Sinn Fein Alone
As Sinn Fein has become more active, members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically. The record shows, however, that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient. By John McHugh
During the last election, Patsy Wright, a Sinn Fein member of Athy UDC, met Alan Dukes and they had an argument about Section 31. According to Wright, Dukes told him that Sinn Fein could go on the radio whenever they handed up their guns. Wright argued that Sinn Fein had no guns. "Would you ever fuck off," Dukes replied.
Six months later, however, in June 1983 Joe Bermingham, Minister of State, invited Wright to the opening of a new Garda Station in Athy. Wright declined the invitation. He s:tiC' that he would not attend such an opening until there was a thirty-two county republic.
The Government's attitude towards Sinn Fein has hardened considerably in the past eight months. This hardening followed the Dublin Central by-election, the deaths at Ballinamore, ad the Harrods bombing. The main result of this tougher approach is the em bargo on dealings with elected public representatives who are memmbers of Sinn Fein. This embargo was started by Labour Ministers and beecame Government policy on February 21. It has caused intense bitterness and confusion.
There was, for example, the prooposed civic reception for Dick Spring in Midleton, during the Euro elecctions.
Ted Murphy, the Fianna Fail chairman of Midleton UDC, was approached by two local Labour Party officers, Eddie Allen and Billy Murphy, about arranging a civic reception for Dick Spring. Spring was due to visit Midleton while touring the Cork area. Murphy says he agreed readily.
Days before the visit Spring reefused the offer of a civic reception. The problem was Charles Ronayne, a Sinn Fein member of the UDC, who would also be present. Murphy was not impressed; "As an elected public representative himself it is disgraceful that Mr Spring will not meet a fellow elected public representative . . . The Tanaiste, in refusing to meet the urban council, is acting like a dicctator. "
The next day Spring issued a stateement saying: "1 would not for the world have wished to offend the people of Midleton, or their elected representatives, in this way." He pointed out however that for him to attend a function at which a Sinn Fein member would also be present would be in contravention of the Government's decision not to deal with Sinn Fein. He said he would be writing to the council to express his regret at the upset caused and to suggest a separate meeting with Ted Murphy.
Murphy refused to meet Spring and the letter which expressed regret at the "annoyance" caused by the incident was rejected at the council's next meeting. Murphy thinks the affair did not help the Labour Parry locally: "1 reckon they didn't get ten votes from Midleton as a result of that. "
From bitterness to confusion. Gallway County Council elected a Sinn Fein chariman in 1979. This election marked the installation of the first non Fianna Fail chairman since 1934.
To wrest this position from Fianna Fail, all the other members of the council had to band together. This alliance included members of Fine Fael, Labour, Sinn Fein and Indeependents, and it had a majority of one over the combined Fianna Fail vote. This alliance has since elected three Fine Gael members to the chair.
There are two Ministers of State on Galway County Council: John Donnellan and Paul Connaughton. Donnellan seconded Frank Glynn of Sinn Fein for chairman in 1979. Paul Connaughton, is a member of Galway Committee of Agriculture, whose current chairman is Patrick Ruane, also of Sinn Fein. Connaughton says he fully supports the Government's position on Sinn Fein and as a Minisster of State he would not meet public representatives who are members of Sinn Fein. Connaughton does not see any contradiction between this stance and his willingness to work with Glynn and Ruane on Galway County Council and Committee of Agriculture. He distinguishes between his role as Minister and his role as a councillor. He feels that the two Sinn Fein counncillors and himself were elected to the same local authority and that in order to do his job as a local represenntative he has to attend meetings at which they are present.
He is not so sure about his conntinued participation in the electoral alliance which has elected a member of Sinn Fein and members of Fine Gael to the chair in the past. He says that he would have to seriously connsider the question of whether or not he would vote for one of the Sinn Fein councillors for the chair in the future. He feels that the position has changed since 1979 and that Sinn Fein now has a much closer relationship with the IRA.
He would, he says, talk to a deleegation from the council, with Sinn Fein members present, in Galway, so long as they were dealing with local issues. However, if such a delegation were to try to meet him in Dublin the question of whether or not he would meet them would be a matter for Government and he would abide by the Government's decision.
At the last local elections Sinn Fein won thirty seats on the State's 117 local authorities which represented an increase of ten seats. There are five Sinn Fein Town Commmissioners; two in Ballyshannon and one each in Gorey, Loughrea and
Passage West. There are twelve Sinn Fein Urban District Councillors (there were fourteen elected but two have since resigned). These councillors are members of the following UDCs: Midleton, Cavan, Tipperary, Carrickkon-Suir, Athy, Monaghan, Listowel, Clones, Dundalk, Buncrana and there are two councillors in Bundoran.
Eleven Sinn Fein county councilllors serve on nine county councils. Louth, Clare, Kerry, Donegal, Rosscommon, Cavan and Leitrim have one member. There are two members on both Galway and Longford County Councils.
So altogether there are now twentyysix members of Sinn Fein holding twenty-eight seats on different local authorities around the country. (The two Urban District Councillors who resigned bring the total number of seats down from the 1979 figure.)
On February 1, Eddie FUllerton, who had never before been refused access to a Minister, was told that Environment Minister, Liam Kavanagh would not see him. Fullerton, part of a delegation which had gone to Leinster House to discuss proposals for a sewerage scheme, says he had a meetting with Alan Dukes last autumn and that there had been no problem then.
On March 9, Liam Kavanagh open ed a road between Donegal and Ballyyshannon. Eddie Fullerton, as a memmber of Donegal County Council was at the opening and he says he was stannding beside Kavanagh. Afterwards there was a lunch, during which he claims he was sitting opposite the Minister. Later on there were two delegations to see the Minister, one from Bundoran UDC and one from Ballyshannon Town Commission. There were Sinn Fein members on both. Things got heated when the Minister said that he wouldn't meet delegations with Sinn Fein members present. Both sets of Sinn Fein memmbers withdrew but there was some confusion about the Minister's refusal to see Fullerton in February, his attenndance at functions at which it would be reasonable to expect Fullerton's presence and his subsequenr refusal to see delegations conraining memmbers of Sinn Fein.
Fullerton claims that he was at the opening of an AnCO centre in Letterkenny a month ago at which the Minister for Labour, Ruairi Quinn, was present.
An example of a stricter attitude would be the proposed meeting beetween Labour Minister Quinn and Gorey Town Commissioners due to take place during a Ministerial visit to the town last February. Quinn would not discuss unemployment with the commissioners unless Sinn Fein Town Commissioner, John Sheehan was absent. The commissioners refused and the meeting never took place.
Sheehan was the cause of Minister of State, Michael D'Arcy's absence from the reviewing stand for Gorey's Saint Patrick's Day parade. D'Arcy could not get an assurance that Sheehan would not be on the reviewing stand and consequently decided to attend the parade as an ordinary spectator. Sheehan says that he did not get an invitation to an ash planting cereemony in Gorey to mark the GAA's centenary and that Minister D' Arcy was in attendance. Then on June 16 he says that Minister D'Arcy would not take a place on the platform for the launching of Feile na Gael in Gorey by GAA President, Paddy Buggy.
The Gorey Saint Patrick's Day parade was not the only one affected by the new Government policy. Patrick Cooney the Minister for Defence ordered members of the defence forces not to take part in any Saint Patrick's Day parades where mem bers of Sinn Fein were directly involved in reviewing it or organising it. There was no parade in Longford that day; the organisers felt that it would not be possible without Army cooperation and they said they couldn't give the army the undertaking necesssary to ensure their participation.
Other examples of the em bargo would be the refusal of Liam Kavaanagh to see a delegation from Longgford County Council to discuss road improvements. The Sinn Fein member of the delegation, Michael Nevin withhdrew and the meeting then went ahead. Minister Kavanagh was accused of being anti-democratic. He did not think he was: "I have accepted the democratic will of the people of Longford and saw the deputation." He said that people who voted for Nevin, who was chairman of the County Council, "might not be .aware of Sinn Fein policy."
Frank Glynn who was elected by members of both the Fine Gael and Labour parties to the post of chairman of Galway County Council in 1979 and who has since voted for Fine Gael as well as Fianna Fail and Independent chairmen, was turned away from Leinster House on March 15. Minister of State at the Department of the Ennvironrnent, Fergus O'Brien, said that he would only meet a delegation from Galway County Council if Glynn abbsented himself.
Eddie O'Doherty, a Sinn Fein member of Carrick-on-Suir UDC, says that Minister of State, Eddie Collins, would not meet him on July 18. O'Doherty says that he wanted to talk to the Minister about the closure of a local industry.
Others claim they have not been so unfortunate. Pat Brady, a Sinn Fein member of Bundoran UDC, was at a function last spring in Killybegs at which Minister of State, George. Bermingham, was also present. Brady is a mem ber of the local VEC and the function was a prize-giving ceremony for students. Bermingham was attennding in his capacity as Minister of State at the Department of Education. Brady says that Bermingham said hello to him and that he feels he knew who he was.
County councillors are frequently plagued with requests for support at Senate election time and often they remain on the Christmas mailing list. One member of Sinn Fein, Fra Browne, even recalls getting a box of chocolates from Fine Gael Senator Joe Lennon at the time of the last Senate elections. They have often received requests for support from people on behalf of others and they have been asked to support members of other parties on certain local issues.
Before the ban many had had dealings with Ministers such as Dick Spring, Ruairi Quinn, Austin Deasy, Alan Dukes and John Bruton. The decision of the Government not to see them is important but even if there wasn't a general Government policy on the matter, Ministers Kavaanagh and Desmond could carry out a very effective embargo on their own. Environment and Health and Social Welfare are surely the two most immportant Departments for a local poliitician. Liam Kavanagh has made his position clear, the Donegal incident notwithstanding, and Barry Desmond has said that he would find it repuggnant to have a member of, Sinn Fein in his office, and that he would regard it as an act of political hygiene to have no dealings with him.
Barry Desmond was talking about a specific member of Sinn Fein, Phil Flynn, Vice President of Sinn Fein and general secretary of the country's largest public service union, the LGPSU. That union has several thouusand members working in the health sector and it is doubtful that Phil Flynn will be withdrawing from deleegations. •