THE IRISH OBSERVER: Sinn Fein Derry, Resignations, Governance, Elections

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Sinn Fein Derry, Resignations, Governance, Elections

Sinn Fein/PIRA The Maiden City, What’s happening? Yesterday, I spoke to a SF/PIRA member in The Maiden City, known to me for past 40 years. As Martina Anderson packs her bags, here is the full story to date…

Not since Bobby Storey raided Castlereagh RUC Holding Centre in 2002, and discovered dozens of Informers at several levels in Sinn Fein/PIRA, has there been such a move against several layers of the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership in any area, as there is this week in The Maiden City.

Yesterday 1^st May 2021, I spoke with a member of Sinn Fein/PIRA in The Maiden City, this person has been known to me for 40 years. I asked a very difficult question, why has Martina Anderson and Karen Mullan been asked to consider their position by June 2021?

He said that there have been a number of on-going issues including Martina Anderson using her position as MEP to lobby to Stopthe Extradition of Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell. Martina’s lobbying for Campbell has pushed softer Sinn Fein/PIRA votes to The SDLP and more hardened voters and long serving supporters of Sinn Fein/PIRA to Independent Republicans such as Gary Donnelly. The ranks of ‘dissident’ ‘republicans’ are filling in Derry while Sinn Fein/PIRA have lost five seats on the local council.

Since 2020, when official papers released in The Republic after 30 years, showed that Gerry Adams had told John Hume about the plan to Murder Thatcher in 1990, there have been rumors' in Derry that it was the Belfast Leadership that gave up Martina Anderson and Patrick McGee in 1985, and these rumors are driving people towards The New IRA.

For those of you reading this blog post, it is important to note, that Sinn Fein/PIRA armed The Real IRA in 1997-98 in order to use them as Proxies, however, Sinn Fein/PIRA would not want that continuing relationship animated in the public domain in the manner that Martina Anderson has done so.

My Sinn Fein/PIRA contact said that there were serious governance and monetary issues, which had come to a head with the discovery of Covid 19 Grant money ‘resting’ in the personal accounts of several Sinn Fein/PIRA members.

As a result of all of these elements the entire leadership of Derry Sinn Féin has been asked to stand aside.

Multiple sources within the Sinn Fein/PIRA North and South have this morning 2^nd May 2021, confirmed by e-mail and direct message with The Irish Observer, that a number of individuals in the Derry Comhairle Ceantair were stood aside last week after a long investigation into the local group regarding election performance and governance.

The investigation focused heavily on elections after two disastrous days at the polls. In the most recent local elections for Derry and Strabane council, the party lost five seats and its position as the largest party. In the UK general election, then Sinn Fein/PIRA MP Elisha McCallion lost the Foyle seat to the SDLP's Colum Eastwood by more than 17,000 votes. It is believed that many of these votes were lost due to Martina Anderson’s support for Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell.

Ms McCallion, who was later appointed to the Seanad, then stood down after it emerged, she had received £10,000 in a Stormont Covid-19 grant for which she was ineligible and that money had been ‘resting’ in her account.

Her resignation was seen at the time as “the final nail in the coffin” for the party’s hopes in Derry and an in-depth investigation was launched.

Sinn Fein/PIRA Implementation plan Directed by Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership in Belfast

It is understood "the leadership" of Sinn Féin/PIRA, which included MLA Gerry Kelly, a Royal Pardon recipient, spoke to the group on Friday about an "implementation plan" and asked the leadership of Sinn Fein/PIRA in The Maiden City to step aside, according to one elected representative.

Some of those asked to stand down are family members of Sinn Féin/PIRA elected officials in Stormont. All of these Sinn Fein/PIRA members were requested to keep the decision out of the public eye; however, some could not resist contacting The Irish Observer and The Irish Observer is happy to share the good news.

A senior source in Sinn Fein/PIRA, said that Derry, once a former heartland for Sinn Féin/PIRA, would need "a generation" to improve.

"This has been coming a long time. There's a clique that has run the place into the ground effectively," they said.

"There are people on the leadership who aren't responsible, and that's unfair if they've been forced to stand aside, but it needed a clear-out in order to bring about the change that's needed to build up confidence and trust locally, and it'll take a considerable amount of time.

"There was a core group making decisions about controlling power as opposed to progressive politics.

If those governance issues aren't addressed, people don't hang around.

"Head office is sending an important signal, they're taking it seriously, but what replaces it now? There's very little confidence in the party in the town (Derry). I've never heard it as bad; it ranges from questioning decisions to complete hostility; some people are hated and it's a sad reflection on everyone in the party."

A Sinn Féin/PIRA elected official told The Irish Observer this morning: "After the last election results, council and general, we need an election plan to get things right with the (Stormont) Assembly elections coming up possibly May next year. We knew Elisha would lose the seat but we didn't expect to take such a thrashing."

A Sinn Féin/PIRA spokesperson said: "Sinn Féin established a review group in the Foyle constituency in the context of next year's Assembly election. Derry Sinn Féin has accepted a recommendation from that review to set up an electoral strategy group to oversee preparation for those elections."

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