Sean Mc Manus with presidential candidate Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
By Gerard Howlin. Irish Examiner ( Cork). WednesdayMay 28, 2014. THERE is a symmetry to the departure of Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, the highest-ranking alumni of the former Sinn Féin the Workers’ Party, The Workers’ Party, Democratic Left tradition, after a devastating defeat at the hands of Sinn Féin at the polls. There is no […]
Fiannuala O’ Connor. Irish News ( Belfast). Tuesday, May 27, 2014 WELL before the last recount ends, elections repel people who are not nerds or political columnists. There is no hiding, though, from the implications. The big story is the move in the Republic, in particular in old-establishment Dublin, to come to terms with […]
Tuesday 27 May 2014 • News TUV councillor Jolene Bunting ‘sorry’ for anti-Catholic rants on Facebook “I’m so sick of the poor Catholic b******* they make me sick” DAVE WHELAN . Belfast Telegraph . Tuesday, MAY 27, 2014 The first TUV [ Traditional Unionist Voice] councillor to be elected to Belfast City Council has apologised for sectarian comments […]
Gerry Adams with Mary Lou McDonald.Photo by: Irish Independent Patrick Roberts @irishcentral May 25,2014 04:21 AM In 1918 Sinn Fein won 73 out of 105 seats contested in the only All Ireland election.This week’s elections North and South are their most successful elections since then. 1918 was a stunning victory forged in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising.The old Irish parliamentary party led by John Redmond lost 61 seats and were finished forever, having urged Irishmen to fight and die for Britain in the First World War. Fast forward almost 100 years to this election to the European parliament in Ireland North d South as well as local council elections and you are seeing the same type of surge from Sinn Fein and just as dramatic.A European war of a different kind was behind the modern surge. The Irish government committed to repay all the loans to European banks taken by private banking institutions and almost bankrupted the country in the process. Like in 1918 the Sinn Fein party has come from utter electoral obscurity. Until the hunger strikes of 1981 and the election of Bobby Sands to the House of Commons the political clout of the party North and South could be measured in the 12 per cent support range. The path away from violence to politics and the peace now in the Irish Republic.Fine Gael Minister for Tourism Leo Vardakar stated it baldly when he said the next Irish lection would likely be between Fine Gael and Sinn Fein in terms of leading a government.It is a stunning development, an extraordinary compliment to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness who have managed a way forward om the armalite to the ballot box.They have done so despite withering media criticism and vast suspicion about their turn way from the gun.In the North, the party won the largest number of first preference votes of any party in Northern Ireland and finished very close to Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in first preferences in the Irish Republic.Apart from Adams they have the most dynamic young politician in Ireland in Mary Lou McDonald, Deputy Leader, a feisty, committed woman seen as fighting for the little folk, who was described to me as “gold dust on the doorsteps” by a senior Sinn Fein figure.The party is on the march and these elections once again sound the siren for the eventual path to government […]
Tom Kelly. Irish News ( Belfast). Monday, May 26, 2014 SO the people have spoken, or more precisely just over half of them have spoken in the elections to the new Super Councils. That the public was so non-plussed about politics here presents a real challenge to the political classes in Northern Ireland. We are […]
Read Fr. Sean McManus’ inspiring story ...
His life-long struggle for justice in Northern Ireland.
Order your copies of "My American struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland--Third U.S. Edition 2019— as well as "Mac Ireland series: Books One, 2 and 3."
Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved
