Europe on the edge

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny is off this morning to Brussels for a two day summit of European leaders who are meeting for the 20th time in the last two years to try and resolve the debt and banking crisis within the EU.

At the start of the week Spain formally requested European aid of up to €100 billion for its banks making it the fourth state to require an EU bailout.

Within hours of Spain’s request for help Cyprus became the fifth state seeking a bailout for its financial sector. And on Tuesday Italy had to pay more at a bond auction.

The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy told his Parliament that he will demand in Brussels that existing "instruments" are used to calm financial markets. He warned that Spain ‘cannot finance ourselves for a long time at prices like those we are now paying.’

He was standing up for Spain. That’s his job and his mandate.

He said: "I will propose measures to stabilize financial markets, using the instruments at our disposal right now."

In stark contrast the Taoiseach is quoted in the Irish Times saying that he will not be looking for a deal on the Irish bank debt, ‘It is not Ireland that is in focus this time.’

Regrettably this has been his constant mantra through successive EU Council meetings and he repeated it in the Dáil on Wednesday. The negotiating position of the government has been disastrous. It has failed to stand up for the interests of Irish citizens.

The EU summit has been billed as a growth and jobs summit but it will inevitably be dominated by the worsening crisis in Spain and Italy, the situation in Greece and the weakness of the European banks.

And there is no sense from the Irish government of a strategy going into this summit that will ease the burden on Irish citizens. The Taoiseach promised to remove the weight of the banking debt from taxpayers but this has not happened. He promised jobs, investment and stability and this has not happened.

And after three years of dithering and poorly planned economic and fiscal initiatives the crisis grows worse. Europe's leaders are failing.

Last July, they and the Taoiseach agreed to a restructuring of Greek debt but almost one year later and the situation is as bad as ever. Last autumn, the European Central Bank provided large-scale liquidity to banks to try to ease the situation in Spain and Italy. This has not worked either.

Last December, the Eurozone agreed the fiscal treaty – which the government and Fianna Fáil persuaded citizens to vote for in May - and for more money to end the crisis. That hasn’t worked.

Many have been pinning their hopes on the creation of Eurobonds and an agreement on shared liability within Europe for banking debt. The government is belatedly arguing that shared liability also needs to be retrospective and to apply to Irish banking debt.

And now into the mix is the report drawn up by Herman Van Rompuy, Jean Claude Juncker, José Manuel Barroso and Mario Draghi. It is a charter for a even closer EU integration and a banking, fiscal and political union which would allow the EU to intervene directly in the budgets of member states.

According to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso a fiscal union is ‘about much more than just euro bonds or stability bonds. It also means more co-ordination in taxation policy and a much stronger European approach to budgetary matters at national and European level.’

Remember Enda Kenny’s leaders address on RTE last December? He said: ‘I want to be the Taoiseach who retrieves Ireland’s economic sovereignty and who leads a Government that will help our country succeed.’

His only success thus far has been in signing up to a process that will see a further erosion of sovereignty and the continued impoverishment of citizens.

There is also speculation about Euro bonds. But the German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told a private meeting this week that there would be no Eurobonds ‘in her lifetime’. And in a contribution in the Bundestag on Wednesday she described short-term crisis remedies, like joint liability of Eurozone debt as ‘eyewash and fake solutions.

She added that; ‘Apart from the fact that instruments like eurobonds, eurobill, debt repayment funds and so on are unconstitutional in Germany, I consider them economically wrong and counterproductive.’

So, the Brussels summit has its work cut out for it. It needs to give the people of Europe some hope that their leaders have learned from the mistakes already made and have a coherent plan for the future. There is little evidence of that at this time.

The policies of austerity are driving Europe deeper into recession. That is especially true in this state where the government is taking money from working people and from the most vulnerable and essential public services to pay off the debts of the banks and the elites.

This week another tranche of €1.14 Billion worth of unguaranteed unsecured bonds, formerly held by Irish Nationwide and Anglo Irish Bank, were paid to senior bondholders. One of these, at €598 million, was more than the €500 million the government is committed to taking from the Social Welfare Budget.

So, all in all the EU summit promises to be an interesting meeting. Possibly more for what is not done or agreed, than for what is done and agreed. And in this respect the crisis within the EU is unlikely to be significantly reduced by what emerges.

A Cordial Union

The peace process has seen some strange and unexpected and remarkable developments in its almost 20 years. Sinn Féin leaders in Downing St and the White House; US Presidents shaking hands with Sinn Féin leaders; unionist leaders, who wouldn’t sit in the same television studios or talk to us in the negotiations, now sitting in an Executive and all-Ireland Ministerial Council; and Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley demonstrating that former enemies can be friends. And that work being continued by Martin and Peter Robinson. There has been much more.

It is evidence of the success of the process in achieving change. Of course, it doesn’t mean that unionists are now republicans and prepared to agree to a united Ireland or that republicans have become unionists. And there are still many issues of difference and concern between us. But we have a process, rooted in equality, which has the capacity to resolve these with patience.

This week will see another historic moment. Martin McGuinness has received an invitation from Co-operation Ireland to attend an event in Belfast next week – unconnected to the Jubilee - to celebrate the arts and culture across Ireland. The event will also be attended by the President of Ireland, the Queen of England and by First Minister Peter Robinson.

Last Friday the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle agreed that Martin could accept the invitation. This is a significant initiative involving major political and symbolic challenges for Irish republicans.

As the record of the peace process demonstrates Irish republicans have frequently been prepared to take bold and historic initiatives and risks for peace to break stalemates and find agreements.

We do so as activists whose primary political objective is the re-unification and independence of Ireland, and we have a coherent and viable strategy to achieve this.

Key to uniting Ireland is our ability to persuade a section of unionists that this is the right decision for them. To make it work it has to be part of a genuine process of national reconciliation and transformation.

I understand that a meeting between a Sinn Fein leader and the Queen of England is difficult for some republicans and for the victims of British state violence, even if the President of Ireland and the First Minister Peter Robinson is present and they are all participating as equals.

The Irish republican and nationalist experience with the British monarchy and the British state over centuries has been tragic and difficult and the vexed and unresolved issue of sovereignty remains paramount.

But Irish republicanism is rooted in the ethos and philosophy of Wolfe Tone and the United Irish Society, who sought the unity of Catholics, Protestants and dissenters. We are about the work of building a new republic, a new Ireland. And that means demonstrating to our unionist neighbours that we are serious about creating a society on this island that they will be comfortable in.

The British Queen has a unique place in the hearts and minds and sentiments of the unionists. As republicans we reject the idea of royalty or monarchy or elites or hierarchies but unionists have a different perspective. We have to understand that if our conversations are to have relevance and make sense to them.

Last year, Queen Elizabeth II visited Dublin. Sinn Féin declined to participate. That was exactly the right decision. That visit marked a rapprochement in relations between that state and the British monarchy. That was a good thing. It took 100 years to achieve.

In the course of her visit she made some important gestures and remarks, including an acknowledgement of the pain of all victims, which demonstrated the beginning of a new understanding and acceptance of the realities of past. I welcomed that at the time and said it should be built upon.

This is a different visit — in a different context.

This week’s meeting is a clear expression of the determination of Irish republicans to engage with our unionist neighbours and to demonstrate that we are prepared, once again to go beyond rhetoric, as we seek to persuade them that our new Ireland will not be a cold house for unionists or any other section of our people.

Unionists don’t need me to tell them that they have lived on this island for centuries. This is their home. It is where they belong and it is where they will remain.

Our Protestant neighbours also have a proud history of progressive and radical thinking. The founders of Irish republicanism where mainly Protestant. They were for the emancipation of their Catholic neighbours and for equality.

Republicans are democrats and the new republic we seek is pluralist. An Ireland of equals in which there is space for all opinions and identities. Sinn Féin is for a new dispensation in which a citizen can be Irish and unionist. Where one can also claim Britishness and be comfortable on this island.

Our vision of a new Republic is one in which, in Tone’s words, Orange and Green unite in a cordial union.

The Sinn Féin decision reflects a confident, dynamic, forward-looking Sinn Féin demonstrating our genuine desire to embrace our unionist neighbours.

It also reflects the equality and parity of esteem arrangements that are now in place. It will also create new platforms and open up a new phase in our relationships and will be another important and necessary step on our collective journey.

James Craig, the first unionist Prime Minister of the North recognised this when he said: "In this island we cannot live always separated from one another. We are too small to be apart or for the border to be there for all time. The change will not come in my time but it will come."

It is clear that legacy issues have to be dealt with and Sinn Féin will continue to engage in that work.

By our actions Irish republicans will be judged, as well as our beliefs. We have to change Irish society now, North and South, to accommodate the unionist population and their cultural identity. The meeting between Martin McGuinness and the Queen of England will assist in that process.

If the peace process has taught us anything, it is that the process cannot remain static. It must continue to expand and we must constantly build on the progress that has been made.

A record of Death and Shame

The publication of the report by the Independent Child Death Review Group is a chilling indictment of the child protection systems in the Irish state that repeatedly failed to save children from abuse and in some cases death.

The last few years have seen a succession of reports and revelations around abuse. The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, generally known as the Ryan Commission, was published in May 2009. It ran to five volumes and looked at the extent of abuse against children in Irish institutions from 1936.

Most of these related to the system of residential and industrial schools that were run by the Catholic Church under the supervision of the Department of Education and which saw children treated like slaves and prisoners. They were subject to the most horrendous conditions and abuse.

Other reports, including the Ferns Inquiry, the Cloyne Report, the Murphy Report and the scandal of the Magdalene Laundries focused on abuse by Catholic clergy and religious orders.

The ICDRG report provides a disturbing and harrowing insight into the systemic failure of the Irish state’s child protection systems between 2000 and 2010. It is also a damning reflection on previous governments which failed to use the wealth of the boom years of the Celtic Tiger to invest in child protection services and strategies.

The system was so bad and the state of organisation so poor that when the Independent Child Death Review Group was established in 2010 the Health Service Executive (HSE) could not provide the ICDRG with accurate data on the scale of the problem.

The ICDRG report records how bad this was. It reveals that ‘there was considerable confusion in relation to the numbers of children who had died while in care of or known to the HSE. Initial figures reported by the HSE fell far short of the actual number of cases subsequently uncovered by the HSE. Once cases had been identified there was significant delay in the handover of the files to the ICDRG...However many files were incomplete and the ICDRG requested missing components from the HSE on an ongoing basis, specifically death certificates and reports from coroners which continued to arrive throughout the period of the review. The piecemeal manner in which the HSE provided the information endured throughout the review and significantly hampered the review team in producing this report.’

In addition successive governments had failed to provide for a national framework for service delivery or a standard approach to assessing risk and referring cases, and there was no co-ordination between agencies dealing with children and young people.

This emerges most clearly in the individual case histories that are recorded in the report. They make distressing reading. Although the names have been withheld nonetheless the tragedy of children and young people in desperate circumstances comes through.

For example, the report tells the story of ‘Young person in Care 6’ who died in 2000 at the age of 15. ‘She was known to the HSE for three years prior to her death and she was in care for most of this time...This young person had six different placement during her time in care. She was also missing for some periods and believed to have been living on the streets. She travelled abroad at one point...She had four different social workers and there appears to have been one period of 7 months when no Social Worker was allocated to this case despite the high risk to her well bring noted on her files...This young person was identified as being at severe risk of harming herself or others ...’

At the conclusion of each account the ICDRG identifies concerns arising from each person’s experience. There is a stark similarity in conclusions across most of those who died from unnatural causes.

In this young girls case there was:

• No information on the file regarding the circumstances of her death.

• The file recording is very poor, confusing and difficult to follow.

• There are multiple copies of reports, many not dated so it is difficult to ascertain the sequence of the documents and the events involved in this young person’s care.

• Four different social workers in the three years this young person was in care.

• Some periods where no Social Worker was assigned to this young person.

• High number of placements for this young person.

• It appears that there may have been a failure to follow up allegations of abuse made by this young person and a failure to follow up a disclosure of her involvement in prostitution

• Inappropriate care plans were put in place

• Interagency working was less than optimal.

• There is no record of notification to the High Court of this young person’s death.


It’s almost as if with this latter omission the system was erasing her life – treating it and her as of no consequence, as if she never existed.

Page after page of the report records the lives and deaths of one young person after another and with each conclusion it is clear that the child protection system failed time after time.

The state abdicated its duty in respect of these young people and failed to provide the adequate child protection support that should be expected of a modern state in the 21st century.

The key to successfully protecting children is early intervention. The ICDRG found that too often there was a sporadic approach to dealing with young people at risk and that earlier and more consistent intervention could have helped these young people to overcome their vulnerabilities. This didn’t happen.

In other words lives could have been saved but these young people and their families were failed by the state. This is a long way from cherishing the children of the nation equally.

While I have welcomed the appointment of a full cabinet Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the publication of the Children’s First Bill, it clear from this report that much more needs to be done.

There is an onus on the government to ensure that the inadequacies identified by the ICDRG, in relation to the systems of care for vulnerable children and young people, are rectified.

It also has a duty of care to our young people to implement the recommendations emerging from the ICDRG report, particularly in respect of transparency and accountability. That especially means it has to provide the necessary resources in terms of personnel, social workers or other resources to guarantee that there is no reoccurrence of this appalling litany of death and shame.

On Your Bike.

This blog is one of Sinn Fein's cadre of athletes. Aside from Martin Ferris who believes he still has a promising GAA career I am one of the few practising athletes in my peer group. But fitness comes at a cost as I discovered once again.

Last week I badly wrenched myself while cycling. Nothing unusual in that and I never paid much heed to it at the time. But the pain in my arm and chest continued for a few days so eventually at the behest of your man I nipped into the hospital for a check up. And thus commenced yet another adventure.

It ended you, like me will be relieved to know, with an all clear for yours truly. That is the most important personal outcome. But that to one side I also had a very useful and uplifting insight into the wonderful professionalism and kindness of our health workers from the tea ladies to the senior medical staff, and everyone else in between.

From the minute I arrived at The Minor Injuries Unit at the Louth County Hospital, in Dundalk, I was hugely impressed by the quality of care of the nurses and doctor on duty there. The only problem was they did not have the facilities to treat me at the Louth. So despite my protestations Kitty the duty nurse ruled out me driving myself and I was transported by Tony and Eric in an ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda. That's where I became acquainted with a hospital trolley.

Again the care and professionalism of the health workers was impressive. The problem is the system is failing them. And the patients. I arrived in Drogheda at 7.25 pm and I didn’t see a doctor until 12.15 am. I got an x-ray at 1.15. I spent the night on a trolley. But at least I wasn't in a corridor.

I was in a cubicle and had some privacy but others weren't so lucky. The corridors in Our Lady of Lourdes are like O Connell Street. Noisy and busy. People constantly coming and going. No privacy whatsoever. Other patients told me they waited 7 and 8 hours on trollies waiting for a doctor. They included very elderly men and at least one young woman.

And it isn't the doctors’ fault. They and especially the nurses work under totally unacceptable pressure. And they do so with grace and good humour. The problem in Louth and Our Lady of Lourdes is a capacity issue. The removal of services from the Louth was a mistake. To do so before an alternative was in place compounds this. And patients suffer. When I was released the next day I was in Drogheda and my car was in Dundalk. Not a big problem for me but what of others from up the county dependent on public transport?

I had to return for tests and again the quality of care was extraordinarily good. The craic was also ninety. People, in some cases with their family members, dealing with illness with great fortitude and good humour. This blog got lots of slagging.

When I finished my range of tests in the Lourdes my extremely kind and thorough consultant decided I needed one last test. She also advised me not to travel to an event I was en route to in London. So I had to reluctantly stand aside from the inaugural Redmond O Neill Lecture. Thankfully Pearse Doherty stepped in, and by all accounts, he did a better job than me. Go raibh Maith agat P.

Meantime I was travelling back and forth from the Dáil to Our Lady of Lourdes. No big deal. The last test was for The Mater so that at least was handy. Only thing was I had to go to Drogheda to be admitted there and to be taken, this time by Michael and John, by ambulance to The Mater in Dublin. Again the craic was ninety. And again the care was first rate.

And I was extremely delighted to be given the all clear. And so into the ambulance again to Drogheda. So why am I telling you all this. For the record I suppose. Some media heads have been nosing around this story and it has already made its way on to the BBC and RTE websites.

But I am also very pleased to pay tribute to our hard pressed health workers. I ended up in three hospitals and the staff in all of them were first rate. Go raibh mile maith agaibh go leir.

My abiding memory is of great kindness allied to terrific commitment and tremendous skill. My sojourn with the trolley? An insight into how others suffer. It is not the way to treat sick citizens. Especially the elderly and vulnerable.

And the blame for that - and the solution - lies with the government.

Remembering Redmond O Neill – A revolutionary socialist, internationalist and peoples Champion

I was to give the inaugural Redmond O Neill lecture in London on Wednesday night. All of the arrangements were made and the lecture was being held in Bolivar Hall, courtesy of the Venezuelan Embassy.

Unfortunately I had to pull out at the last minute. I hate doing that. But thankfully Pearse Doherty stepped into the breech and with minutes to spare managed to catch a slightly later flight.

Jayne Fisher, a friend of Redmond and one of the organisers, told me that Pearse was excellent. That he really impressed the 150 diplomatic, media and political colleagues and family and friends of Redmond who attended and that he delivered my speech probably better than me.

Ken Livingstone, for whom Redmond worked when he was Mayor of London, chaired the event and Samuel Moncada, the Venezuelan Ambassador also spoke as did Kate Hudson, Redmond’s partner.

Who was Redmond O Neill?

He was the son of Irish immigrants from Tipperary who was born in London. But his love and commitment to Ireland, its people and its freedom was a part of his core beliefs.

This was reflected in the work he did on behalf of the Irish struggle and the Irish community in London.

In 2000 he became Ken Livingstone’s deputy Chief of Staff and together their work in support of working people in London and oppressed peoples around the world, in Latin America and Palestine and Ireland and elsewhere was prodigious.

Redmond was committed to a United Ireland. He played an important role in the development of Sinn Féin’s uniting Ireland strategy and specifically its outreach into the Irish community in Britain and to others here who support that demand. His work on behalf of the victims of British state violence in Ireland was invaluable.

Redmond was also very proud of his Irish roots and of his part in transforming the London St. Patrick’s Day festival into one of the largest in the city.

He was a great human being, a life-long revolutionary socialist, and internationalist who in his all too brief life, touched the lives of so many others in a positive and caring way.

Revolutionaries are very ordinary people. A successful revolution is achieved when a critical mass of these ordinary people unite in active pursuit of genuine equality.

Redmond understood this. He was an anti-imperialist. He rejected colonialism and racism and organised and fought against both.

He was a socialist. He knew that the road to socialism and to a better future would be complex and difficult and to achieve that goal requires allies.

Redmond also understood the importance of reaching out to and embracing others who might not necessarily share all aspects of your politics. His ability to forge alliances around specific goals was rooted in that belief.

For example, Redmond was a pivotal figure in organising the campaign against Cruise missiles, opposing the Gulf War and the Israeli assault on Gaza.

His solidarity work with the Venezuelan revolution is well known, as was his defense of Muslim communities in London and elsewhere.

Redmond was full of energy and enthusiasm for everything he did. Even when he was very seriously ill. He never let it get on top of him.

There were no half measures about his activism. He gave 100%. No one worked harder. But he also enjoyed good craic – music and good food and gardening. I never heard him sing but I’m told that he was renowned for his rousing rendition of the Fields of Athenry.

Redmond had much in common with many other great leaders and fighters for truth and justice. It was very fitting therefore that the inaugural lecture was held in a room dedicated to the memory of one such leader - Simón Bolívar.

Bolívar successfully led the struggle for freedom against Spanish colonialism in much of South America. His strategic planning, vision and leadership won independence for Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, and inspired and motivated countless other liberation struggles.

He was helped in this, like many other colonised peoples across the world by Irish emigrants, many of whom had, either fought in or been influenced by the struggle in Ireland against British colonialism.

Bolívar’s legacy is to be found in the many free and independent states that exist today in central and south America.

His legacy also exists in the humanitarian efforts of nations like Venezuela and Cuba who provide help and assistance to peoples around the world struggling against poverty and ill-health, disease and inequality.

The people of Ireland share many connections with the peoples of central and south America, including and most especially in our shared politics – our shared rejection of colonialism and imperialism and injustice, and our shared desire – our hunger - for freedom.

Time after time the Irish people have confronted and challenged colonialism. Despite the setbacks and the disappointments and the defeats we have never given up – never been bowed or broken.

Pearse expressed this best at his court martial when he said:

‘Believe that we, too, love freedom and desire it. To us it is more desirable than anything in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again to renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom.’

This experience – this determination to overcome oppression whatever the odds - has its echo in Latin America and in the struggles there against dictatorships and foreign interference.

The root of the conflict in that part of the world was colonialism.

The root of the conflict and divisions in Ireland is colonialism.

Redmond understood this and worked closely with Sinn Fein in seeking to end Britain’s colonial presence in Ireland and he was hugely supportive of our efforts to build a new Republic on the island of Ireland.

Earlier this week I announced that Martin McGuinness would be resigning as MP for Mid Ulster. His future focus will be on the Assembly and Executive where he is Deputy First Minister.

Our other four MPs have resigned as Members of the Assembly to concentrate on their roles as MPs. They and whoever replaces Martin will now be able to give greater time and attention to building our connections into Britain. Their priority will be the promotion of our uniting Ireland goal.

This is an important step change for Sinn Féin and one Redmond would have applauded.

I remember talking to him on one of my visits about the strength of the Irish in Britain. Did you know that ten years ago there were 674,786 people in England (1.4 per cent of the population) who had been born in Ireland? This is the greatest concentration of Irish-born - as distinct from persons of Irish ancestry – outside of Ireland anywhere in the world.

In a London poll several years ago 11 per cent of those polled said that one or more of their parents were Irish.

This is untapped potential. We are also looking for democrats, socialists, internationalists in Britain who will join with us in putting Irish freedom and reunification at the top of the political agenda.

So, Redmond is gone. He died in 2009 at the age of 55. But he left a rich legacy and set an example for organisation and planning and strategising that will help republicans move our uniting Ireland agenda forward in the time ahead.

A previous jubilee visit

Last weekend was wall to wall media coverage of public celebrations in Britain and in parts of the north as Elizabeth 11 celebrates 60 years as head of the British state and its Commonwealth. Later this month she will visit the north as part of these diamond jubilee celebrations.

35 years ago it was all very different. The atmosphere in the north surrounding the silver jubilee celebrations was one of confrontation and danger. In 1977 British direct rule was the order of the day and the Labour Minister Roy Mason was in charge. It was the height of the British government’s criminalisation, ulsterisation and normalisation strategy. Mason was a British militarist who believed that the republican struggle could be defeated through the application of brute British military strength.

The strategy had been concocted under his predecessor Merlyn Rees but Mason made it his own. He embraced the military elements enthusiastically. The strategy was three fold: criminalise the IRA and republican prisoners and thus alienate republican activists from their core support base; increase the membership of and push the RUC and locally recruited Ulster Defence Regiment into the front line – thus reducing the number of British Army casualties – and, persuade the British public and the international community that life in the north was really normal but for the behaviour of a small group of armed criminals who were being dealt with by the ‘police’.

The RUC was then headed by Kenneth Newman. He began his policing career in the British Palestine Police Force. He also served in the Palestine Special Branch in the years leading to the establishment of Israel in 1948. He was a stalwart defender of the brutal interrogation tactics employed by the RUC special branch which led to hundreds of convictions in special non jury courts using forced confessions as evidence. In June 1977 he claimed that republican detainees were beating themselves up in Castlereagh and the other interrogation centres in order to discredit the RUC.

In the summer of 1977 Mason convinced the British government that he could guarantee the safety of Elizabeth 11 and bring her to the north for two days as part of the wider silver jubilee celebrations. In the British political system the monarch and royal family are extensions of the will of the government. The monarch has little real power. Her speeches are written by the government. Her schedule is set by the government. And in return she and her family enjoy a privileged position.

The Irish experience with British monarch’s going back many centuries has been a tragic and costly one. There was outrage and anger among nationalists and republicans at the visit.

The response among unionists was the polar opposite. The connection between unionism and the British monarchy is political and emotional and deep rooted. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw the replacement of the Catholic James 11 with the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary. The defeat of James and the victory of King Billy, and the dominance of political unionism, is an integral part of Britain’s colonial legacy in Ireland and is celebrated each year in the north through the Orange marching season.

In 1977 the jubilee visit was a central part of Mason’s war strategy. It was intended to be a demonstration that the British were winning the war. That the north was ‘normal’. However to guarantee its success the British, just prior to the visit, carried out raids all across the north. Over 300 people were lifted. Hundreds more were arrested during the two day visit itself. Mason put over 32,000 soldiers and RUC on the streets.

In response the IRA placed a small bomb in the grounds of the University of Ulster at Coleraine and Sinn Féin organised a ‘Stuff the Jubilee’ march on the Falls road.

It was a period of intense and serious tension.

Leap forward 35 years and the political situation has dramatically changed. Mason and his brand of colonialism and militarism have long been consigned to the dustbin of history. The republican struggle was not defeated. On the contrary republicanism is stronger now than at any time since partition. In the south Sinn Féin is a growing political force. In the north Sinn Féin is the largest nationalist party and is an equal partner with unionism in the power sharing arrangements.

This is the context for another jubilee visit by the British monarch. Unionists are delighted again. But this time most nationalists are largely unconcerned, indifferent or amused spectators.

Irish republicans come at this politically. We are against empires and monarchies and dictatorships. Of any kind. Political or religious, secular or industrial. They are all about power for elites, and this blog is against power for elites.

Republicans are for a republican form of government in which the people are sovereign and citizens, not subjects. A republic in which citizens have rights and share in equality, irrespective of race, class, gender, social status, education limitations, disability or poverty. A republic in which citizens are tolerant of each other and of views, opinions or beliefs which are different from ours.

Society must reflect and include the entirety of its people, not part of them. Inclusivity is vital to the well-being of any community, whether a nation community, the global village or a local populace.

Irish republicans understand and acknowledge the attachment that many within the unionist section of Irish society have for the English Royal family and their genuine desire to welcome and celebrate English royal visits to this country. Sinn Féin respects that.

Last year her visit to the Irish state marked a rapprochement in relations and she made some important gestures and remarks which demonstrate the beginning of a new understanding or acceptance of the realities of past.

However, Republicans are also very conscious of the many unresolved legacy issues connected to the past conflict. Addressing these issues must be an integral part of any process aimed at bringing about the normalization of relationships between the peoples of these islands based on mutual respect.

A Pyrrhic Victory

In an earlier European campaign 2000 years ago King Pyrrhus of Epirus suffered such heavy casualties at the hands of the Romans that his apparent military victories ultimately led to his defeat.

Out of that experience the phrase pyrrhic victory came into common usage and was used to describe someone who has been successful in some activity, usually politics, business or war, but the cost has been so great that it was ruinous to the overall project.

And so it is with the referendum of the austerity treaty. The people have spoken and the Fiscal Compact Treaty will now become part of the Irish constitution. But the success of the YES side does not make the arguments of the NO campaign any less true and in the view of this blog will lead to a worsening of the social and economic circumstances for most Irish citizens.

In the face of a deliberate campaign by the two government parties, supported by Fianna Fáil, built on fear, 40% of the electorate still said NO. And many of those who reluctantly voted YES made their anger clear. It is also obvious that social class played a part with the NO vote greatest among those working class and low and middle income families bearing the brunt of this Government’s austerity policies.

This blog believes that the success of the YES side in this latest European campaign is a pyrrhic victory. The adverse economic and social consequences for the Irish people will not ease in the years ahead and the battle of ideas between those who advocate austerity and conservative policies, over those who seek to defend the rights of citizens and the creation of a more equitable society, will increase in intensity.

This has been evident in recent days in the shallow and bitter criticisms that some on the YES side have engaged in since the referendum result. One columnist indulged in the usual nonsense when she described the outcome for Sinn Féin as ‘humiliating’.

The issues at the heart of the referendum haven’t gone away because of the success of the YES side. On the contrary the dangers are greater than ever. The Irish government and its Fianna Fáil ally are committed to more years of austerity policies and of the erosion of the state’s fiscal sovereignty. At the same time the situation in Europe deteriorates with increasing uncertainty around developments in Spain and Greece, Cyprus in trouble and new unemployment statistics revealing that unemployment in the Eurozone now stands at record levels at 11%.

The European political leadership, which is shielded from the reality of austerity and the impact of the policies they promote, continue to promote their conservative ethos.

On the same day citizens were voting on the austerity Treaty the EU Commissioner Olli Rehn was busy warning in Brussels that Europe needed more austerity and greater fiscal discipline.

Previously the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi set out his vision for Europe in the next ten years. He said: “We want to have a fiscal union. We have to accept the delegation of fiscal sovereignty from the national governments to some form of central authority.”

And his predecessor Jean-Claude Trichet is reported to have told a meeting in the USA last month that Europe should take on to itself the right to declare a sovereign state bankrupt and take over its fiscal policy. He pointed out that the Austerity Treaty gives fiscal oversight to EU states to levy fines on those they deem to have broken the rules. If all of this failed a country could be taken in receivership!!

So the direction for Europe and for the Irish state under this government is set. Greater economic and fiscal union, and the erosion of sovereignty for member states. All of this will be accompanied by a continuation of the Troika bailout programme that commits this government to €8.6 billion of additional cuts for the next three years and a further €6 billion in cuts as a result of the austerity Treaty’s demand for reducing the structural deficit to 0.5%.

Where does the government plan to get all this money from? It singularly failed to say during the referendum campaign. One YES economist Colm McCarthy – who produced the ‘An Bord Snip Nua’ report - told the Irish Small and Medium Firms Association at the weekend that the government will have to break all of its commitments not to raise income tax; not to touch welfare and to honour the Croke Park agreement.

Time will tell how accurate his predications are. However, the government did make a number of firm commitments during the referendum campaign. One was the Minister of Finance’s pledge that a YES vote would mean that December’s budget would be less harsh. Another was Fine Gael and Labour’s belated support for a jobs and growth package.

They now have to deliver. They need to demonstrate – in actions rather than words – how they intend to address the jobs crisis, the mortgage crisis, and get the economy growing again so that we get back into the markets by 2014.

The Government also has a duty to stand up for Ireland and to ensure that the banking debt issue is dealt with by seeking a debt write down.

It is important that they introduce the type of jobs stimulus that was talked about during this campaign – unless there is serious investment in job creation the numbers of citizens on the live register and emigrating will continue.

Sinn Féin has published firm proposals for a significant jobs stimulus package and in the time ahead we will set out the detail of this. But this is only part of what we must do. Republicans have a different vision for Ireland. We are for a new republic that is citizen centred and is based on equality and fairness. There is an onus on Sinn Féin to articulate this and to continue to evolve and develop our republican politics and policies and demonstrate that there is a viable alternative to the conservatism of Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil.

In the short term June will be a pivotal month in determining the future of the EU and of the Irish state. The French Parliamentary elections will take place on June 10 and 17th; the IMF is due to publish an all important report on the Spanish banks on June 11th; the Greeks go back to the polls on June 17th; and EU leaders will meet on June 28th and 29th to produce their blueprint for the way forward.