked Sinn Fein to meet Genocide Joe and sip champagne with the people responsible for war crimes. People such as Bernadette McAliskey, who rightly called them out and who only a few short weeks before, was lauded by SF as the darling of the Civil Rights movement (© Sinn Fein) became that “bitter aul hoor from Tyrone” (sic) once again.
Notwithstanding the grotesque Orwellian nature of the Europa and its fallout, any “soft Unionist” contemplating a new agreed Ireland (where we are instructed that all voices will be equal and respected) had that concept comprehensively exposed as a fabrication.
The plan, and I am using that term loosely, to reach an agreed Ireland, is slowly starting to emerge (note that the term socialist republic is never uttered except in bated breath to the chosen few). The plan I would argue, is less a plan and more a “direction of travel” that has been shaped since the mid 1980’s by the British Establishment.
The direction of travel is based on a premise, I think first espoused by Craigavon, who argued that if you treat the Taigs in the north like Prods, then at some stage they will start to behave like them and become house trained.
This concept appears to be wholly embraced by New Sinn Fein (NSF / Northern PLC), who are going out of their way in the north to prove to all, that they are fit to govern and that they are not a threat to the establishment monolith which is no longer just the British.
NSF have gambled everything on a beneficent British establishment granting a border poll, at some yet undecided date in the future, based on some unknown set of criteria which weren’t fully thrashed out by NSF during the GFA, Leeds, St Andrews, New Decade New Approach etc. negotiations that have accompanied the pacification of the north process. Victory 2030 is now the war cry.
NSF, recognise the feebleness of campaigning for a border poll in a space where the British have already achieved their “endgame” i.e. the north, and have taken a calculated risk (wrongly in my opinion) that the British will bend on a poll if there is a NSF Government in the 26 county administration.
Such is their confidence in the campaign for a border poll that they have delegated this onerous responsibility to a group of millionaires, solicitors, commentators and hangers on who label themselves as “civic nationalists”, whatever that might mean.
The priority now for NSF is to lead the 26 county Government and from there to metaphorically blast the British into calling a border poll.
Setting aside the folly of this tactic and the strategic compromises that have been necessitated by the adoption of this position, the approach being taken requires the north to work and ergo for NSF to show the electorate in the 26 counties that they can make the north work and that they will not “frighten the horses” of big business and US/EU interests.
The strategic compromises that were a prerequisite to making the north work, were evident to most observers since the 97 convention and reinforced in the 2005 stand down statement but the speed at which the accompanying policy and political compromises were embraced must have caused an elephant a nosebleed.
Sinn Fein, have somewhat inevitably, become what they once hated and shifted from a traditional leftist stance to an entirely populist centrist position (aka SDLP/FF/WP), in the hope of achieving political power concurrently in the 26 and 6 counties. And while this strategy appears to be working somewhat, it does beg the question “what was it all about?” Are we treading the path that Connolly (not the Belfast PLC Connolly) guarded against? Are we on the threshold of removing the British establishment but replacing it with the European and US establishments and big business? It would appear so.
I would argue that the British Establishment (UKG) have once again firmly nailed their colours to the mast with their “Safeguarding the Union” policy paper, which underpinned the fact that the UKG continues to have a selfish strategic interest in NI. No British Government has ever given an indication otherwise and the GFA does not command a “neutral” position from the UKG.
“Safeguarding the Union “totally blindsided the NSF leadership, whose sole priority in negotiations was to get a restoration of Stormont over the line. Once again, the NSF leadership either didn’t read or didn’t understand the fine print in the deal that they had signed up to.
The DUP and the UKG smell blood in the water. They know that the NSF project/strategy is at its weakest in the north and dependent upon the north working. The quandary for NSF is how to make the north work in a way that does not alienate them from their traditional working class voter base in the north or give silver bullets to their political rivals in the 26 counties on both the left and the right. In effect the challenge for NSF is how to ride these two horses at once, a sticky situation, so to speak, that broke the Workers Party when they chose this path.
The DUP shafted NSF on day one, in a tactical masterstroke, by not taking the Finance portfolio (as had been agreed) in the new Executive. Having read the fine print, having probably co-authored the agreement with the UKG, the DUP knew that the financial package on offer was derisory, short term and not likely to make any impact upon the priority portfolios of health, education and communities. The DUP rightly foresaw a period of slash and cut and handed that poison chalice to their arch-rivals in NSF.
NSF are now in the perilous position of having to make a no-win decision between cuts or revenue raising. The decision to make cuts sits with the NSF finance Minister and the decision to raise revenue (indirect taxation) rests with the NSF Economy Minister.
In their first week in office both socialist NSF Ministers went to meet their counterparts in the 26 County administration. This meeting was not to discuss a progressive all Ireland approach to economic matters but rather they met to discuss how to harmonise what NSF campaign against in the south with the austerity measures that NSF will have to introduce in the in the north.
The jolly to the US, (where NSF singularly failed to call out the establishment on Palestine as promised), peaked when the socialist NSF Economy Minister declared the north is open for US venture capitalists and the socialist Joint First Minister pimped the people of Ireland as a well-educated but low paid alternative to the people of China and India.
These tensions, which will hover above the current NSF tenure of the Finance and Economy briefs were almost immediately exposed with the pseudo argument relating to the redevelopment of Casement Park. Even though it is no longer politically correct to draw attention to the absolute mess that both the previous NSF Minister and the GAA made of the original proposal to redevelop a sports pitch, the UKG were publicly unambiguous, that if Casement was to be redeveloped then the restored NI Executive would have to raise the additional revenue via indirect taxation.
Why NSF chose to ignore this, is beyond comprehension. Why their supporters are calling this out as “sectarianism” although not without some merit, is baffling. The NSF Ministers holding the Finance and Economy portfolios are the only Ministers who can put forward proposals to resolve this matter. Their choice is limited, initiate swingeing cuts in the Department for Communities (and ergo in the community sector and housing budgets or introduce the only indirect taxation measures that are open the NI Executive as laid out by the UKG.
The battle lines have been drawn and the decision by the 26-county administration to contribute an additional £50 Million to Casement placed even more political pressure on NSF to deliver. The UKG Government may yet intervene and inject a one-off payment to stop the political fallout and maybe even save the institutions, but I doubt it. Both UK Labour and the Conservatives have been unequivocal that the Oliver Twist economic policies of “please sir can I have some more” are a thing of the past. The north is subdued, little England and Scotland will be their battlegrounds and that is where the UK treasury capital will flow.
Casement Park aside, there are numerous huge financial decisions to made in the short to medium term if NI is to return to anything close to resembling a functioning statelet. Health, Housing and Education are on the verge of collapse. Unionists for the first time oversee all three of these Ministries, the largest Departments in the north by a budgetary mile. No money for more nurses, blame the finance minister, no money for new houses denounce the Economy Minister, schools closing and children going hungry, point the finger at the NSF Ministers.
These are the policy and political compromises that NSF Ministers must come to terms with the new dispensation. Whichever path they chose, on a journey that has been predetermined for them, will have repercussions for their voter bases in both the north and the south. The political and policy decisions they make will directly impact on their ability deliver on the hallowed border poll.
Both NSF and the DUP are acutely aware of this. Publicly the joint ministers will continue to play the sweetness sisters with plenty of photo opportunities which will be touted (excuse the Scap pun) as “leadership”. The tangible decisions that need immediate attention are once again secondary to charade politics, except this time NSF, the DUP and FF/FG are banking on their respective political opponents making a fatal strategic error.
Such is the grotesque nature of the sectarian political system foisted upon us as an outworking of the “evolution” of our revolution. That these games are being played out with little concern for the real lives of the real people, the homeless, the vulnerable, the sick and the working classes speaks volumes about the distance those who still aspire for a socialist republic will have to travel. Victory 75 seems to have been the right call all along.
The oxymoronic outworkings of the of the evolution of the “republican revolution” in Ireland are confidently displayed on a daily basis by this who now front the “struggle”. Those who are either too stupid to understand or too smart to speak power to truth are to the forefront in selling/ reselling the “movements” line that the revolution is all going well, and, according to a long term “leadership strategy” that is so secretive that only they know about it and only they can speak authoritatively upon it.
The mural, just like the movement disregards the fact that the evolution of a revolution, while a contradictory concept, should only ever refer to the methodology employed by revolutionaries and not the end goal in itself. I was led to believe that the end goal we had fought for was a 32-county socialist republic. That end goal has now morphed to convincing the British Government to hold a border poll by the year 2030 and convincing the “soft Unionist” population of the north that life would be better in an agreed Ireland.
Watching the display at the Europa hotel, where the manager of the James Connolly Visitor Centre (PLC) admonished young Palestinians for showing the same determination and vigour in speaking out about hypocrisy and occupation that he showed many times in his erstwhile youth, I was minded of a song by “The The” circa 1989 and paraphrased the lyrics: if the real James Connolly was alive today he’d be gunned down cold by the IRA. Metaphorically speaking of course as we are all told to believe that the IRA of my generation no longer exists and if they did, they wouldn’t have the capacity to harm a butterfly.
The usual Sinn Fein tactics were deployed, attack the messenger, distract from the reason behind the protest and then find an acceptable line to sell to the party faithful. And so it all began, the young Palestinians at the Europa, were “dissidents”. The Palestinian Authority we are told had asked Sinn Fein to meet Genocide Joe and sip champagne with the people responsible for war crimes. People such as Bernadette McAliskey, who rightly called them out and who only a few short weeks before, was lauded by SF as the darling of the Civil Rights movement (© Sinn Fein) became that “bitter aul hoor from Tyrone” (sic) once again.
Notwithstanding the grotesque Orwellian nature of the Europa and its fallout, any “soft Unionist” contemplating a new agreed Ireland (where we are instructed that all voices will be equal and respected) had that concept comprehensively exposed as a fabrication.
The plan, and I am using that term loosely, to reach an agreed Ireland, is slowly starting to emerge (note that the term socialist republic is never uttered except in bated breath to the chosen few). The plan I would argue, is less a plan and more a “direction of travel” that has been shaped since the mid 1980’s by the British Establishment.
The direction of travel is based on a premise, I think first espoused by Craigavon, who argued that if you treat the Taigs in the north like Prods, then at some stage they will start to behave like them and become house trained.
This concept appears to be wholly embraced by New Sinn Fein (NSF / Northern PLC), who are going out of their way in the north to prove to all, that they are fit to govern and that they are not a threat to the establishment monolith which is no longer just the British.
NSF have gambled everything on a beneficent British establishment granting a border poll, at some yet undecided date in the future, based on some unknown set of criteria which weren’t fully thrashed out by NSF during the GFA, Leeds, St Andrews, New Decade New Approach etc. negotiations that have accompanied the pacification of the north process. Victory 2030 is now the war cry.
NSF, recognise the feebleness of campaigning for a border poll in a space where the British have already achieved their “endgame” i.e. the north, and have taken a calculated risk (wrongly in my opinion) that the British will bend on a poll if there is a NSF Government in the 26 county administration.
Such is their confidence in the campaign for a border poll that they have delegated this onerous responsibility to a group of millionaires, solicitors, commentators and hangers on who label themselves as “civic nationalists”, whatever that might mean.
The priority now for NSF is to lead the 26 county Government and from there to metaphorically blast the British into calling a border poll.
Setting aside the folly of this tactic and the strategic compromises that have been necessitated by the adoption of this position, the approach being taken requires the north to work and ergo for NSF to show the electorate in the 26 counties that they can make the north work and that they will not “frighten the horses” of big business and US/EU interests.
The strategic compromises that were a prerequisite to making the north work, were evident to most observers since the 97 convention and reinforced in the 2005 stand down statement but the speed at which the accompanying policy and political compromises were embraced must have caused an elephant a nosebleed.
Sinn Fein, have somewhat inevitably, become what they once hated and shifted from a traditional leftist stance to an entirely populist centrist position (aka SDLP/FF/WP), in the hope of achieving political power concurrently in the 26 and 6 counties. And while this strategy appears to be working somewhat, it does beg the question “what was it all about?” Are we treading the path that Connolly (not the Belfast PLC Connolly) guarded against? Are we on the threshold of removing the British establishment but replacing it with the European and US establishments and big business? It would appear so.
I would argue that the British Establishment (UKG) have once again firmly nailed their colours to the mast with their “Safeguarding the Union” policy paper, which underpinned the fact that the UKG continues to have a selfish strategic interest in NI. No British Government has ever given an indication otherwise and the GFA does not command a “neutral” position from the UKG.
“Safeguarding the Union “totally blindsided the NSF leadership, whose sole priority in negotiations was to get a restoration of Stormont over the line. Once again, the NSF leadership either didn’t read or didn’t understand the fine print in the deal that they had signed up to.
The DUP and the UKG smell blood in the water. They know that the NSF project/strategy is at its weakest in the north and dependent upon the north working. The quandary for NSF is how to make the north work in a way that does not alienate them from their traditional working class voter base in the north or give silver bullets to their political rivals in the 26 counties on both the left and the right. In effect the challenge for NSF is how to ride these two horses at once, a sticky situation, so to speak, that broke the Workers Party when they chose this path.
The DUP shafted NSF on day one, in a tactical masterstroke, by not taking the Finance portfolio (as had been agreed) in the new Executive. Having read the fine print, having probably co-authored the agreement with the UKG, the DUP knew that the financial package on offer was derisory, short term and not likely to make any impact upon the priority portfolios of health, education and communities. The DUP rightly foresaw a period of slash and cut and handed that poison chalice to their arch-rivals in NSF.
NSF are now in the perilous position of having to make a no-win decision between cuts or revenue raising. The decision to make cuts sits with the NSF finance Minister and the decision to raise revenue (indirect taxation) rests with the NSF Economy Minister.
In their first week in office both socialist NSF Ministers went to meet their counterparts in the 26 County administration. This meeting was not to discuss a progressive all Ireland approach to economic matters but rather they met to discuss how to harmonise what NSF campaign against in the south with the austerity measures that NSF will have to introduce in the in the north.
The jolly to the US, (where NSF singularly failed to call out the establishment on Palestine as promised), peaked when the socialist NSF Economy Minister declared the north is open for US venture capitalists and the socialist Joint First Minister pimped the people of Ireland as a well-educated but low paid alternative to the people of China and India.
These tensions, which will hover above the current NSF tenure of the Finance and Economy briefs were almost immediately exposed with the pseudo argument relating to the redevelopment of Casement Park. Even though it is no longer politically correct to draw attention to the absolute mess that both the previous NSF Minister and the GAA made of the original proposal to redevelop a sports pitch, the UKG were publicly unambiguous, that if Casement was to be redeveloped then the restored NI Executive would have to raise the additional revenue via indirect taxation.
Why NSF chose to ignore this, is beyond comprehension. Why their supporters are calling this out as “sectarianism” although not without some merit, is baffling. The NSF Ministers holding the Finance and Economy portfolios are the only Ministers who can put forward proposals to resolve this matter. Their choice is limited, initiate swingeing cuts in the Department for Communities (and ergo in the community sector and housing budgets or introduce the only indirect taxation measures that are open the NI Executive as laid out by the UKG.
The battle lines have been drawn and the decision by the 26-county administration to contribute an additional £50 Million to Casement placed even more political pressure on NSF to deliver. The UKG Government may yet intervene and inject a one-off payment to stop the political fallout and maybe even save the institutions, but I doubt it. Both UK Labour and the Conservatives have been unequivocal that the Oliver Twist economic policies of “please sir can I have some more” are a thing of the past. The north is subdued, little England and Scotland will be their battlegrounds and that is where the UK treasury capital will flow.
Casement Park aside, there are numerous huge financial decisions to made in the short to medium term if NI is to return to anything close to resembling a functioning statelet. Health, Housing and Education are on the verge of collapse. Unionists for the first time oversee all three of these Ministries, the largest Departments in the north by a budgetary mile. No money for more nurses, blame the finance minister, no money for new houses denounce the Economy Minister, schools closing and children going hungry, point the finger at the NSF Ministers.
These are the policy and political compromises that NSF Ministers must come to terms with the new dispensation. Whichever path they chose, on a journey that has been predetermined for them, will have repercussions for their voter bases in both the north and the south. The political and policy decisions they make will directly impact on their ability deliver on the hallowed border poll.
Both NSF and the DUP are acutely aware of this. Publicly the joint ministers will continue to play the sweetness sisters with plenty of photo opportunities which will be touted (excuse the Scap pun) as “leadership”. The tangible decisions that need immediate attention are once again secondary to charade politics, except this time NSF, the DUP and FF/FG are banking on their respective political opponents making a fatal strategic error.
Such is the grotesque nature of the sectarian political system foisted upon us as an outworking of the “evolution” of our revolution. That these games are being played out with little concern for the real lives of the real people, the homeless, the vulnerable, the sick and the working classes speaks volumes about the distance those who still aspire for a socialist republic will have to travel. Victory 75 seems to have been the right call all along.
⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.
Very good piece. It measures the SF strategy in terms of its own reformism and illustrates the serious shortcomings.
ReplyDeleteMore people are taking cognisance of Michelle O'Neill's demarcation line between the generation that fought the war and the GFA generation. For how long can the party continue to stand on the tombstones of those war dead while simultaneously distancing itself from them?
What I like about your commentary Muiris is the distinction that you rightly draw attention to between 'Unity' and 'The Republic'. I likewise welcome your recognition, and affirmation, that the compromisers have become the compromised.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if I'm doing my sums right 'The Republic' had already been abandoned, alas abandon yet again, just about the time you joined the Provisionals. The decision to move from revolution to evolution, though hatched some years previously, became formally ratified by the Provisionals in '86. Formally ratified and ignoring precedent; precedents initially set by Fianna Fáil and subsequently followed by others including the now defunct 'Officials'. The Provisionals crossed their fingers, denied 'The Republic' and de facto accepted partition.
There ended the revolution and 'The Republic'.
There began the evolutionary journey to 'Unity'.
Great article -though rather than New Sinn Fein I think Sinn Fein UK is more accurate -they scored an own goal by amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution -previously they could claim to be a 32 county political party -but the changes to the Constitution, and by international agreement -they also changed their all Ireland status in recognizing 2 separate jurisdictions -SFUK and SFRoI.
ReplyDeleteIt's really about time Sinn Fein took their seats in the House of Commons. They are doing they electorate a disservice.
ReplyDeleteThey will. Next year. The Beard told me.
DeleteSam if The Beard said it it must be true! I wonder does he believe himself when he said he wasn't in the 'Ra? If we tell ourselves a narrative long enough...
DeleteBest quote was Anthony's " The only people who believe he wasn't in the IRA were some of those in it with him"!
Still makes me laugh!