Sinn Fein’s centenary membership drive

Sinn Fein is to make a major recruitment drive the focus of its activities in 2005, one hundred years on from its foundation. Although it’s likely to take place on an international basis, the higher profile events seem likely to be in the Republic, ahead of the next Dail election scheduled for 2006. The Irish Independent calls on other ‘successor’ parties to lay their own claims to the Griffith inheritance. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …

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It’s Sinn Fein and the DUP’s game now…

Brian Feeney makes the point that regardless of how people feel about it, Sinn Fein possesses an unimpeachable mandate as the lead nationalist party. He argues there are very few traces of UUP or SDLP suggestions in the final deal released by the two governments, because in a democracy, the winner takes all. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular …

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Sinn Féin should shift focus to the south?

The device of appending separate annexes to key government documents is becoming something of a norm in the wake of the breakdown of the Belfast Agreement. However it makes it fairly difficult to read interms of what was at least potentially agreed. Danny Morrison unpicks the last week’s document, and gives his view of its significance. Towards the end he hints that for now, Sinn Fein may be happy to let focus of its own game shift towards southern politics.By …

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Mallon’s successor…

More candidates settling in for the Westminster elections, widely expected to be called next May. This time the SDLP has chosen MLA Dominic Bradley to compete with Conor Murphy for Newry and Mourne. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Republicans ready for new phase in Irish politics

Interesting analysis from Jude Collins this week, who asserts what many have suspected for some time, ie that the IRA has finished with its guns some time ago, and Republicans are ready for the next phase of politics. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Sinn Féin and the building of consensus

The quality and range of the contributions on The Blanket seems to be rising week by week. Not long ago they carried a lengthy interview with Cheif Constable Hugh Orde and another piece with prominent Orangeman Brian Kennaway. This week, Eoin O’Broin engages with regular critic of Sinn Fein. He contrasts the need to build consensus with a political party with what he sees as the inconsistency of many of its critics amongst dissident Republicans.In particular he hints at the …

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Times Change.

Wide-ranging article in the Sunday Times Comment: Liam Clarke: Nationalist support must not be undermined again that looks at changing attitudes within the nationalist and republican community to those who served with British Forces in two World Wars. Something that wasn’t widely covered in the media this week, although it was carried by the Irish News, – the NI chairman of the Royal British Legion attended an event organised by Coiste na n-Iarchimi, the republican ex-prisoners’ group. Republicans honour Irish …

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mallon to retire

newry and armagh will have a new mp after the next westminster poll as seamus mallon confirms he will not stand again Philip Weir

Sinn Fein shift..?

EVEN before Gerry Adams’ ‘regret’ over the Birmingham pub bombings, it seemed Sinn Fein representatives were lining up to put distance between the IRA and themselves…In UCD last week, Michelle Gildernew stated that Sinn Fein “support the right of people who have fled persecution abroad to find sanctuary here”. I am sure this policy shift will come as great news to those the IRA has forcibly expelled from Ireland, particularly since Sinn Fein representatives have occasionally been the forebearers of …

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De Chastelain should be good enough…

Jude Collins believes that neither photographic evidence nor the witness of two clergy should be necessary suppliments to the good offices of John de Chastellaine. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

A dissenting perspective on the ‘long war’…

Anthony McIntyre’s latest missive on the nature of the ‘revolution’ within Sinn Fein that set the party on the road to peace under the leadership of Gerry Adams is much more balanced than one might expect from a self confessed ‘hostile witness’.Along the way he makes the case for the need for peaceful dissidence in any free society. Not least by his quotation of Kapuscinski: “Today one hears about noise pollution, but silence pollution is worse. Noise pollution affects the …

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The IRA needs to re-structure…

DR JOHN COULTER is a Northern political columnist with the Irish Daily Star. Here, he argues the Provisional IRA could get around the disbanding dilemma by restructuring itself as the Irish Republican Association, based on similar lines as the Royal British Legion.By John Coulter The Provisional Irish Republican Army needs to copy its arch rivals, the British Army, and form an Old Comrades’ Association to get around the thorny problem of those nasty D words – decommissioning and disbanding. West …

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SDLP in shambles?

I missed this from Chris Stalford a few weeks back. It’s a rare example of a unionist commentator giving nationalist politics some thought. He even manages to praise the calibre of Sinn Fein politicians in the process. The same hardly applies the other way round with Brian Feeney and others rarely letting Unionism off without a robust mention in dispatches. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and …

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Unification: no thanks!

Needless to say, I don’t get a lot of time watching RTE television, but I did catch a repeat of last Monday’s The Panel. Chaired by stand up Dara O Briain this week’s political guest was Sinn Fein’s Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald. She handled the often anarchic informality of the format exceptionally well for a politician. But the best line of the night was undoubtedly O’Briain’s. Regarding a future United Ireland he asked her, “Do you think we really …

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Morgan retires at 37

Martin Morgan, the SDLP’s candidate in the recent European elections and former Lord Mayor is to retire from active politics when the local elections are held in Belfast next May. It will undoubtedly be a blow for a party that in recent years has consciously tried to build the profile of its younger members. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a …

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Cenus figures no longer relevant

Sunday journalists have the advantage over their daily counterparts of having a few days to pass by before they finally commit their copy . Tom McGurk in the Sunday Business Post, has had a few days to consider the wider picture around the Census and concludes: …the whole purpose of the new politics is to end the imperative of sectarian headcounts, indeed to begin the process of finally liberating the Irish body politic from the dysfunctional, post-colonial impact of Westminster, …

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Census 2001: A watershed in Unionist politics?

Chris Thornton in relaxed mode, provides a quick demographic history of Belfast over the last 50 years, before concluding, perhaps more perceptively than most caught up in the simple mathematics of it all: “The question of a united Ireland is far from settled. But for those who equate unionism simply with the protection of Protestant rights, it is clear that Northern Ireland will never be the same again.” Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on …

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Census 2001: Some preliminary thoughts

There’s only weeks to go before the results of the 2001 census are announced, we’ve not heard much in recent times about the demographic timebomb that awaits the Northern Ireland electorate. Though the proportion of the electorate voting Nationalist has risen exponentially in the last 30 years, the implications are not as clear-cut as it may seem on first sight. One Unionist politician I spoke to recently was at pains to point out that everyone is behaving as though the …

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