Sinn Fein Resignations

Sinn Fein Resignations
Sinn Fein begins to fall apart as it tries to reach middle class votes.
By
theirishobserver.blogspot.com

Sinn Fein/IRA has announced that their weekly newspaper, An Phoblacht, is now only to be on sale on a monthly basis. Sinn Fein has said that the down turn in sales is due to people accessing the paper on the Internet; however, this is not true. The vast majority of people who have traditionally bought An Phoblacht would not have access to the internet, furthermore many volunteer activists who once went around the pubs selling An Phoblacht are no longer willing to do such menial tasks as they see the their leadership basking in large salaries, expense accounts and five star luxury. Sinn Fein in the Irish Republic is meeting the very same sign posts on the road to extinction as did their former colleagues in Official Sinn Fein/Democratic Left. There are now serious rumours and mutterings within Sinn Fein that a number of key personnel are about to leave the Sinn Fein to join the Labour Party. It is known that former Sinn Fein Councillor Killian Forde has been approached by two well placed former colleagues in Sinn Fein with a view to jumping ship.

Killian Forde a former Sinn Fein councillor in Dublin who resigned from Sinn Fein to join Labour, said that he left Sinn Fein because it was "Staid and unresponsive" . Killian said Sinn Fein was, "sedate and rather dull". Killian Forde joined three other high profile members of Sinn Fein who have left the party over the past year including Sinn Fein's bed rock in Dublin, Christy Burke. Christy Burke, Louise Minihan, John Dwyer and then Killian Forde all decided to leave Sinn Fein at a time when the party should be enjoying the fruits of its role in the peace process. Why then have the RA supporters club become the "RA -Ts" abandoning a sinking ship.

It is not enough for Sinn Fein to issue mealy mouthed statements attacking each individual on a personal level every time one of them jumps ship. The Green Book tactic of "the best form of defence is attack" holds little water in a modern day democracy, Sinn Fein simply show themselves to be even more isolationist and insular when they attack individuals who feel the party has lost its way. Sinn Fein to survive in a modern day democracy must ask serious questions of them-selves, why are so many dedicated activists jumping ship when they should be riding high on the wave of all that has been achieved in the north. What is it that has left a once vibrant and vocal opposition party in such a shambles? In my day as a Sinn Fein activist I worked long and hard for many election campaigns, I never once took as much as one cent for my many years of committed work for Sinn Fein. When I needed lads to put up posters for Sinn Fein I could call upon an army of volunteers, when I needed lads to go round the pubs on a Saturday night to sell An Phoblacht I could pick and choose who I wanted, today however Sinn Fein is a party of paid activists and semi-professional spin doctors. Nobody wants to go around the pubs on a Saturday night now selling a paper that is long past its sell by date.

People like Christy have been side stepped so that educated woolly jumpers like Mary Who can woe the middle class vote, this is where Sinn Fein went wrong. Outsiders may say but surely other leading members of Sinn Fein are woolly jumpers who were parachuted into position, surely the Sinn Fein leader in the Dail is a woolly jumper, well actually no, the difference between Caoimhghin O’Caolain and Mary Who is that Caoimhghin earned his stripes, he left his job in the bank in 1980 and became a full time Sinn Fein activist, he lived on little or no income for many years, he walked and talked the length and breadth of Ireland in order to organise Sinn Fein, from one day to the next he did not know if he would have petrol for his car. Eventually he was elected to Monaghan County Council and from there worked himself into the ground until eventually being elected to the Dail. However, from my own observations I see few in the ranks of Sinn Fein now prepared to make that commitment and effort, the hard working activist has been set aside. Now in Sinn Fein the activist expects to get paid, they want to know what’s in it for them, of course there will always be the fools that do it all for the 'cause' but they are getting fewer by the day.

Sinn Fein if it is to survive and I doubt that it will, particularly in the south, needs to get back to basics, it needs to ask why are the men who were once so ready and willing to volunteer their services no longer doing so, why are people like Christy walking away ashamed of what Sinn Fein has become. It’s not enough that Sinn Fein know they will get votes in the north because there is no credible alternative in communities long since forgotten by the State and its cheer leaders, its not enough to pay spin doctors to present a virtual reality when their own supporters are living in the real world.

Sinn Fein must decide if they can offer a Real Alternative (RA) and opposition or is the Sinn Fein ship to be allowed to sink with its members being left with no alternative than to Run and Transfer (RAT).