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Updated 1pm
MARY LOU MCDONALD will officially become the President of Sinn Féin today.
The Dublin Central TD will take over from Gerry Adams, who has led the party for 34 years.
In her first speech as Sinn Féin President, Mary Lou McDonald TD is expected to lay out her vision for the party.
It’s understood she will set out ambitious targets for modernising and growing the party and will layout a vision for a united and prosperous Ireland.
The topic of reconciliation is expected to be an important topic with McDonald keen to continue the work of the late Martin McGuinness in advancing healing and the work of equality.
The repeal of the Eighth Amendment will also be addressed. McDonald will emphasise that Sinn Féin will campaign enthusiastically for repeal.
She will also update the Ard Fheis on the Sinn Féin approach to the talks in the North, which are still ongoing.
Today’s special Ard Fheis will also see Michelle O’Neill MLA, the party’s leader in Northern Ireland, take over McDonald’s former role as Deputy President.
McDonald and O’Neill were the only two names put forward for the positions before the 29 January deadline. About 2,000 people are expected to attend today’s meeting.
Crowds gathered this morning for what attendees have described as a “historic day” for the party, with many people seen snapping up Gerry Adams’ recent publications.
Adams, 69, has been a significant political figure for decades.
He was interned without trial in 1972 and 1973, and was charged with IRA membership in 1978 but the case was subsequently dropped due to insufficient evidence. He has always publicly denied he was in the IRA.
Adams took over the leadership of Sinn Féin in November 1983, 11 years before the IRA ended its campaign of violence and 15 years before the Good Friday Agreement.
He was first elected to Westminster – where Sinn Féin retains a policy of abstentionism – in 1983, and was elected to the Dáil as a TD for Louth in 2011.
A short time ago, he gave his last briefing as party leader to Sinn Féin reps.
Changing times
There has been much change in Sinn Féin in the last year.
Martin McGuinness stepped down as Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister in January 2017 over the ‘cash for ash’ scandal. He died two months later, after a period of ill health.
Announcing his intention to step down as Uachtarán Shinn Féin last November, Adams said: “I’m very proud to have served as Uachtarán. Last year, myself and Martin said there was a plan for change…
I have complete confidence in the leaders we elected this weekend and in the next generation of leaders.
At the time, Adams said one of his greatest achievements was helping to secure peace in Northern Ireland. More than 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles.
McDonald will be hoping today’s Ard Fheis will provide a fresh start for the party, which has been dogged by bullying accusations and a political impasse in the North. Talks aimed at restoring power-sharing at Stormont are ongoing.
With reporting by Christina Finn at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in the RDS
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So fed up seeing them all over the place. Hardly a day goes by without seeing something about them. I don’t think many people really care anymore.
@Anna Carr: Probably worth remembering that you’re ‘seeing them all over the place’ because the British tabloid press wants everyone to hate them. If not for that you probably would have heard of the Oprah interview and then spotted this documentary pop up on Netflix over Christmas. Otherwise it’s all hate and bile.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: the biggest revelation i took from the Oprah doc was Oprah’s inability to pronounce ‘Megan’. Wrecked my mallet.
@Ribeard Ó Fiachna: pretty sure I get most of my Meghan and Harry news force fed to me by the Journal. For a couple that want to be left alone by the press they sure don’t seem to be acting that way.
I’d rather watch the Late Late show and that’s saying something!!
@Paul Shepherd: Add in Glen Hansard and Imelda May murdering fairytale of New York, and you might change your mind?
What I don’t understand is why the Media are so obsessed with them. If we did not hear and read so much about them would most people care, I don’t think so.
@Aine O Connor: because they dared stand up to the establishment so the hounds were set upon them.
@Max Bailey: They are part of the Establishment ,turning on your own relatives to make money is a bad look. Hurting the Queen was unforgivable.
@Max Bailey: yeah, the hounds that paid for their massive LA mansion
@Aine O Connor: money talks that’s why the Media are so obsessed with them pair !!
@Aine O Connor: the media are in cahoots with the Tories, this is manna form heaven for them and a big distraction from the strikes and chasing economy .
@John Quill: No its not Netflix is an American company and dont give two sh£ts about the Tories or any other political party Please
Looking at Jeremy Clarksons paper comment yesterday its easy to see why they jacked it in. Good luck to them i say.
@Brian Dunne: ‘jacked it in’? They have probably given more interviews in the last year than the previous 10.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: jacked in the royal family
@Brian Dunne: Plus Dim Prince has a book coming out in January “spare” which he got £20million plus the $150 million Netflix farce They can only do this for so long and will run out of material . Please make it soon
Who cares, honestly?
@Bowzer Okocha: I get why you don’t and others who don’t and even I don’t either. But loads of people do so.
@Bowzer Okocha: People who enjoy seeing the UK gutter press called out and a break from the royal family ‘stiff upper lip, must never say anything’ boll*cks called out, mostly
Its very well made..and anything that attacks the brexit press and racist uk is good
@Robert Frazier: Whinge n Ginge . It’s muck
The press needs them and (despite their waffle about privacy) they need the press. Sensible people avoid both whenever possible.
100 million their being paid for story an absolute disgrace . And all the poor sick children in the 3rd world who are starving and sick .
True saying money talks !!!
Shame on that couple
I was forced to watch it! That is to say my wife watched it, I absorbed it from the kitchen. I thought they fled the UK to escape media publicity, yet all they have done since is sell themselves out to the mass media, whinge about how hard done by they are, FFS! Try living the lives of the rest of us, try working for a living instead of plastering yourselves all over Netflix and any other American news outlet that will listen to that level of B.S. Those two are so far removed from reality it beggars belief! All they’ve managed to do with this series is further discredit themselves. 0 stars! Watch Die Hard 1 & 2 for the festive season instead. Much better! Oh, and Lethal Weapon, which is often overlooked as a Christmas film!
@John Kenny: Lethal weapon still a brilliant film today
@Robert Preston: the franchise that thought a generation how to fix a dislocated shoulder and to always check the jacks for incendiary devices.
@A$AP ETH: Put my shoulder back and always check the jacks, to this day!
Hmm… more porkies than I thought.
Average audience score of 16% on RT, not for me…
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: 16% seems high though, for this drivel!
Nah, no interest in this couple’s problems/issues, have more than enough to be çoncerned about right here. I also don’t give any time over to celebs like the Kardashians but I gather they have made billions out of their fame claiming so, it’s no surprise to see another famly go after the cash. It is difficult not to be a little disgusted by the way the press seem to harp on ad nauseum. The Jeerleaders are indeed a tough lot to stomach!
Just can’t understand how people of a nation that have been occupied and ruled by their neighbours for centuries, still have such a fascination with their royal family.
Watched about 5 minutes and just felt annoyed that these super wealthy, pampered and privileged people felt the need to whinge publicly. Granted Meghan made her own money and isn’t part of The Firm but if they wanted to opt of of the royal family and go to the US ….. then just go and live happily ever after. This documentary is just voyeurism for anyone who watches it and only one side of the story.
I watched it. Bit of a swizz tbh. Nothing new. Unless you consider ol’ prince willy ‘screaming and shouting’ at Harry a massive revelation.
@A$AP ETH: my brother shouted at me once
No, couldn’t give a toot. Let them at it, makes no difference to me.
They are an epoch that will pass soon enough. If anyone is loving this, it’s uncle Andrew….impeccable timing. Uncle Andy …another 2nd son syndrome spare who had his own 80′s scandal with Koo Stark, who ironically had more class (Koo, I mean) if on a scale rule.
I don’t have Netflix, so presumably I could not see it even if I wanted to.
Whatever problems these two people had surely there were better ways of fixing or coping with them than this
@Dave Harris: probably less lucrative, though.
Awful pair of doses
I ticked no and not interested but now I wonder what all the fuss is about and after reading the comments here I wonder if I might be tempted to watch a bit so I can understand what all this fuss is
Saw the whole thing out of pure curiosity and I can honestly say it was the most self-indulgent crap ever.
Each episode was a whole hour of them with their persecution complex and Meghan promoting her profile all the time. Pure rubbish.
The journal censor out in force again today . Why was my comment removed .What was wrong with it This is like Putins Russia
I have read small parts of the avalanche of press over it and have no intention of watching such drivel. Car crash TV starting the royal Family of the UK, give me a break. I did not watch the weddings, the funerals and wont be watching the coronation. Why? I am Irish and they are the British Royal family, I don’t follow any royal family. So why should the British one be any different.
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