We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
SINN FÉIN’S DEPUTY leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that Britain does not care that “every strand of the Good Friday Agreement is undermined by Brexit”.
In a speech made at the John F Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, County Wexford, McDonald said Ireland desperately needs to change course.
Let’s be crystal clear. Brexit is not compatible with the Good Friday agreement. It is as simple and stark as that.
Every strand of the Good Friday Agreement is undermined by Brexit. The EU know that. The Irish government know that. The British government know that, but British government just do not care. And that is the problem. They can impose this against the will of the people and the best interests of our nation.
Earlier this week, Britain was warned off using Ireland as a “test case” for how Brexit will work with the EU.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier had stern words for the British, stating that the “onus to propose solutions which overcome the challenges created on the island of Ireland… remains with the United Kingdom”.
The UK wants to use Ireland as a kind of test case for the future EU-UK customs relations. This will not happen.
McDonald said today that the economic and social life of Ireland is threatened by Brexit, adding:
That’s the reality and import of Brexit for the people of this island. Ireland desperately needs a change of course. The people need a government that’s on their side.
Being in government
The Dublin Central TD, who is tipped to be the next leader of the Sinn Féin when Gerry Adams steps down, said that her party want to be in government.
Sinn Féin wants to be in government – north and south.
We will fight the next election on that basis. Of course we can only be part of a government if we have a sufficient, mandate from the people.
Hitting out against Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, McDonald said both parties were guilty of “arrogant posturing”.
“They say Sinn Féin will not be in government, is not ‘fit for’ government. We say that will be the people’s decision,” she said.
She said the current confidence and supply arrangement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is not working, stating that it is “designed to serve the interests of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil”.
“It does not answer the needs of the people; it does not serve the public interest”.
She claimed that both parties have “created and perpetuated” a housing and homeless crisis, and criticised the solutions that have been put forward to date.
Decades of bad public housing policy are coming home to roost, that’s the crux of the crisis before us today. Responsibility for housing was handed over to the bankers, developers, landlords and vulture funds. They each took a slice and we all paid the price.
Bewilderingly Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are still looking for a market solution to a problem rooted in and sustained by the market. It is as if no one is to blame, no one is held to account and still no real change in policy.
There is a solution, and it’s not rocket science. Enable local authorities’ to build significantly more social and affordable homes.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
SF would only be happy for it to fall apart with their agenda.
@Paul: they have it within their power to help people but yet can’t be arsed to do so
@Paul: only for sinn fein there would be no peace process
@Donal O Cofaigh: only for Sinn Fein there would’ve been no terrorism.
@Hurt Stoogie: Ignorant comment right there. The first acts of terror carried out in the 6 counties were by loyalists, accompanied by crimes carried out by the RUC and British army.
You should switch off ‘reeling in the years’ andpick up a couple of history books
@Donal O Cofaigh: What good is the peace process when Sinn Fein are all for the whole of Ireland to have open borders and let in another ideology that is full of Terrorists
@Donal O Cofaigh: yeah, doesn’t excuse the fact since the ref result SF are the only party trying to destabilise things by brining up GFA, United Ireland calls etc
Everybody else accepts a solution cannot impact on GFA
@Hurt Stoogie: That’s not quiet historically factual Donal.
@Niallers: correction. Meant for Hurt Stoogie
@Donal O Cofaigh: yes it was nice of them to stop blowing people up.
@Donal O Cofaigh: only for Sinn Fein/IRA and their fellow terrorists there would have been no need for a peace process.
@The Risen: ah the SF logic. Two wrongs must make a right.
@Jimmyjoe Wallace: “only for Sinn Fein/IRA and their fellow terrorists there would have been no need for a peace process.”
I guessed you missed the part where immediately after partition, loyalists burnt Catholics out of their homes up north. Followed up by decades of social and civic inequality, gerrymandering and collusion between state forces & loyalist paramilitaries.
The civil unrest within the nationalist community was a direct response to the conditions they lived under.
@Seán Ó Briain: i guess you ignored the part where i said fellow terrorists
@Dermot Lane or is that Jimmyjoe Wallace…? Are you saying that the absence of any civil rights had nothing to do with the unrest in the six counties? Are you saying that trial without jury or right to legal representation were neither here nor there? That the fact that Catholics couldn’t get social housing and were often living in tenements with running water or electricity while unmarried protestants were being housed, nothing to do with it either? Complete censorship of descent isn’t a problem? That really, Catholics up north were just uppity and would’ve been better off if they just knew their place…?
Really mate, you just come across as an ignorant troll, which is unsurprising seeing as you feel the need to hide behind an anonymous account. Grow up and grow a pair. You could also educate yourself to the facts of what went on up there, and then maybe you’d take any back sliding to the bad old days a bit more seriously.
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/spa1922.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Authorities_(Special_Powers)_Act_(Northern_Ireland)_1922
@Hurt Stoogie: Only for British occupation of Ireland down through the centuries there wouldn’t be a Northern Ireland.
@Donal O Cofaigh: bullshit,only for the men who died on hunger strike there would be no bloody peace,
@billy Dorney: those idiots who killed themselves over the colour of their PJs :D
@billy Dorney: the only shame is maggie didnt take more than 10 of the vermin out
@Seán Ó Briain: that did happen up north but you forget that the exact same thing was happening to protestants in the south. People were being dragged from homes and murders in the south, but you just keep believing it was only happening on 1 side
She is right, they don’t care. NI is 1.8 million out of 65 million so it’s hardly surprising.
@P.J. Nolan: if only SF could do something to influence Westminster, perhaps like taking a seat in the same manner that they take the money.
@Paul Fahey: 100% agreed she’s blowing hot air… her party must take their seats and influence the outcome!
@Paul Fahey: They were elected on a pledge of not taking their seats. You want them to act like every other political party and throw their pledges in the bin after they get elected?
@The Risen: acting in the interest of their people should be their mantra, not being the money grabbing moaning idiots that they actually are. They’re actually worse than any politician from any party, including the Tories.
@Piarais Mac Maoláin: they are hypocrites shouting at others telling them what to do, when they them self’s are in a position to do something!
@Piarais Mac Maoláin: Thats it Piarais. The supporters of the party who pledged to abolish the USC and didn’t, and the supporters of the party who pledged to scrap Irish Water and didn’t, wagging their fingers at the party that has kept its pledge to the people who voted for them.
It’s comical.
@Paul Fahey: and swear an oath of allegiance to a monarchy the want to get rid of! Sorry Paul doesn’t realllyyyy make sense!
I agree that they’d be breaking their pledge by taking their seats but taking them is not nothing. The current C&S in the UK only works when Sinn Féin are out of parliament. They don’t have a majority of seats between the DUP and Tories, they only have a majority of seats taken. If the Shinners decided to take their seats they could force a no confidence and Theresa May would lose, thus forcing another election.
Do you really think the Shinners would lose votes by doing that?
@The Risen: SF will do whatever the ira army council tell them to do. Nothing about the people that elected them
@The Risen: the only ones wagging fingers is SF, Brexit is undermining the peace process blah blah blah, only ones scaremongering is SF, also the only ones doing absolutely nothing but shout is SF! Threatening the people of this island with a return of the troubles… their a fkn disgrace!
@Paul Fahey: the electorate have no problem with SF policy vis a vis Westminster.
@The Risen: ignoring that SF were originally for water charges..
All they do is flip flop..
Oh And hide bodies..
the very hard border it just perfect karma for the shinner. i am really looking forward to it all. Baron Adams will need a passport and work permit :D
It’s useful to spell it out like Mary Lou here. Brexit is incompatible with Good Friday agreement. Time others also stood up to the plate or northern Ireland is heading towards an abyss.
@Toon Army: The British government may be a party to tje Good Friday agreements, but that doesn’t mean we can expect the UK voter to give a toss.
@Toon Army: Take the Government to Court, get an injunction against Brexit on those grounds and worth a try?
@Toon Army: time to change the pancake tuesday agreement so…
@Stephen murphy: A NI green party activist is doing just that with regards to the Conservative-Dup pact. Green party politician Ciaran McClean from Northern Ireland says pact breaches impartiality obligation in Good Friday agreement, and the Bribery Act
Maybe if he’s successful . . . .?
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/scottish-parliament-vs-ni-stormont-assembly/
PS The hearing is scheduled for 26th October this year
“Bewilderingly Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are still looking for a market solution to a problem rooted in and sustained by the market.”
True enough. However, I’m doubting more and more that either party want the problem solved.
@The Risen: the problem isn’t of their making. The Brits can sort out their own problems and their own internal issues within the united kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
@Hurt Stoogie: The housing crisis isn’t of the making of the two parties who have controlled the state since its inception and binned its social housing construction policy in favour of property profiteering?
@The Risen: what’s this whataboutery and changing the story? More spoofery from the spoofer of all spoofers. Quick, look over there, nothing To see here. Move along.
@Hurt Stoogie: I posted a quote from the article above and commented on it in the comments section. You wouldn’t understand.
@The Risen: do you get paid extra for working weekends??
@The Risen: good to see you proving my point about being a spoofer jamming.
@The Risen: We know about the other two snakes, running the Country and you lot wouldn’t be any better!
You have to say that SF see the 32 counties of Ireland as being in their remit. While both FG and FF see only Corporate Welfare as their only remit.
@Dave Doyle: Certainly from a local perspective as well.With the exception of PBP, Sinn Fein are the only party who are out working in the community helping residents when there isn’t an election around the corner.
@The Risen: There’s always an election around the corner, don’t try fool us with that one and pretending they are looking out for us. Pull the other one, I don’t mean the pins on your grenades and give it a rest.
@Stephen murphy: In my area Stephen, the SF and PBP politicians and councillors are the only ones who are effective at getting things done for ordinary folk.
@The Risen: dowdall was good at getting things done alright… waterboarding mainly!
More like me fein. Skangers
What is Sinn Fein going on about the Brexit and Borders for, Sure they want Ireland to have an open Border policy, you cant blame Britain for wanting a secure Border to stop who God only Knows who will be Crossing up to the North from the Republic, Sinn Fein are sell outs and Traitors like them all in Leinster house
@Paul Byrne: No they don’t want a secure border. We had a common travel agreement with the UK before the open borders and all you needed was a driving licence as proof of identity. You’re wrong on your first fact and wrong on your second fact too, so I shudder to think who you’d have in the Dáil instead…
@Patrick Kearns: No they want the whole of Ireland to have No Borders, they are nuts, this Country will be destroyed, you think the Provo’s were bad,wait till whats coming next
SF are the political arm of a defunct terrorist organisation, only content with seizing power & only on their own terms. They refuse to represent their constituents in NI’s place in parliament, while obstruct & pontificate in the Dail.
The GFA has run its course. NI is still part of the UK and should be treated as such – until the majority peacefully wish otherwise. That means no more power sharing, just one vote per voter and majority wins.
If the tables were turned and it was ROiI who voted out I don’t think they would be singing the same tuen!
Well I have to say a lot of what you say could be right. Now if S/F in Northern Ireland were worried they wood be in Westminster speaking up for all of Ireland . I really think this is the most worrying time for all the people of Ireland. They do take the money from Westminster . Instead they leave it to Ms Foster so very disappointed with S/F
If ROI left the corrupt dictatorship there would be no need for a border.notice SF have stopped calling for a independent united Ireland,and they call others flip floppers.the party’s no1 founding principle,gone.
@@mdmak33: Sinn Fein had a press conference last week, two of the taglines were ‘Irish Unity’ and ‘No border’
Less spoofing please,
@The Risen: less spoofing says the biggest spoofers around! Good lad jamming, the ‘water warriors spokesperson and shinnerbot sycophant.
Sinn Fein and the DUP have proven that neither side is fit for government, both sides behaving like children at the moment.
@Dermot Lane: So Sinn Fein expecting the DUP and the Tories to live up to their side of the GFA is childish…? Who knew expecting people to follow through on their promises was unreasonable. But then, we’ve been subjected to same BS from FG/FF for decades, yet they keep getting voted back in. Go figure.
Switzerland is not in the EU or EEA or subject to ECJ but has access to the Single Market.
This is the arrangement that the UK is looking for.
Switzerland is not suffering economically and has its own independence.
Why is the EU making this solution so difficult.
@tom McCormack: The UK dont know what they want. Top tories rejected calls for a Switzerland like option. Plus the Swiss pay into the EU for that access. The UK government cant agree on payment for leaving never mind access. Any payment for access will not be acceptable to majority of brexiteers. Its not the EUs fault. They are willing to treat the UK the same as Norway Switerland or other state but they have to do so on the same terms as other states. No special sweetheart deals.
She’s an extremely annoying shrieking woman.
@Paul Flood: She’s a politician, she isn’t meant to be pleasant and sweet. If you agreed with what she was saying you might have a different perspective.
@Rochelle: I do agree with what she’s saying (the brits couldn’t give a toss about the GFA) but everything she says is delivered in a high pitched hysterical “anti-everything” whinny way.
And don’t get me started on her air brushed photos on the bill boards around my way!
@Paul Flood: Jaysus, is it not better than the dithering “eh-behdeh-behdeh-behdeh” of that bare faced liar Leo Varanker…? When the straight teeth in your mouth matter more than the words that come out of it, God bless.
I don’t want SF, near any levers of power and their greed for power is jaw dropping. We need to get rid of these dinosaurs, FG/FF/L also and elect new parties or independents. Those four parties, are self serving cockroaches and are only interested in lining their pockets!
@Stephen murphy: i agree we need a Donald Trump like Leader to drain the Swamp and make Ireland Irish again, all do some how i feel you will disagree
@Paul Byrne: We need a trolling, white supremacist rapist to sort us out, good call. Except, isn’t his government full of the same people he promised to weed out of places of influence in the first place…?
@Patrick Kearns: yeah i will take that
The Shinnies should be in government in the north but again look for excuses not to .This brexit sh#t is another reason not to go back in they might just have to govern but its easier to blame everyone else from the outside,IS anyone else getting fed up of the same CRAP we listen every other day
Get into government in the North and England and make the difference
Oh I’m not a ff/fg/lab or any other party I used to think the shinnies would make a change but as usual I’m wrong .
It is meant to be a democrat party
But from where I’m looking it’s the same old same old
Lead by Gerry Adams
And a lot of people from the old ways
Ohhh.
The Shinner communists speak again.
Always looking to spend some other people’s money.
Nasty crowd, nasty.
@Cram Wood: yep, very fond of the queens shilling is Baron Adams and his motley crew of terrorists, bank robbers and child abusers.
@Hurt Stoogie: are you talking about the British army and jimmy Saville
@Hurt Stoogie: Some how, I think the banks have fleeced this state of more money than all the other heists put together. Anonymous trolls will troll, yawn.
Lot of keyboard warriors on here
I see the usual knockers of Sinn Fein the only Party that is 100% committed to the Peace process. It is the English that voted for brexit the people in the North of Ireland voted against it. The time has come for a vote on a United Ireland and with a bit of luck that will do away with Brexit .
@Donal Carey: if northern ireland was an independent country your post would make sense. the UK voted as a whole and northern ireland is and always will be part of the UK
I’m concerned.A subject about Brexit and Fred Johnson hasn’t surfaced yet with his usual anti-British rubbish.
@Kieran Conroy: Sorry!Forgot Fred married an English bloke called Jensen and changed his name.
We are sleeping through Brexit rather than offer solutions that will benefit Ireland. While
it may be fine and dandy for Sinn Fein to highlight the problems and blame the UK, inaction by the Republic will inevitably lead to the UK solution for Ireland; not the Irish
one.
While financials centres like Frankfurt, Paris & Amsterdam are doing their homework
on stealing a slice of London City’s post Brexit financial business, all we can do is moan about what is essentially a fait accompli and the Dublin homeless while the Germans, French & Dutch are positioning their respective countries to benefit from Brexit.
Can someone explain to me how Sinn Fein can justify its objective of being in government on both sides of the border. When the DUP made the deal with the Tories in the UK Sinn Fein decried it as a threat to the Good Friday agreement since Britain, along with the Republic, is a co-guarantor
@Conor: Sinn Fein are an all Ireland party and always have been so I’d say it’d be harder for them to justify not wanting be in government on both sides of the border.
The DUP have a confidence and supply agreement with the Tories. Arlene Foster has put obstacle after obstacle in the way of the GFA. Now she has leverage over the Tories in the same way FF has over FG, it can hardly be taken as surprising that SF are worried about what this means for the GFA.
There is the old maxim of “how can you tell when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.” Our current government is headed by a bare faced liar who got caught out telling porkies his first week in the job. Why would anyone take a guarantee from such people at face value is more of a question.
Mary Lou’s opinion on Northern Ireland really carries weight, all right.
From the party that spent thirty years driving wedges into the rift between the two communities.
Well as it was supposed to be a negotiation the British made some proposals as to possibilities to how this could be resolved. The EU poured scorn over them all over social media. Then the EU said, well it’s your problem, you sort it out.
But the whole issue comes down to this: Everyone believes that the moment there’s any change to the status quo in NI the inhabitants will take up arms in conflict. How about if they just don’t?
The Brits don’t care about Norn Iron, full stop.
@Tom Tom: does anyone care about the north? seems they have made their bed :D
Agree
@tom McCormack: but tom the swiss have bilateral agreements with the eu which brings some laws etc into line with the eu, thats what the uk wants to undo and change so the swiss may not be in but they have changed a lot for those bilateral agreements,schengen for example
Sin Fein are prepared to go back to war to force England to stay in a Union with Ireland. Sin Fein are Unionists
@Donal O Cofaigh: well Donal it was the late some what level headed Martin mcguinness that did help but the present crowd are only populist sitting on the fence doing nothing while brexit is going they have seven MPs won’t take up their seats in Westminster sit on the fence do nothing only protest sein fein are fascists like North korea communists they still have a private army. This shower
Is not a politicial party until they disband that army council then they should be recognised
have your say