By Joe Dwyer

On Tuesday 17th June, Sinn Féin hosted a public meeting titled ‘Next steps after the elections‘ in Portcullis House, Westminster. The keynote speakers were Conor Murphy, MP for Newry and Armagh, and Mayo Councillor Rose Conway Walsh, member of the party’s Ard Chomhairle (national executive). The evening covered a wide-range of topics including; the need for cross-party dialogue in the 6 counties, Sinn Féin’s recent stunning election results and the party’s continued opposition to austerity. The meeting was well received with over 40 people in attendance.

Conor Murphy began the briefing by outlining the ongoing difficulty of finding consensus around the contentious issues of flags, parades and the past. He stressed both the need to implement outstanding provisions of previous agreements and the necessity to resolve the remaining unaddressed areas. Conor Murphy expressed concern with the apparent disengagement of the current British Government from the process. Highlighting that while Dublin and Washington fully embraced the Haass proposals, there was a notable, and ultimately detrimental, lack of endorsement from London. He also highlighted the absurd situation whereby the Joint First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, have met President Obama more often than Prime Minister Cameron. He therefore welcomed the British Prime Minister’s recent decision to hold a meeting with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, hoping that the meeting may re-instil some momentum into the process. Commenting on the DUP’s much publicised No. 10 ‘Drinks Reception‘ he stated that the well-being of the peace process should be more important than the coalition mathematics of a possible future British Government. He reiterated that the British Government needs to be reminded that, alongside the Irish government, it is a ‘joint guarantor’ of the process and not an outside observer.

In her contribution Cllr. Rose Conway Walsh gave an insight into the scale of the Sinn Féin’s success in the recent Local and European Elections. Within a 26 County context, Sinn Féin managed to achieve 259,309 first preference votes; over 120,000 more votes than it had received in 2009 (138,405). Of these votes, 81,392 (31.4%) were secured by female candidates. She drew attention to the changing voting patterns in the working class areas of Dublin, formerly considered Labour heartland. In many such areas Sinn Féin secured nearly three times as many votes as the Labour Party. Thus firmly establishing Sinn Féin as the party with the highest level of support amongst working class voters. Cllr. Conway Walsh pointed out that even the normally-hostile media was forced to concede that the elections represented a “watershed moment”. She suggested that Sinn Féin’s success was due to the fact that it offered the Irish people “an alternative to austerity right across the board.” Cllr. Conway Walsh spoke of the harsh conditions under Troika austerity. Arguing that the recently lauded decline in unemployment can largely be attributed to the continued mass emigration of Ireland’s youth – an all too familiar phenomenon in Irish history. The audience was informed of how a recent Sunday Independent/Millward Brown poll found Sinn Féin to have the most credible economic policies amongst the electorate. Cllr. Conway Walsh summarised that, “Sinn Féin is often attacked by people who don’t read our economic policies” – and suggested that those interested go away and actually read Sinn Féin’s alternative budget to decide for themselves.

The evening saw fantastic contributions from the floor, highlighting the level of interest here in Britain. The panel was asked to comment on the lack of media coverage given to the European Election results in Ireland. Rose Conway Walsh suggested that perhaps “if Sinn Féin weren’t doing as well – they’d receive more coverage.” Conor Murphy proposed that the media tended to focus on the swing to the right in countries like Britain, France and Germany; and chose to blatantly ignore the equally prominent swing to the left in Ireland, Greece and Spain. The very countries which are currently enduring the worst excesses of austerity. Sinn Féin’s European Parliamentary grouping GUE/NGL saw significant growth, with 17 new members – now giving them a total of 52. Rose Conway Walsh was specifically asked how Sinn Féin had attracted so many female candidates. She responded that unlike many parties, “we actively ask women to join the party and run as candidates”, commenting that from her own personal experience, “it’s a good party to be in as a woman.”

The meeting was rounded off by Jayne Fisher, head of Sinn Féin’s London Office, who
thanked everyone for coming out and urged those present, who were members of separate groups and bodies, to go off and continue the conversation by organising their own meetings and debates.It is crucial that people of goodwill in Britain ensure the Irish question does not fall off of the political agenda of current and future British governments. The public briefing proved to be very successful and informative. The level of engagement and turnout was encouraging.