Fine Gael The Labour Party and Fianna Fáil Cannot Duck Their Responsibilities.

Confronting the Legacy of the past and removing barriers to reconciliation - Declan Kearney (Sinn Féin National Chairperson)

7 February, 2014

Huge advances have been made by our Peace Process since the GFA.  Politics and society across the island have benefited.

However, the longer the legacy of the past; sectarianism and sectarian segregation; inequality and bigotry remain unresolved, they will entrench as barriers to reconciliation and a shared future.

That context fuels a serious reality, which I acknowledge.  Some within unionism are very angry.

They perceive the Peace Process has disadvantaged them.  They are seized by a fear.

Fear can be real or imagined; but it needs to be heard and addressed when it exists.

However, many republicans and nationalists are deeply frustrated with the unwillingness of some unionist leaders to embrace equality and power sharing.

Most citizens north and south, support the Peace Process and want its work completed.  They want real leadership shown by all Parties and the two governments.

Those who persist with recriminations about the past in Leinster House, or the Assembly to make negative politics are misguided.

Let me say this: the relentless campaign of vilification against the republican leadership, and specifically Gerry Adams in this state, is a disgrace, and should stop immediately.

The blame game is a cul de sac, and it distracts from the serious work to consolidate the Peace.

The Haass negotiations provided a mechanism to do that.  Most people had real hopes for progress.

That process proved compromise can be made on the remaining big obstacles facing the Peace Process.

Our Party endorsed the Haass proposals, not because we got everything we wanted, but because they were a viable way forward for wider society.

Leadership and compromise are flip sides of the same coin.  Each are needed to make society work well.

Realistically, some within and outside the Haass negotiations didn’t accept the need for compromise. 

Indeed, some sections of political unionism don’t want to compromise on anything.

They should revisit the political legacy of David Ervine.

Nonetheless, genuine, and principled leaders exist within different strands of political unionism.  I have met them.

The greater number in our society are not represented by the intransigence and sectarianism of the extremists.

The decision by some to try and exert a veto at this stage in our Peace Process has the potential to create a vacuum.  The two governments share a massive responsibility to stop that happening.

Yet while reconciliation is absent, the pain, injustices, and resentment from our conflicts will remain.

Sectarianism and sectarian segregation will deepen.

Fear, mistrust and resentment will continue.

These issues cannot be parked.  They all fuel division and political instability.

So we need a road map for reconciliation.

Mandela, an icon of reconciliation said;

“….resentment is like drinking poison….it is a method of self - harm.   I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

A shared future for our children should not be imprisoned by our collective past.

However, reconciliation is not an option.  It is a moral, strategic and political decision to improve society.

An inclusive public discourse is urgently required.  The good will and resources of civic society need mobilised as part of that.

Significant discussions are currently underway within the main churches, and among the business, trade union, academic, community and voluntary sectors about what we can all do, separately and together at this time.

These are important conversations which need widened out to garner momentum and critical mass. 

The voice of civic society should no longer be marginalised from the Peace Process.  A new Civic Forum should be re-established to that end.

Sinn Fein believes an act of common acknowledgement by all sides, for the suffering inflicted and experienced by all sides, should be agreed, as a contribution to a healing process.

Without grace, forgiveness or generosity there is no future.

Respect and parity of esteem for our different identities and traditions must also be entrenched.  Equality is not a sectarian, zero sum poker game.

We share this space together and we are all different; but we are also equal; as Irish, British, republican, unionist, and, orange or green.

Sectarianism has been used to subvert our island’s diversity with communal division.

The cancer of sectarian attitudes or behaviour can no longer be ignored.  It must be eradicated from the work place, schools, community, and the political institutions.

A Bill of Rights should be introduced, and anti-sectarian legislation, including incitement to hatred provisions enacted.

Our Party advocates the development of a dedicated reconciliation strategy, providing the scaffolding which supports the measures to tackle these remaining challenges.

A defining point has been reached in the Peace Proce

It is no longer an option to simply manage the Peace, while extremists peddle wreckers’ agendas.

A new phase based upon reconciliation is needed.

Only an authentic reconciliation process will foster the new relationships and trust we need.

Madiba said it always seems impossible until it’s done.  He proved that the seemingly impossible was achievable.

“We too can guarantee all our children a Rainbow future, and laughter instead of revenge, by making reconciliation possible, as the next phase of the Irish Peace Process”.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Commemorate Irelands Patriot Dead

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community

Is The Effects Of Herbicides Use In Ireland Monitored?

Monsanto blamed for disappearance of monarch butterflies

 RT Published time: January 31, 2014 18:12

                                                               AFP Photo / Gabriel Bouys

Agriculture, Animals, Biology, Canada, Health, Monsanto, SciTech, USA

As scientists continue to track the shrinking population of the North American monarch butterfly, one researcher thinks she has found a big reason it’s in danger: Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.

On Wednesday, the World Wildlife Fund announced that last year’s migration – from Canada and the United States down to Mexico – was the lowest it’s been since scientists began tracking it in 1993. In November, the butterflies could be found on a mere 1.6 acres of forest near Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a decline of more than 43 percent over the previous year.

Back in 1996, the insects could be found covering a span of 45 acres. Part of the decline can be attributed to illegal logging in Mexico that has decimated the butterfly’s natural habitat, as well as rising temperatures, which threaten to dry out monarch eggs and prevent them from hatching.

Now, though, biologist Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota has also pinpointed the increased use of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides in the United States and Canada as a culprit.

According to Oberhauser, the use of Roundup has destroyed the monarch butterfly’s primary food source, a weed called milkweed that used to be commonly found across North America. As the agriculture industry boomed and farmers effectively eliminated the weed from the land in order to maximize crop growth, she was able to catalog a parallel decline in the butterfly’s population.

Speaking with Slate, Oberhauser said that when the milkweed population across the Midwest shrank by 80 percent, the monarch butterfly population decreased by the same amount. With some states such as Iowa losing more than 98 percent of their milkweed population – the weed doesn’t even grow on the edges of farmland anymore – the disappearance of the plant poses a huge risk to the insect’s survival.

“We have this smoking gun,” she told Slate. “This is the only thing that we’ve actually been able to correlate with decreasing monarch numbers.”

For its part, Monsanto noted that herbicides aren't the only reason the monarch is dying. The company cited studies that showed the butterfly’s population in Michigan and New Jersey were not shrinking, though scientists have dismissed those studies since they focused on areas where milkweed was still prevalent.

Monsanto has come under fire before for the effects of its agriculture-oriented chemicals. As RT reported last year, studies linked Roundup’s main ingredient to diseases such as cancer, autism and Alzheimer’s. In spite of these findings, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled to raise the permissible level of the ingredient that can be found on crops.

Meanwhile, another report in October found a clear link between the pesticides sold by Monsanto in Argentina and a range of maladies, including higher risk of cancer and thyroid problems, as well as birth defects.

As for the plight of the monarch butterfly, the insect is still thriving in Hawaii and countries like Australia and New Zealand. In North America, Oberhauser believes the great migration can still rebound due to the monarch’s high fertility rates (a single female can lay up to 1,000 eggs throughout her life). For that to happen, however, scientists believe the US, Canada and Mexico will have to work together and draft a strategy that will help the insect safely make its way through the three countries.

“I think it’s past time for Canada and the United States to enact measures to protect the breeding range of the monarchs,” monarch expert Phil Schappert of Nova Scotia told the Washington Post, “or I fear the spiral of decline will continue.”

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Well Done To All Concerned.

Sinn Féin delivers – Carthy welcomes opening of MABS advice centre in Athy

29 January, 2014 - by Matt Carthy (EU candidate) 

The Sinn Féin Midlands North West EU candidate, Matt Carthy, has welcomed the decision of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) to open a branch in Athy, Co. Kildare.

 The decision came after a Sinn Féin public meeting in Athy where the public expressed their wish for such a service in the town.

 From the 12 February MABS will now hold clinics every Wednesday in the Athy Resource Centre, Woodstock Street from 9-4pm.

 Speaking today Cllr Carthy said:

 “I recently hosted an information night in Athy on the issue of mortgage distress. People from across the county came to hear the expert advice that was on offer from both MABS and the Irish Mortgage Holders Association. One of the views expressed on the night was a call for MABS to open an advice clinic in Athy.

 “I can now confirm that MABS have taken on board these calls and decided to return to Athy to offer help and advice to people in mortgage distress. This service will be beneficial to the people of the town and I am pleased that Sinn Féin was able to help support this in some way
                                                                                                        

 “I want to thank local Sinn Féin Councillors Thomas Redmond and Ger Kelly for pursuing this matter.”

                                            

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving the Community

Irish Water Must Be An Election Issue In May

Government must put a halt to Irish Water ‘fiasco’— Adams

27 January, 2014 - by Gerry Adams TD

Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams TD has said that the Government must put a halt to the establishment of Irish Water and abandon its regressive policy on water provision.

The call follows revelations that up to €2bn will be overspent at Irish Water.

Gerry Adams said:   

“Irish water will have to spend €1 billion to €2 billion more than it needs to do over the coming decade.

“This latest development follows last week’s news that 29 staff recruited by Irish Water are earning over €100,000.

“It must be remembered that this is the public’s money being wasted — money that could be used to fund vital services to citizens in need which are currently being cut.

“The Government claimed that the creation of Irish Water would result in massive savings from increased efficiency. These revelations completely undermine that claim.

“For Minister for Natural Resources, Pat Rabitte to try and wash the Government’s hands of this fiasco by saying the establishment of Irish Water was forced on them by the Troika is pathetic.

“This government obstructed the Dáil by concealing its knowledge on the expenditure involved in the establishment of Irish Water. It’s now time for them to admit that they got it wrong on this issue from the very beginning.  

“The Government must put a halt to the establishment of Irish Water and abandon its regressive policy on water provision.”

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community