Sinn Fein
The Week in Review
22-29 January 2015

Conditions never better to achieve United Ireland – McGuinness
Sinn Féin MLA Martin McGuinness told party activists last week that the next three elections `offer the opportunity to make a united Ireland inevitable’.
Speaking at the Sinn Féin Six-County Cúige AGM last Saturday, Mr McGuinness said the party had `emerged from the recent negotiations in a stronger position’ adding `our defence of the most vulnerable and our opposition to austerity – whether it is spawned in London or Dublin – was vindicated’.
He said the Stormont House Agreement `was the best deal possible but, like all agreements, it is the implementation which will tell the story’.
Pointing to the coming period, with three `crucial elections’ at Westminster, the Assembly and the Dáil, Martin McGuinness said the elections `give us the opportunity to take more huge strides towards our ultimate goal, to put our struggle on to a new trajectory where the unity of our country and the establishment of the 1916 Republic becomes inevitable’.
He said he had `appealed for an alliance of progressive parties in the coming Westminster and Assembly elections to maximise the representation of pro-Agreement parties’. He added that the SDLP’s rejection of his call `is a serious political mistake and represents a lost opportunity’.
He said it demonstrated `a lack of strategic vision on the part of the SDLP leadership and is further evidence that they are out of step with the voters and the grassroots’. He called again on the SDLP `to seize the opportunity to send out a clear message of support for progressive politics, the Good Friday Agreement and genuine power sharing and partnership government’.
He concluded: `The conditions have never been better for the republican ideal to take root in Ireland. Every day more and more people across the island are endorsing our vision of a better future and a new nation founded on genuine fairness and equality.’

Choices for 2015 and Beyond – Sinn Fein public meeting in London to discuss next steps
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy, Senator David Cullinane and party candidate for Upper Bann and current deputy Mayor Craigavon council Catherine Seeley will address a number of key issues at an upcoming Westminster public meeting on 11 February. Hosted by Sinn Fein, the meeting will discuss the key issues emerging from the Stormont House Agreement, including the next British government to take forward the peace process in its next stages; and the economic and political issues facing Ireland north and south. Taking place a few weeks after the Syriza victory in Greece, the meeting will also situate developments in Ireland in the context of the rise of anti-austerity movements in both Irealnd and across Europe.
The meeting is at 7pm, Wilson Room in Portcullis House, (Entrance on Victoria Embankment). Wednesday 11 February. Further details: fisherj@parliament.uk All welcome.

Sinn Fein Chair: `Don’t take peace process for granted’
On 25 January Sinn Féin chairperson Declan Kearney, who is standing as Sinn Féin candidate for South Antrim in May’s Westminster election, warned that the peace process should not be taken for granted.
Commenting in advance of a trip to the European Parliament, he said that the `political impasse brought about by the British government’s anti-welfare state austerity programme almost led to the collapse of the political institutions’.
This was, he said, only averted by the `serious negotiations’, which led to the Stormont House Agreement. He criticised the British government’s `negative mismanagement’ of the peace process and political institutions and the Irish government’s `disengagement’.
He added: `The success and stability of the peace process is paramount. It and the political process are bigger than the British and Irish governments or any narrow party agenda’.
He said the new agreement could `act as a catalyst for opening a new phase of the peace process based upon reconciliation’, but cautioned `these possibilities will only be realised through implementation of all elements of the Agreement’. He concluded that the international community could play a key role in this, and called for politicians in Europe – and Britain — and elsewhere to assert influence.

Murphy brands tabloid story ‘pure fiction’
On 28 January Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy poured scorn on a story in the Sun newspaper indicating that Labour and Sinn Féin have been involved in talks regarding the outcome of the forthcoming Westminster election branding the story as ‘pure fiction’.
Speaking on 28 January, Mr Murphy said the story was `pure fiction and another example of the lazy, gutter journalism associated with this particular newspaper’.
He said Sinn Féin’s position on Westminster was` very well known’ and that the MPs `work hard in delivering a good service to our voters but we do not take our seats in Westminster’.
MPs had, he said `met with all of the major British political parties in the line of our work as MPs over many years and have made this clear time and time again’. He added `none of these parties have ever asked us over the course of these meetings to support them on the other side of an election’.
He said Sinn Fein’s position on refusing to take their seats at Westminster `has been repeatedly endorsed by our electorate and this remains our position as we face into this year’s election.’

Greek result `a victory of hope over fear’ – Adams
This week Sinn Féin Leader Gerry Adams congratulated Syriza Leader Alexis Tsipras on his victory in the Greek General election.
Gerry Adams said the result `signals a victory of hope over fear’ and that it `opens up the real prospect of democratic change not just for the people of Greece, but for citizens right across the EU’.
Sinn Féin, he said, had backed Syriza’s call for a European debt conference `which is so clearly in Ireland’s interests’, and he had called on the Taoiseach to support this demand `but Mr Kenny has rejected this’.
Mr Adams criticised the Fine Gael/Labour Government for showing `no desire or ability to negotiate in the best interests of the Irish people’, adding `this had resulted in widespread hardship, the destruction of public services and a third of children in this State living in poverty’.
He concluded: `the Government has no mandate for the policies it is imposing. It is time for citizens here to decide on a new way forward.’

Week in Review is circulated by Sinn Fein MPs. Email fisherj@parliament.uk to join the list. For further information visit www.sinnfein.ie or follow us on twitter @sinnfeinireland