Message to Grassrott Fianna Fáilers

Letter to the Editor for publication

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5 STEPS HOW GRASSROOT FIANNA FÁILERS CAN SHOW THEIR SHAME

23ú Samhain 2010

A Chara,
It is stunning that the whole Fianna Fáil hierarchy has no shame that they have ruined the country, sold out to the IMF and EU, and enslaved the people of this country for at least a generation. The self proclaimed Republican Party see no irony in the fact that they have effectively shredded the 1916 Proclamation in favour of the banks, and have betrayed the selfless patriots of the past who went out to try to free our country - many of whom paid with their lives. Those gallant men and women did not take up the gun for pensions, lavish expenses or chauffeur-driven cars.
Yet the Fianna Fáil organisation around the state perpetuate these patriots names in their branch names, etc. I know many ordinary grassroot Fianna Fáil people who are deeply ashamed and embarrassed by their party today, it’s gombeen leadership, and what it has inflicted on the Irish people.
These are decent, honourable people who feel betrayed by the treasonable arrogance of their Ministers, T.D.’s and Senators, whose only focus now is political survival, rather than democracy or the will of the citizens. To compel the insult on the Irish people, we then see the “renegades” on the airwaves calling for Cowen to go, trying to give the impression they are on the peoples side. What a joke!
Others are wasting peoples time sending out leaflets talking about things they are doing, which is mostly local council work. To those genuine Fianna Fáil people I say it’s time to take a stand.
If you are really serious about what you once were supposed to stand for, I propose the following actions, on this the week when we remember the 90th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Kilmichael Ambush and recently the deaths of Terence McSwiney and other Cork Republicans on Hunger Strike.
(1) Demand an emergency meeting of your local Cumann, and decommission the name of any Irish patriot in their names. True Irish patriots and the Fianna Fáil name should not be in the one sentence.
(2) Decommission "The Republican Party" from your title.
(3) Organise that all the members of the party at local level who have a conscience, assemble at a pre-arranged, publicised location, and publicly burn or tear up your Fianna Fáil membership cards, or better still, stuff them in the letterbox of your local Fianna Fáil constituency office.
(4) Sign a public pledge that you will not canvass or support Fianna Fáil candidates in the upcoming election (even if you cannot get yourself to vote for any other candidate)
(5) Ring, write, text, e-mail your local Fianna Fáil councillor, asking them all to follow your example.
I believe that the many decent Fianna Fáil grassroot members who are horrified and ashamed by the gangsterism of their leadership should have no problem in acting on these proposals if they are ashamed of their party and how it has betrayed not just the Irish people, but treated their own members with such disdain.
Is mise, le meas,
Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin,
Sinn Féin,
Cloich na Coillte,
Iarthair Chorcaí.