Promoting Republicanism in the New Media

Be Honest Lads...

Republicans know the importance of getting the Sinn Féin message out there. We know as an organisation the difficulty of an anti-Republican and hostile media. In earlier days Republicans painted slogans and murals to articulate our message of resistance. That still has an important use, so does our paper An Phoblacht/Republican News. This newspaper allows us to communicate with our base in a straightforward and honest way. APRN cut through censorship that was imposed on us. Relying on television media like RTÉ, BBC or print media like the Irish Times, Irish News - or God forbid the Irish Independent would be crazy.

That is why it is vitally important to get our message out there. In the 21st century more and more people are getting their news from the internet. In fact in 2009 more people in Europe watched tv programmes via the internet rather than on an actually tv.

Ógra Shinn Fein and Sinn Féin have to continue to lead the way in using innovative ways of crafting and spreading the Republican message. We are already doing that via the various Ógra and Sinn Féin Youtube sites. Not to mention Youtube sites like TirEoghainlad which has 484,000 upload views. DaithiRFB which has 3,130,000 upload views or Markymark with over 6,000,000 upload views is Ireland’s number 1 political Youtube site.



Irishrepublican.net and our own blogspot are further examples of our presence on the internet.

This fantastic work is a credit to those comrades who work tirelessly to educate and articulate the Sinn Féin Republican message.

But can we do more? Of course we can, Sinn Fein led the ways in terms of Bebo, we were by far the largest party on that site. Bebo’s support is on the wane so it is vital that we do to Facebook what we did to Bebo.

Sinn Féin is already the largest Irish political party on Facebook but our presence is tiny compared to what it should be. Only 50 Sinn Féin and Ógra cumain are on the web in this way.

It is vital comrades take it upon themselves to set up local cumann sites and tell people in your area what Sinn Féin is doing for them at local and national level.

Just to emphasise this point - Sinn Féin from these counties have no presence on Facebook:

Antrim (Not including Belfast)
Armagh
Carlow
Cavan
Clare
Derry
Fermanagh
Kerry
Leitrim
Limerick
Longford
Tipperary
Tyrone
Westmeath

Lets get to work - tell people what we are about, what we are at and gain new recruits.