by Keith Richmond
In the wake of the last-minute deal with the DUP to save the power-sharing government at Stormont, and just ahead of a general election, Sinn Féin is holding a conference at the TUC called “Putting Irish Unity on the Agenda”.
Speakers at Congress House in London on Saturday February 20 include Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn, Alf Dubs, Diane Abbott, Kevin McNamara, Seumas Milne and Ronan Bennett.
Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty said: “The debate on the future of Ireland, and the relationship between these two islands, is of fundamental importance. It is about how we build a society in which the politics of partnership, equality and accommodation has primacy. A vision of an Ireland of equals which is at the core of our philosophy.”
This was, he said, true in the north, and means engaging with unionism, and also in the south, which has been hit particularly hard by the global recession: “With hundreds of thousands unemployed, many thousands of workers hit by pay cuts, and many millions more hit by savage cuts to public services in health and education, it is time for a serious shift in policy, for an alternative to those who failed the people and opted instead to protect wealthy friends and who have wasted billions of euros of public money bailing out the banks with almost no strings attached. We need investment, not cuts.”
He added: “Underpinning all this is growing support for the argument that partition holds back the Irish nation from winning its full potential.”
