Polling Day Friday May 23rd.

SF on course for Euro election victories but FG's Kelly faces defeat

Poll predicts Sinn Fein will take its first seats outside capital

JOHN DOWNING POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT – PUBLISHED 26 APRIL 2014 02:30 AM

SINN FEIN is on course to win its first European Parliament seats outside Dublin, according to an Irish Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll.

The poll shows that former GAA president Sean Kelly of Fine Gael is in danger of losing his seat in Ireland South.

Matt Carthy, a relatively unknown candidate, looks set to top the poll in the Midlands-North-West constituency, while another, Liadh Ni Riada, is a clear second in Ireland South.

The Kerryman lies behind the Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein candidates. But more worrying for him is that he is neck and neck with his Fine Gael running mate Deirdre Clune on 12pc – more than 6pc down on his tally in the 2009 election.

Fine Gael does have a fighting chance of holding on to three out of the eight available seats in the newly drawn constituencies that take in 25 counties.

However, the poll suggests that either Mairead McGuinness or Jim Higgins, who are both on 12pc in Midlands-North-West, will survive on May 23. The survey suggests it is unlikely that both sitting MEPs can come through.

The Sinn Fein rise has come largely at the expense of Labour, whose candidates are facing an election day wipe-out.

Fianna Fail will be pleased with the runaway performance of Brian Crowley (36pc) in Ireland South and Thomas Byrne (16pc) in Midlands-North-West.

But Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher, who has served as either a TD or MEP since 1981, has only 9pc and is in danger of losing his seat.

And sitting independent MEP Marian Harkin is under threat from Luke 'Ming' Flanagan. Both are on 12pc in Midlands-North-West.

The poll was carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

The Sinn Fein poll-topper in Midlands-North-West, Matt Carthy, is on 17 pc. The quota is expected to be 20pc. He is an outgoing Monaghan county councillor with family links to Roscommon, and the RTE GAA commentator Brian Carthy is his uncle. Though not widely known nationally, he is a very polished media performer.

In the South constituency, SF's Liadh Ni Riada is placed second on 15pc, again close to the 20pc quota. She is the youngest daughter of the late traditional music icon Sean O Riada,

and the party's Irish language officer living in the Gaeltacht area of Ballyvourney in west Cork.

Fianna Fail's poll-topper in the South, Brian Crowley, is on a whopping 36pc as he prepares to contest his fifth consecutive Euro election.

Party strategists will lament his running mate Kieran Hartley's poor showing of 2pc, but they will look hard at the prospect of a better vote-share strategy and the possibility of taking that second seat.

Otherwise, the final seat in the south looks like an internal Fine Gael battle with either Mr Kelly or Ms Clune, each on 12 pc, and even Simon Harris, of Wicklow, on 7pc is not out of the reckoning.

The bank reform candidate Diarmuid O'Flynn, a sports journalist, is also on 7pc.

Labour's biggest disappointment will be in the South with the very poor showing by outgoing MEP Phil Prendergast on 4pc leaving her out of the running. The party's Senator Lorraine Higgins in Midlands- North-West is in a similar position, but Labour had few expectations for this constituency.

The Labour showing will do nothing to ease internal coalition tensions – more so since Fine Gael are not as badly hit by the expected anti-government backlash. The findings will only add to speculation about the future of party leader Eamon Gilmore.

PRESSURE

The findings could help ease pressure on Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin. But he will look closely at a follow-on survey in tomorrow's Sunday Independent covering Dublin and the fate of the party's candidate there, Mary Fitzpatrick.

Other candidates will be disappointed with their showing in this first survey of the Euro campaigns. In South, debt support campaigner Jillian Godsill is on 3pc; Green Party's Grace O'Sullivan is on 1pc, and Jan van de Ven of Direct Democracy Ireland is on 1pc.

In Midlands-North-West, Independent Mark Fitzsimons and Independent Senator Ronan Mullen are each on 3pc. Mark Dearey of the Green Party is on 2pc while Ben Gilroy of Direct Democracy Ireland is on 1pc.

In tomorrow's Sunday Independent: The Dublin count is in ... and in Monday's Irish Independent the poll special continues.

Irish Independent

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Laois Sinn Féin Easter Commemoration 2014, Mountmellick (Easter Monday)

 Laois Sinn Féin will hold their Easter Commemoration in Mountmellick on Easter Monday. Starting at 12 noon from O’Connell Square. People are asked to assemble in the square at 11.45am.

This is to honour Patrick Phelan a Mountmellick native who was shot by Free State Forces on August 2^nd 1922 in Clonaslee. Patrick an IRA volunteer lived in Pound Street and was the 3^rd youngest in a family of 9 children.

Our guest speaker will be Jonathan O’Brien TD Cork.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that in 2005 we had a young Monaghan Councillor Matt Carthy as our guest speaker. This year we are honoured to say that he is our candidate in the EU election. Matt needs all our support to get him elected.

Rhoda Dooley Brogan our candidate in this area needs all the support that Sinn Féin can muster to get her across the line. Rhoda will chair the commemoration today.

Sharon Bailey the party’s candidate in Portlaoise will read the Roll of Honour.

 Willie Brock cumann secretary Lorna Garry will read the Proclamation.

Kevin Phelan a Mountmellick man,a founder member of the Willie Brock Cumann and a direct decendant of Volunteer Patrick Phelan will lay a wreath on Patrick Phelan’s grave.

Caroline Dwane Stanley the party’s other candidate in Portlaoise will lay a wreath on behalf of Laois Sinn Féin.

Aidan Mullins the party’s candidate in Graiguecullen/Portarlington will lay a wreath on behalf of Laois Sinn Féin Directorate.

For this special day we would ask all to wear an Easter Lily.

The lily is an emblem of unity between the different traditions within the nation, and the symbol of life breathed into the Nation by the heroism of the volunteers of Easter 1916.The symbol is associated with the rising in Dublin due to the seasonal decoration in churches during that period.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Support Grows For Scottish Independence

Foreign diplomats see surge in Scots' yes vote

 Scotland is likely to vote for independence from the UK as support grows for a yes vote in September's referendum, diplomatic sources say.

Press. TV

12/4/2014

Sources in the diplomatic corps in Edinburgh, home to nearly 50 consulates and diplomatic missions, told the Guardian that they believe that the tide of opinion has shifted significantly in recent months, which means Scottish people could vote for independence in September’s referendum.

The diplomats also said London’s hostility on the issues of currency, immigration and the European Union (EU) membership is creating a backlash among Scottish voters.

“The UK government's policies are pushing Scotland away," a European consul said.

Another senior diplomat also told the paper that he had believed last year that a yes vote was “unlikely” but now he thinks “it’s likely, but not certain” that Scotland would vote yes in the upcoming referendum.

The development comes as two opinion polls on Thursday showed the pro-independence yes campaign is narrowing its gap with its rival no campaign.

A Survation survey for the Daily Record and Dundee University showed yesterday that some 44 percent of Scots were in favour of breaking away from the UK, compared with 56 percent who voted to remain in union with Britain.

Another survey, commissioned by the polling company Panelbase for Yes Scotland campaign, also found that about 47 percent of Scottish people intend to vote yes while 53 percent plan a no vote in the referendum.

The yes campaign said the figures stood at 38 percent against 62 percent respectively back in November.

The independence referendum, due to be held on September 18, could result in Scotland’s break-up from the UK after more than 300 years of political union

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Wear An Easter Lily With Pride.

 Lergas By Gerry Adams

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Wear an Easter Lily

 Today I visited the Ireland Institute on Pearse Street in Dublin.  The Institute is a remarkable institution that seeks to promote republican ideas and thinking and to develop a republican critique. The Ireland Institute describes itself as primarily concerned with the ‘idea of self-determination. The Institute believes that self-determination is a right to be exercised in accordance with the republican ideas of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and democracy.’

It was also for a time the family home of Padraig and Willie Pearse. Both were born there. Padraig was the President of the Republic declared at Easter 1916 and subsequently he and Willie were executed by the British.

The Pearse Family home as it was

This morning Sinn Féin appropriately launched our ‘Wear and Easter Lily’ campaign in the Pearse family home. Two weeks from now tens of thousands of people in towns, villages and cities, at country crossroads and at lonely hillside graveyards across the island, will attend Easter commemorations to mark the anniversary of the Easter Rising.

They will gather to remember those republican revolutionaries who, in 1916 courageously challenged the might of the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and asserted in arms Ireland’s right to independence and freedom and self-determination. They will also honour those who died in the cause of Irish freedom in every decade since 1916.

But we need also to deliver on the promise of the 1916 Proclamation. The Proclamation of the Irish Republic is unfinished business. We do not yet have a United Ireland. We do not have yet have a society where all the children of the nation are cherished equally.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, Irish republicans must redouble our efforts and work together to achieve that worthy and achievable goal. We firmly believe that we can achieve the aims of Irish unity and a better society for everyone on this small island - Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, people of all religions and none, Irish citizens and new communities alike.

We believe that this can be done peacefully, democratically and by agreement. We also believe that that unity is in the best interests of all our citizens, north and south, from whatever tradition.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement — the most significant political development on this island since Partition, is the framework within which all of this is possible.

The symbol of our enduring commitment to these ideals and of our respect for all those, from every generation, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for Irish freedom, is the Easter Lily.

With its simple design and its colours of green, white and orange the Lily is a symbol long associated with the Easter Rising of 1916 and one with a long and fascinating history.

The first Easter Lily badges were designed in 1925 by the republican women’s organisation, Cumann na mBan, the 100^th anniversary of whose founding we celebrated last week. The dual purpose of the Easter Lily badge was to raise money for the Republican Prisoners’ Dependents Fund and to honour the sacrifice made by the men and women of the 1916 Rising.

A year later, the Easter Lily Commemoration Committee was formed. It continued in existence until 1965. One of its founder members was 1916 veteran and leading member of Cumann na mBan, Sighle Humphreys.

The original Easter Lily badge was hand-made by republicans, who sold it often at great risk throughout the country.

In the early years of its existence, people from a broad political spectrum - from Fianna Fáil to Sinn Féin, the IRA and Fianna Éireann promoted the Lily as did non-political organisations such as Conradh na Gaeilge.

In February 1935, the Fianna Fáil leadership instructed the party to stop selling the Lily as it was “the symbol of an organisation of whose methods we disapprove”.

For its Easter commemorations that same year, Fianna Fáil introduced a new symbol called the ‘Easter Torch’. This was sold for a number of years but soon went out.

Since the 1930s, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have attempted to suppress sales of the Easter Lily. The unionist regime followed suit in the north. Over the decades many republicans have been harassed, arrested and jailed for keeping alive the memory of the men and women of the Easter Rising and subsequent generations through promotion of the Easter Lily.

Today, many thousands across this island, north and south, continue to honour the heroic sacrifice of 1916. We wear an Easter Lily with pride, mindful not only of the past but of the promise of a brighter future.

And this year Easter lilies can now also be bought online. They are available on the Sinn Féin book shop website which is sinnfeinbookshop.com  and I would encourage everyone, young and old to wear it with pride and to popularize it this Easter

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community