Léargas

  SINN FÉIN CAN WIN THIS ELECTION.    During the General Election campaign I have been in several constituencies. In Dublin, in Drogheda, Dundalk, and Donegal and some other places in between. People are clearly  fed up with the cost of living, the crisis in public services, especially in health and housing, childcare and disability services.  But increasingly after a century of the Tweedledee and Tweedledum politics by the two civil war parties, many people are annoyed at the sameness of their politics, their dismal failure to tackle the big issues impacting on people’s daily lives and the conceited self-serving way they approach election contests. With a sense of entitlement. This is hardly surprising given that they have been in power, one way or the other, for a century. However, many people are catching up on the reality that a vote for Micheál is a vote for Simon and a vote for Simon is a vote for Micheál. That is despite the sham Punch and...

  The local and the national I have been doing a wee bit of canvassing in the General Election in the South. The response has been positive. There are clearly some who see election campaigns, including this one, as opportunities to write Sinn Féin’s obituary. Sorry to disappoint. Like all parties fighting elections there will be moments of gain and moments of pain. That is in the nature of electoral politics especially in volatile times. However, if your political ideology and the leaderships connection with the base is strong then all challenges can be overcome. That’s one of Sinn Féin’s strengths. There is clearly a desire in the South for fundamental change. The challenge for republicans is to persuade Increasing numbers of people across this island, who strongly desire progressive social change that Sinn Féin is the vehicle to assist that process. These citizens want and deserve an Ireland that embraces equality and inclusivity for all citizens. They were a significant fo...

  Time for a Change of Government.  The southern general election was called last Friday. In just over two weeks’ time 174 Teachtaí Dála (TDs) will be elected to the Dáil – an increase of 14 over the number elected in the 2020 general election. On Sunday I was in Dublin for the Save Moore Street rally but afterwards I was in Caledon Road and St. Mary’s Road in East Wall with a Sinn Féin canvas team urging voters to give their number 1 vote to Mary Lou McDonald and their number 2 vote to Janice Boylan. The response was very good. The early opinion polls – and I’m not a fan of opinion polls – have the three main parties - Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil - all within two or three points of each other. Some folks get carried away with opinion polls. That’s foolish as we have seen recently in the USA. Nothing beats real engagement with the electorate.  Predictably, the usual naysayers and bregrudgers are engaging in negative campaigning against Sinn Féin...

  Prison Poems by Bobby Sands In a recent interview Christy Moore remarked that the death of Bobby Sands robbed us of a great writing talent. Christy was praising the quality of the work Bobby created in the harsh conditions he endured. He was making the point that you can only imagine what Bobby might have gone on to produce in different circumstances where his creative imagination could have been nurtured and not repressed. But of course this was not to be. Bobby led the second hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he was the first of the ten men who fasted to death in that awful summer of 1981.  I remember years earlier Bobby practicing his singing and guitar playing in Cage Eleven, where we were guests of the British Government, before the H-Blocks were built. Christy Moore was one of Bobby’s go-to performers as he honed his musical skills. He would be delighted that Christy has done so much to perpetuate his poetry and song writing al...