Gerry Adams address to Ógra Shinn Féin National Congress 09

Go raibh maith agaibh as an seal le bheith ag labhairt libh inniu, ag comhdháil Ógra Shinn Féin agus tá fáilte romhaibh uilig anseo fosta.
Fáilte go Beál Feirste.
I want to commend Ógra, its National Executive and membership for all of your dedication and hard work in the last year.



A special word of thanks to Barry mcColgan who steps down this year as National Organiser and failte to Donnchadh O’Laoghaire from Cork who will be taking over.
These are difficult and testing political times.

The recession is hurting citizens across this island and there are major international issues that concern Sinn Fein and the Irish people and which Irish republicans must be active on.
Sinn Féin also faces significant challenges as we seek to advance our primary goal of Irish reunification; secure the transfer of powers on policing and justice, and make the partnership political institutions in the north workable and effective.
Achieving this means continuing to build political strength.

Ógra has a key role to play in this and in strengthening and growing the party.
This year you have been involved in a wide range of activities, including:
- the ‘Educate to be Free’ campaign against the re-introduction of 3rd level fees;
- commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Na Fianna Éireann;
- mobilizing against the government’s economic policies and cutbacks;
- protesting in support of the Palestinian people;
- as well as holding a number of successful youth events (National Youth Camp in Knockatallon, - Slogadh na nÓg in Rathcairn and the Tyrone Hungerstrike Youth Weekend).

Ógra also organised:an intensive child protection training scheme aimed at putting100 young activists through child protection courses;
You delivered suicide awareness programmes through the PIPS lifeguard training and ASIST programme in communities and colleges across Ireland;
And you had a very successful freshers where 1,500 people applied to join Sinn Féin.

So, Comhghairdeas to everyone involved.
But there can be no resting on laurels.
We need an Ógra Cumman in every third level college.
We need an Ógra presence on every internet forum, blog and social networking site possible.
We need Órga Shinn Féin taking the lead on campaigns and in making Irish Republicanism relevant to young people across the island and in this changing world.

2009 has seen Sinn Féin significantly step up our campaign to achieve Irish reunification.
This is not some pie-in-the-sky aspiration for republicans.
This isn’t some irrelevant idealistic goal with no importance to people and communities.
Irish reunification is essential if society is to effectively and efficiently tackle the divisions that exist, including the class, regional and sectarian divisions.
Bobby Sands understood this.
In his prison diary, on the first day of his hunger strike Bobby described our new Ireland well when he said it would be a place in which the Irish people would “control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.”
In an earlier phase of struggle James Connolly also understood the devastating impact partition would have on Ireland and was implacably opposed to it.

In 1914 – 6 years before partition, he predicted that it would:
‘… would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements whilst it endured.

To it Labour should give the bitterest opposition, against it Labour in Ulster should fight even to the death, if necessary, as our fathers fought before us.’
Those words are as relevant to today’s Ireland as they were to the Ireland of 1914 or 1920.
Moreover, we have witnessed and lived through the economic, cultural, social and violent consequences of partition.
We have experienced its adverse affects.
We can see in the two conservative states created on this island, and the deeply flawed responses of the established parties to the recession, the negative affects of partition.
Partition and partitionism is inefficient, divisive, makes no sense on an island this small, with a population of just over 5 million.
Unionist opposition to equality and power sharing is a consequence of partition.

So, Sinn Féin is for Irish reunification and for fundamental change in society across this island.
The Good Friday and St. Andrews Agreements provide a legislative basis for tackling much of this – which is why some elements of political unionism are absolutely opposed to this new dispensation, while others seek to minimise, to dilute and to delay its potential.
For this reason making progress on the Transfer of Powers on Policing and Justice has been slow.

Significant elements of unionism fear change; fear equality; fear the institutional and legislative reforms brought about through a decade of very focused negotiation by Sinn Féin.
The Good Friday Agreement is the core of the new political dispensation.
The Good Friday Agreement accepts that it is for the people of the island of Ireland to determine our own future – to exercise our self-determination.
In the event that a majority of people in the north prefer a sovereign United Ireland then the British government will legislate for it.
The agreement also sets out the mechanism by which this will happen – by means of a ‘border poll’.

So, there you have it. The people living on the island of Ireland can determine our own future, and – when a majority in the north and a majority in the south opt for Irish re-unification, the constitutional process to bring that about will kick in.
Sinn Féin seeks to build on this by working in partnership with others of like mind in Ireland to build political support for Irish reunification.
There is a particular responsibility on the Oireachtas – the Irish Parliament - and particularly the government in Dublin to actively work for reunification.

We also have to persuade unionists – or at least a section of unionism – that such a development makes political, social and economic sense – that it serves their self-interest.
There is therefore an imperative on Irish republicans to reach out to unionists and there is a particular onus on republicans to spell out to unionists what sort of united Ireland we seek - one that is inclusive, built on equality and justice and human rights.
There is also an onus on the British government and the British people to accept that they have to stand up and support the reunification of Ireland.

Though the international economic downturn has been a major factor in the current economic crisis, the Irish government’s mismanagement of the economy, particularly during the boom years, has left the state more vulnerable than almost any other in the world.
Instead of dealing this crisis properly the government rushed through cutbacks attacking school children, the elderly and working families.
Over the last few weeks tens of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets to protest at government policies, including the withdrawal of the Christmas bonus, and to oppose the planned further cuts in the December budget.

On a visit this week to Dolphins Barn I met local people, active in their community in support of the most vulnerable, who are deeply worried that the Fianna Fáil/Green Party budget is likely to rip the heart out of that community.
The scrooge-like mentality of the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government knows no bounds.
It has consistently underestimated the severity of this economic crisis.
It has pursued a fiscal strategy which has not worked and which will drive hundreds of thousands more into poverty.
It has no real strategy to stimulate the economy or to create jobs.
The government has clearly indicated that next months Budget will be about cutting social welfare payments and the public sector pay bill, slashing health and education, and capital building budgets.

Sinn Féin is fundamentally opposed to these policies.
A more imaginative and alternative approach is needed.
There is a need for new and innovative planning.
Sinn Féin is for a Budget that invests in the future, creates jobs by building schools, hospitals, houses, the renewable energy sector, and business infrastructure.
Such a long term approach will take the pressure off now while helping to solve longer term problems.

Sinn Féin has detailed proposals in our pre-Budget submission to raise €7.623 billion.
With this money the state can create a package to reduce the deficit by €3.7 billion and a stimulus package to encourage the economy.
The reality is that the economy can be turned around in a fair and equitable way.
On Monday Sinn Féin will publish our Pre-Budget Submission and we will put it directly to the Government in the Dáil debate on Tuesday.

So, Sinn Féin and Ógra Shinn Féin face many challenges in the time ahead.
Are we equal to those challenges? Yes.
I believe we can and will succeed.

Our journey’s end is a free Ireland; a reunited Ireland in which the words of the 1916 Proclamation will find fulfilment.



The Proclamation speaks to all of the Irish people; nationalist and unionist and republican; to our men and women and children; to every citizen it guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally.
The achievement of these universal values will fulfill the dream of centuries of Irish patriots.