Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Gerry Adams's letter the Irish Times refuses to print
The Irish Times – Anti-Sinn Féin polemics
Here's the text of a letter which Gerry Adams TD has been trying to get The Irish Times to carry for the last two weeks. It has refused.
The Irish Times – Anti-Sinn Féin polemics
A Chara,
The Irish Times has set out its clear opposition to Sinn Féin in advance of the next general election.
Last week the paper published three editorials in the space of seven days questioning Sinn Féin's political bona fides and fitness for Government.
In addition, Political Editor Stephen Collins (Sinn Féin casts a dark shadow over Irish democracy, The Irish Times, 14 March) made a highly-charged direct appeal to the entire political establishment to unite against Sinn Féin.
Fintan O'Toole accused us of putting party interests first; of lying and of being incapable of understanding the concepts of accountability, openness and honesty.
Each of these extraordinary anti-Sinn Féin polemics has been based on erroneous information and spurious claims.
On 7 March, the editorial made the outrageous, unsubstantiated and entirely false claim that a portion of Sinn Féin's income was derived from illegal sources. There was no attempt to back up this slanderous accusation with any evidence.
On 11 March, another editorial claimed, completely erroneously, that Sinn Féin had “plunged the political process” in the North into crisis. The facts contradict this. The crisis was sparked by the DUP resiling from a key part of the Stormont House Agreement providing social protections for citizens. However, this is now history. The effort must be to fully implement the Stormont House Agreement. That is Sinn Féin’s focus.
Then, on 14 March, the paper claimed that Sinn Féin had refused to co-operate fully with law enforcement agencies in relation to the serious issue of sexual abuse. Not true. Sinn Féin and I have co-operated fully with An Garda Síochána in relation to these matters.
That the attacks on Sinn Féin will intensify as the election draws closer will be no surprise but, as the so-called ‘paper of record’, the Irish Times should not resort to misreporting, misleading comment or false accusations.
Is mise,
Gerry Adams TD,
Teach Laighean,
Baile Átha Cliath 2.
FROM JOHN HEDGES
AN PHOBLACHT EDITOR
Round Up The Usual Suspects: Sinn Fein
As election looms next year on the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rising, the Irish Independent, in tandem with this sitting Government, will stop at nothing in trying to derail Sinn Fein from being in the next government. And I mean nothing!
The order has already been out for decades: round up the usual suspects that are not so usual for they are always Sinn Fein. No charge against them is ever followed through for there is never any crime, and without that no evidence is ever procured that simply did not exist in the first place.
Lofty statements like, “A file has been sent to the DPP” never arrives and they don't expect them too either, and then there is their beloved sources. They come in all shapes and sizes and can be a bit throaty: informed sources, inside sources, sources close to Gerry Adams and, well, sources close to all the usual suspects as well.
Then there is the close friend sources, people close to sources of sources; and If all of that does not work there is the ‘allegations’ of rape, suspects for rape, the un-convicted rapists, the cover-up of rapists and the paedophillia rings within.
Just like the shoot to kill policies by the police forces in northern Ireland, just being suspected of being in the IRA or Sinn Fein would get you murdered by them without even the benefit of a ‘kangaroo court.’ At least the enemy was in plain sight in the north but in the republic it is harder to see. In fact it would be a mark of democracy for the Irish government if all the fictitious and false ‘allegations’ against Sinn Fein were even given the benefit of at least a kangaroo court. But that would mean there is a chance that the allegations will prove to be untrue once again, and that is a risk that is too big a leap for them to take. So it is back to trial by media, false arrests, and stories written based upon the permanently anonymous sources.
When Mary Lou Mc Donald can be found guilty by her peers for abusing Dail privilege for outing off- shore Ansbacher accounts by corrupt politicians, where does that leave Joan Burton for liking Gerry Adams, in a public platform, to the the North Korean dictator, comparing his democratically elected position of Sinn Fein of 32 years as “authoritarian.” The mind doth boggle!!
The last time Mary Lou Mc Donald was censured this way was when she robustly challenged the same Joan Burton on water charges; charges that have already been paid in taxes and is the one that'll bring this government to its knees.
As always, when a government is cornered by their own unaccountability and that of the previous governments, that lasted a lot longer than 32 years and elected on a manifesto of complete lies, their reaction is not to address the issues at hand but the complainant. They feel pressed now and the usual suspects will be rounded on like never before.
For the undecided voter out there it will be time to make a decision. Can we now afford to go back to “politics as usual”? Can we afford another shifty Bertie, a drunken Cowen, or a gut wrenching duracell battery monologue of the needless and listless lies of Mary Harney. Can we now afford too to go back to Aunty Burton, the economical diatribes of Enda Kenny, as he talks to his imaginary friends, both here and abroad, while trying to tell us how good we really have it? Can we go back to Alan Shatter teaching us that the boys in blue are as straight as arrows and all beyond reproach? Yet, he has never met a protester that he didn't like or pretend he did not see. There is more than that at stake as we all know, for if that was all there was to it then we would be in good shape.
This coming election decisions must be made by the undecided voter. The worse decision you can ever make is to do nothing, and if it is a first that you decide to vote Sinn Fein, then that is the only time you will ever know whether they are the party of the future or just a relic of the past. They are always busy on the ground where politics begins and ends and that is local. This cannot be said about the rest.
As a voter I do not always agree with them, but their integrity is bound with their determinism and that will keep me voting this way for the alternatives that have been tried for decades have turned the values, hopes and aspirations of our founding fathers of this Republic in their graves. Someone died in order that successive generations of Irishmen may be free and I cannot ever ignore that. It is emotive and we owe it to this generation and the future one’s that those values must be restored somewhat. It is not enough to return to the melancholy cry of deep meaning from Samuel Beckett when he said: “I would rather die in chains in France than live in freedom in Ireland.” That freedom based on equality still eludes that has keep the corruption of politics in a permanent theocracy on this small but beautiful land.
Give Sinn Fein the chance for the first time if not reverse way in the next election. This time around, please vote for the usual suspects: Sinn Fein, and give truth a chance with them.
Barry Clifford
Friday, April 10, 2015
Gerry Adams: Government is afraid to speak of the challenge of Easter week
‘Citizens retain the power to make good the Proclamation’
‘The memory and ownership of 1916 does not exclusively belong to Sinn Féin, any other party or the Government.’
When the Government first unveiled its commemoration programme for 1916, it was widely viewed as short-term, shambolic and superficial.
Since then a former leader of Fine Gael put forward the view that the Rising was not needed and was a civil war.
Following widespread criticism, and in the run-up to the elections, the Government has brought forward a more fitting commemoration. This is to be welcomed
However, there remains vacuity at the centre of the plans. This Government just doesn’t get 1916. It is an inconvenient issue and you get the impression that it just wants the commemorations to be out of the way and to return to business as usual.
Its approach has been to strip away any politics and context to the Rising: to reduce it to a tragedy in which death and injury was inflicted equally on all sides, and so all sides must be equally remembered.
This is a shallow and wholly self-serving approach to our history. Devoid of context or politics, the Rising is portrayed as a moment in history that should be kept in a little glass case and studied; or, in the view of some in the Redmondite wing of Fine Gael, an unnecessary moment of madness.
War is brutal. It visits death and injury on all sides. The grief of a mother and father, brother and sister, or son and daughter is not diminished by circumstance of that loss. The grief of the family of a Royal Irish Constabulary member was no different from that of a member of the Irish Republican Army who fought in the GPO or a civilian killed on the streets. All have the right to be respected and remembered.
Republican beliefs
However, it is wrong for the State commemoration to be reduced solely to an act of remembrance for a collection of individuals. While each has a story of individual courage and loss, those involved in the Rising were more than a collection of individuals. They were an army and a movement with a shared republican politics, shaped by their experience of the British empire and world war.
Those who took part in the Rising gave their lives and liberty to deliver the republic enshrined in the Proclamation. A republic built on the principles of equality and sovereignty, of human rights and civil liberties, and of unity and nationhood. Principles that remain a challenge to successive governments in this State.
It is in these principles that we find the Government’s problem with the commemoration. For this Government, it is easier to deal with the notion of individual loss and sacrifice than promote the ideas of the Proclamation.
So the Government does not address the inequality, division and lack of sovereignty that drove a generation of republicans on to the streets. They even proposed to rewrite the Proclamation and hope we forget that the original one has been undermined by the actions of successive governments. Heaven forbid we mention the North or the failure that is partition.
The memory and ownership of 1916 does not exclusively belong to Sinn Féin, any other party or the Government. The commemoration of the Rising cannot be limited to a lecture, an exhibition or a parade.
National renewal
It belongs to the Irish nation, all the people who share this island and the Irish nation spread across the globe. While the commemoration must be an opportunity for remembrance, it is also an opportunity for national renewal, for building a new republic.
In the last election, the Government promised a democratic revolution and delivered hardship, inequality, continued loss of sovereignty, a hands-off attitude to the North and the Belfast Agreement. There is a demand across our nation for change, a demand for the republic promised in 1916.
Our history cannot be encased in a museum or mausoleum; it is part of who we are, where we are from and where we want to go.
That is why Sinn Féin developed a programme of events to mark 1916. We are seeking to encourage communities to engage with their heritage and to rise to the challenge of delivering a republic for citizens.
It would appear that the Government is afraid to speak of Easter week, afraid of the challenge that it opens and afraid of the views of citizens.
The most fitting tribute to the loss of past generations, including republicans, British and civilians is to deliver the republic promised on the steps of the GPO, a 32-county republic in which citizens have equality and rights and the sovereignty of the nation is protected.
This generation has the opportunity and ability to deliver such a republic without the sacrifice of previous generations. There is a peaceful and democratic way to achieve this. But it will require leadership, determination and putting the needs of the nation above individual political position.
Maybe the real reason the Government does not want to talk about the unfinished business of 1916 is that it will remind it of its failure and remind citizens that they retain the power to make good the Proclamation.
Gerry Adams TD and president of Sinn Féin
Ireland spent 37.3% of GDP on bank bailout costs
Ireland’s bank bailouts cost the country the equivalent of nearly 40% of its annual economic output, most of which it is unlikely to see again, new figures show.
The ECB published estimates of the direct cost to eurozone countries and Britain of supporting their financial sectors, chiefly banks, from 2008 to 2013, and how much of the money spent had gone into assets that might generate a return for governments.
Across the eurozone as a whole, direct support for lenders totalled 5.1% ofGDP by the end of 2013 — equivalent to just over €500bn — but this masked big differences between countries.
Ireland topped the chart, spending 37.3% of GDP, followed by Greece at 24.8% and Slovenia at 14.2%. France, Italy, Finland, Slovakia, and Estonia, by contrast, spent next to nothing on bank bailouts.
“The situation is very heterogeneous,” ECB researchers Henri Maurer and Patrick Grussenmeyer said.
Germany spent more than one-tenth of its annual output on supporting financial firms, similar to Portugal, while Britain spent just under 7% — less than Germany despite its larger financial sector.
The figures do not include the wider cost to European economies from slower growth and higher unemployment, which has pushed up government debt across the eurozone, as a whole, by more than a quarter as a share of GDP.
However, they do give some indication of how much of the money spent is likely to be seen again by taxpayers.
The news is bad for Irish and Greek citizens, as only a third to half of the money was used to acquire assets that could potentially generate a return, and instead was spent on bank recapitalisations and toxic assets.
For Ireland, this equates to a likely total loss equivalent to 25% of GDP. For Greece, the equivalent is 12.1% of economic output.
By contrast in Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, over two-thirds of financial support led to acquisition of valuable bank assets. Already these countries have been able to recoup some of the money spent during the crisis, the ECB paper said.
Britain has also been able to end loan guarantees, which peaked at a massive 34% of GDP in 2009, the ECB added.
David Milliken: Reuters
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