Friday, June 08, 2007
Sinn Fein’s unionist outreach officer replaced…
ACCORDING to a News Letter report, Martina Anderson is no longer Sinn Fein’s director of unionist outreach, just over a week after the party launched its charter for unionist engagement. Let’s hope Eamonn Scott is a bit more successful in the position, as the previous incumbent seemed to have no intention to engage with unionists on any meaningful level, IMHO (unlike plenty of other republicans I’ve met here and in real life).
Belfast Gonzo @ 07:55 AM
Eamonn Scott will only be successful if he engages with unionists on their own terms; that is, as unionists and not as misplaced nationalists who the shinners expect to wake up someday from some slumber and realise they were misguided all along.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 09:03 AMWho is Eamonn Scott ? Couldn’t find him on the SF website or with google.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 09:04 AMTo Cruimh
Maybe Eammon Scott is an allias for a certain P O’Neill. It’s a pity SF replaced Martina Anderson she was doing a good PR job off making an azz-hole of herself. Sinn Fein reach out to no one other than themselves. It’s about time SF cut out the kidology and stopped coning people.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 09:23 AMWouldnt be the Eamon Scott up Lagmore would he?
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 09:35 AMWonderall. I am not sure whether or not Anderson did a bad job on in Shinner terms. She raised her profile helping get a younger SF type noticed. At the same time she antagonised unionists in a rather clever manner allowing SF to pretend that they were being reasonable whilst, as they well knew, being unreasonable and biggoted. This allowed her to be both a heroine and martyr simultaneously and annoying Prods during the marching season.
She could just be thick or so biggoted she has no concept how unionists think. Alternatively she could be very clever and biggoted.
No doubt someone will come on soon and tell us she could be sincere and clever but then again David Icke could be right and the world could be ruled by 12 foot tall blood drinking lizard aliens. Are those aliens Prods?
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:02 AMI think a lot of the criticism towards Martina Anderson has been misplaced- im not sayin she did the greatest job ever, but it wouldn’t be a job i would apply for!
Noone on the site seems to question why unionists aren’t even attempting to reach out to Republicans?
At least SF are trying, this is not part of some cynical master plan!
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:09 AM‘Unionist outreach’ only made sense for SF in the expectation of holding the balance of power in RoI - cue it now being kicked into the long grass, with almost as much force as the boot to the baws the southern electorate gave them.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:10 AM“At least SF are trying”
But ARE they or is it a cynical PR exercise ?
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:12 AMEvidence they are trying: errrr - they have an outreach officer and programme! (hardly overwhelming evidence - but evidence nontheless)
Evidence they aren’t - (some)Unionists fear built up over the past 30/80/x-hundred. Fair enough in part but each community could use their historic experiences from preventing in engaging with the other - but where would that get us?
The fact Martina had a more “militant” background, is, I think, a bit of a red herring. I don’t think that the people who were so strongly agin’ her would have changed their tune if she had no convictions.
My twopence worth.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:24 AM“Unionist outreach”, is a long term thing that requires a lot of on the ground work and will probably some movement on the part of SF. Things they are good enough at, if they are really serious about it.
Someone with a low profile is a much better option. Martina quickly became more of a hate figure than MMG, if this site is anything to go by and that is counter productive. Didn’t always help herself, granted, but the reaction was extreme. Besides is Eamonn an ex-prisoner? If not, isn’t that what Unionists said they preferred?
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:26 AMthat should say 30/80 x-hundred YEARS
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:26 AMThere has been a good deal of previous on this issue. So far much of party political unionism has found SF’s outreach campaign a patronising and insulting charade. Thirty five years too late.
But, as an afterthough, I was just wondering how SF’s latest outreacher will outreach to non-party
political people who are pro-union, including the sizeable number of Catholics who fall into that category.What we really need is a robust third way of the left which would outreach to the sectarian communalists of every stripe.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:28 AMTurgon. I have to agree with you, but isn’t that the way the ‘shinners’ operate by making a controversial statement and walking away. This is just like the on-the-runs which they nearly got away with only for the public outcry. The ‘shinners’ should learn to crawl before they walk. For example deal with bread and butter issues and build peoples confidence. Once these issues have been dealt with maybe SF might get their contreversial issues dealt with. To use this as reaching out to unionists is beyond belief. Sinn Fein have yet to address the issues for Victims of The Troubles. Have you heard them call for this? That is a contreversial issue you won’t hear SF calling for for some reason.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:28 AMI think this is another instance of a useful thread drifting towards talking about victims instead of the issue.
I agree with Kensei, perhaps a lower profile person in this position will be of some help. I still feel outreach is an important part of SF’s work. After all, we have more in common than what seperates us. (if we don’t rake the coals of history, over, and over, and over)
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 10:36 AMGood luck to Martina in the future, it was always a poisoned chalice. The problem with the GFA as things now stand, is it acts like a giant continental quilt which covers all public differences and hatreds. Thus we continuously get the SF and DUP leaders such as Paisley and MnG grinning like demented bunny rabbits in front of the media because the Peace Process demands it.
Whilst further down the food change nothing much has changed. All the old prejudices are still in place and I fear unless there is a clearing of the stables via some sort of T@RC these will continue to fester and re-exert themselves on the streets at some time in the future.
Peace and reconciliation takes more than a photo opportunity and that is the level it is at today. If anything Sectarianism is the glue of the current Stormont political system with each party overseeing their own sectarian thiefdom.
If attitudes are not changing at the top of the political heap, and in truth they are not, how can the seep down into the two communities?
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:05 AMTo Glensman
I don’t understand you when you say its turning towards Victims. Remember that those who’s records SF want cleared caused 90% of the human carnage. I would say that Victims are a very important part of the equation.
If you believe that having paramiliteries records cleared is reaching out to unionists or anyone else you need your head examined. This is only a ploy, as SF reach out to no one. SF motto ‘By ourselves Alone’ That doesn’t sound like reaching out.Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:06 AMWhat I find remarkable is the haste with which it seems to have been done. From what I understand she was gone from the post by Tuesday at least, but SF were still not saying who the replacement was.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:08 AM“...if we don’t rake the coals of history, over, and over, and over.”
And therein lies one of the major problems. SF feel only they and “their” community should be allowed to rake constantly over the coals of history. Gregory Campbell, who I have very little time for, is lambasted as a dinosaur for referring to what unionists have suffered at the hands of republicans. This by the very same people who whinge constantly about collusion, what they have suffered and the need for endless inquiries into parts of the past.
In the SF version of outreach, Unionists (it’s Protestants they actually mean) are meant to just forget, move on and build a new shared future. But a future that bears a remarkable resemblance to how SF would like things to be and one built on only their “historical analysis”.Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:14 AMI wonder if she is unwell ? I didn’t think she looked well when she was on TV with Gregory Campbell.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:16 AMTo start with Sinn Féin means ‘We Ourselves’ representing the fact that Ireland should be able to stand on her own 2 feet. Commonly mis-interpreted as all non-Irish being chucked out.
And my point was RedBull, that if we get stuck in the past about everything we try to do we’ll get nowhere. SF are trying to outreach, we’ve seen this on the ground for a long time. Just now there is a department making it party policy.
Im not trying to forget or erase the past, im just saying people shouldn’t use it as an excuse to inhibit movement.
The strange thing is that working class loyalists seem to move on this easier than middle-class unionists, I would use David Ervine and his PUP colleagues as an example.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:19 AMGlensman - that Ervine was himself a terrorist might explain his attitude.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:22 AMThe Penguin,
I find a major flaw in your analysis. In that, we know what hand the IRA had in the troubles and to a large extent we know the hand that loyalists had in the conflict. The problem is that state murder is a completely different category as noone is or has served time or been marked out for their crimes.
Im talking about outreach between two communities, inquiries into collusion are seperate to that for obvious reasons.
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:22 AMGlensman - the two community model doesn’t work here. We effectively have 4 main communities , physical force ( republican and loyalist ) and
cnstitutional ( nationalist and unionist).Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:26 AMRedbull
I don’t understand you when you say its turning towards Victims. Remember that those who’s records SF want cleared caused 90% of the human carnage. I would say that Victims are a very important part of the equation.Thats lies Redbull
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:28 AMCruimh,
I never thought of it before, it’s nice to have stimulation on a friday!
I suppose oyu could say that there are 3? SF are solely committed to constitutional Nationalism/Republicanism and the SDLP have almost been wiped off the board…
Your point of loyalism/unionism rings true- but i expect to see movement on this soon enough…
Posted by on Jun 08, 2007 @ 11:31 AM
