Ireland of Equals Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Ard Fheis speech by Billy Leonard, SF Councillor on Coleraine Council

134. This Ard Fheis applauds the work of our elected representatives, to
build All Ireland campaigns to impact on the persistent refusal by the two
governments to meet the needs of the people in the provision of essential
social services, and recognises that it is only through well organised all
Ireland campaigns that the deplorable policies of the two administrations to
cut back and to privatise key social services, can be reversed.
Ard Chomhairle

We have the book, we have the movie, in short we all have the all Ireland T shirt - Dermot Ahern has talked the talk, Peter Hain is starting to talk the talk and more people are now producing documents the substance of which has been around for quite a while.

But we have to be clear:

O2 and Vodafone won't unite Ireland by re-jigging pathetic charge structures.

Tourism Ireland won't unite Ireland when we still have the North surrounded by water on some tourism literature

The drive, the momentum and the politicking that will deliver a united Ireland will come from the people in this hall, our activists and supporters across this island. Make no mistake about it the Irish partitionists who have been co-opted into the establishment of separation will continue playing lip-service. This has been graphically demonstrated by people who can't even vote for a united Ireland when some of our elected reps propose a council motion.

And so in conjunction with all in the republican movement Sinn Féin elected reps will have to continue their good co-ordinated work on all Ireland campaigns.

Let me refer quickly to a couple of the many issues that affect my own area around E Derry.

The Ulster Canal -

If it was re-opened the boost for all Ireland tourism and the re-generation of many riverside towns and villages from the Shannon to the Bann estuary on the North Coast would be immense. Sinn Féin representatives are actively working to get this from rhetoric to vision to reality.

The railway:

Little Northeners are playing around with the Belfast to Derry line - they allow the line to be run down and then say that a section of it, Ballymena to Derry, might be lost because it is quote "lesser used". Of course it is lesser used - if you provide a pathetic service people have to use other means of transport.

Now the whole picture changes if you start to see the benefits of running the line beyond Derry into Donegal, take a sharp left to Sligo etc. While little Northerners intellectually recede into a 25 mile radius of Belfast, Sinn Féin campaign for the all Ireland vision of Derry to Kerry and Derry to Dublin.

And yes Sinn Fein representatives are working away at achieving this new reality.

So the days of rhetoric and reviews are over - it is time to deliver.

A Green paper on Irish unity would be a good start - and yes Sinn Féin is at the forefront of that all Ireland campaign.

I support motion 134.