Cavan Sinn Féin Senator Kathryn Reilly, who will be speaking at the Towards a New Ireland Conference on 19th October.

By Senator Kathryn Reilly, Sinn Fein

The impact of the economic crisis hitting people across Ireland – and in Britain – throws up big challenges for political parties, and the need to raise the bar in terms of our response. Not only do we need to put forward new solutions — and for us in Sinn Fein that means a clear alternative to austerity policies and cuts – but we need to show a new way forward for Ireland north and south, based on progressive politics and change. The recent debates around the economy, and on issues such as marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights, show that Ireland is changing. And, just as for the rest of the world, some fundamental change is absolutely essential in ensuring a sustainable, peaceful future in which people can exist free from fear of poverty, discrimination, conflict and division. Sinn Fein has been arguing for this approach for some time.

Firstly, in terms of the economic crisis, we have long been fed the mantra there is no alternative to austerity and cuts. We replaced one right wing Fianna Fail led government with the current Fine Gael/Labour one – and in following the same policies, the economic crisis has continued to deepen. Readers of the Irish World will not need to be told the devastating effect of forced emigration and the struggle that people are having as a result of no jobs and driving down of wages if in work. Currently policies have merely handed our money over to the banks, throwing good money after bad, while private companies are on a virtual `investment strike’. Unfair regressive taxes and cuts in services are seeing families suffer across Ireland. In the north, Tory-government imposed cuts and broken promises in terms of any `peace dividend’ are seeing the same story there. So, for us, we would like to see a completely different framework – one where the state decides it is going to invest in infrastructure, to create jobs and stimulate growth. Sinn Fein have produces countless, costed, alternative budgets based on this central premise, and a promise to protect essential services and bring in a more progressive level of taxation.

Of course, one huge benefit to the economy would be to re-unite the country. Ireland’s economic development has been hugely held back by partition and the obvious divisions and duplications which occur on a small island with two economic and political systems. Sinn Fein would like to see an Ireland based on economic equality and an investment to ensure the kind of civilised society, without the kind of social dislocation which comes out of poverty. We also have to ensure social equality and that we take Ireland forward in the 21st century on that basis. The division of Ireland continues to stunt Ireland’s potential – politically, socially and economically.

This decade has been heralded as a `decade of centenaries’ and we should use this time to take lessons from important points of our history in order to look ahead. Earlier this year we marked the 97th anniversary of the Easter Rising – which was a huge event in our history and a coming together of nationalists, republicans, Irish-language activists, trade unionists and the women’s movement in the cause of an independent Irish republic. The politics represented in that struggle, around equality for all, is a template for us in 2013.

The Good Friday Agreement – 15 years old this year – is part of a process. Far from being the end of the story, we need to be looking to the opening of a new phase of the peace process. There are key aspects of the Good Friday Agreement yet to be implemented, and some which reactionary elements are trying to roll back. Unfortunately the current Conservative coalition government in London has disengaged with the process. We need to ensure that this remains on the political agenda. We have to ensure that peace and the necessary change envisaged in the agreement, continue to move ahead.
The Agreement also provides for a poll on Irish unity. This is an opportunity for debate on the future of Ireland and what kind of Ireland we would like. The political geography of the north is changing. The North is clearly no longer an Orange state. Politics across Ireland is in flux. A new Ireland can be what we make it.

A Border poll provides an opportunity to begin building a modern, dynamic, new Ireland.  Realising the vision of 1916 can be a reality for Irish people. We need a society and an economy run democratically in the interests of all citizens. This means undoing the `carnival of reaction’ initiated by partition. It means `the reconquest of Ireland by the people of Ireland’ – a real republic where the citizens and not vested interests, whether in politics, banking, the church hierarchy or foreign governments – are in control.

We should not settle for a sham republic dominated by the conservative politics of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour, nor one run in the interests of wealthy elites and Golden Circles, which surrenders sovereignty to the Troika: the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank.
Sinn Féin’s vision is of a New Republic for the 21st century which guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, cherishes all the children of the nation equally and is anti-sectarian.
This means equal rights for those in same-sex relationships, ethnic minorities and those of all creeds and none. It means rights for women, and for people with disabilities and a society where elderly people are treated with dignity and where our young people have jobs and a future. It must be one where workers’ rights are protected and paid a decent living wage and where Ireland, at an international level, is an advocate for peace in place of wars and conflict.
The new, agreed Ireland we seek to build is inclusive, where all the elements of the Irish nation, from whatever background or tradition, can find the fullest expression of their identity.

Of course, the role of the  Irish community in Britain, is crucial to that discussion. That is why we are holding a major conference in London on 19 October, at the London Irish Centre. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams will be among speakers taking up this central theme, along a whole host of others from different parties and perspectives. I will be there to make some points at the discussion on `A democratic Ireland – for an island of equals’ and other sessions will include debates on the economy, on the crucial role for the Diaspora and on reconciliation and looking to the future. We hope Irish World readers will join us on October 19th.