A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
Greetings from Ireland. After two weeks traveling coast to coast from New York, Boston, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and up to Vancouver, I am now back home.
To all those I met along the way, thank you for your continuing support, good humour, and commitment to Ireland.
The trip finished up with successful Irish Unity Commission hearings in San Francisco and Vancouver. Two very different cities, but at each meeting, there was a shared love of Ireland and a belief that we can and will unite our country.
The Irish Presidential election at the end of October was one of the points of conversation. This week, nominations for the position closed, and three names will be on the ballot paper: Heather Humphreys, a former Irish Government Minister, is supported by her party Fine Gael, Jim Gavin, a former Dublin Football manager, is supported by Fianna Fáil, and Catherine Connolly, who is an independent TD from Galway.
Sinn Féin, after a wide consultation with its members over the summer months, has thrown our party’s support behind Catherine Connolly.
Connolly is also supported by all of the main opposition parties, Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, and People Before Profit.
In essence, the election will a choice be between the current government party candidates, Humphreys and Gavin, against a united opposition candidate, Connolly. This will be a first in recent history in which an agreed opposition candidate will go head-to-head with the government. If Connolly wins, the office of President will again be wholly independent and separate from a government party.
In the Dáil, Connolly has been an outspoken critic of the government and an advocate for workers, communities, and equality. As a proud gaelgoir (Irish language speaker), Connolly portrays a confident vision of a modern Ireland rooted in a love of Irish Culture.
The term of office of Uachtarán na hÉireann (Irish President) is seven years. It is entirely possible that the incoming President could preside over the ending of partition in Ireland. In this regard, Catherine Connolly has spoken of the need to plan and prepare for Irish Unity. A call that the two government candidates refuse to make.
These are all the reasons that Sinn Féin has decided to back Connolly. An agreed cross-party candidate with a vision for the Irish Nation well beyond the narrow vision of the parties of government that are bound to an outdated, partitioned Ireland.
In both Vancouver and San Francisco, John Finucane, the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, reminded the audience that he, like them, could not vote in this election. The government parties continue to block the extension of voting rights to Irish Citizens in the North of Ireland and those citizens living abroad.
The President is an important guardian of the Constitution of the Irish Nation. The constitution, which describes Irish Unity as the “will of the nation,” not as a bland and distant aspiration.
We all need a President who will act on behalf of the whole island and nation abroad. A president who will be ambitious for Ireland. The campaign is underway, and I, for one, will be supporting Catherine Connolly.
Have a great weekend,
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
