New People’s Movement ? November 22, 2018
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.trackback
As noted last week Peadar Tóibín left SF and was setting up a new Party …..
FORMER SINN FÉIN TD Peadar Tóibín has signed up two members to his new party since resigning last week.
A Sinn Féin councillor in Kildare Ide Cussen resigned from the party earlier today.
Former Cork Sinn Féin councillor Ger Keohane has also signed up.
There’s a series of Nationwide meetings kicking off in December
….
I imagine that other Councillors may well be unveiled at these meetings (Kildare, Dublin, Tralee, Cavan, Navan, Dundalk, Wexford, Mayo and Monaghan.) among the locations .
No word of an event in the North yet.
“Commemoration of lifelong Republican Frank Driver in Ballymore Eustace, Sat 24th November. Assemble in the main square at 11am. Main speaker Peadar Tóibín TD.”
https://twitter.com/Donagh/status/1063948799561875456
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Well, Toibín isn’t making the mistake others have made before of waiting waiting and allowing events to slip away. He’s a little bit of interest from the media at the moment, and clearly he intends to publicise this ‘new’ movement. IEL, what’s your thoughts on how this helps him in terms of retaining his seat and whether there’s any broader appeal? Interesting he’s keeping clear so far of the Mattie M’s and Ronan M’s of the world (emphasis on so far).
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He should keep his seat. He is right in steering clear of the likes of McGrath and Mullen (wasn’t he supposed to be setting up a party also) . He will also have to be very careful in who he accepts, be it anti vaxers, crazy pro life loons and so on.
It seems that it’s a Centre Left Pro Life Party that he is setting up.
A few ex SFers is a good start, he’ll need to attract others outside of that background. I really wonder will he be unveiling an ex FFer or the like at some of his meetings.
I’m surprised that there are no dates in the North yet, especially with the Local Elections due there next year.
Party won’t be huge but has potential for a few TDs and in the current climate possible coalition partners?
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He’s listed in the current register of political parties as being an officer of something called the “Human Dignity Alliance”.
Click to access 2018-10-26_register-of-political-parties-2018_en.pdf
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He must have been planning this for a while. Will be interesting to see how it develops.
I read that Clones in the Dáil? poster and my first thought was what has he got against that lovely Border town?
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Mine was he would oppose civil rights for cloned persons wouldn’t he, the bigoted ********.
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Is there much electoral mileage in building your policy platform on an anti-choice foundation? Being Renua-Left is not going to work in the long run.
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Not really, but he does seem to have prepared a wider platform. There’s an element of pro life FF voters that he might attract. If the FF/ SDLP thing goes ahead there may be an element of the SDLP tempted too.
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Some SDLP people at the FG conference at the weekend. Talk of one of them being a Euro election candidate down south.
Think it’s time the SDLP dissolved and let them all go hither and thither to FF, FG, realSDLP, Alliance, SF and Tóibin’s yoke.
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Exactly – talk about pre-selecting a shrinking consituency.
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Will there be an armed wing? 😀😀
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I shouldn’t go there even in jest, but it’ll have to be some kind of Mum and Dad’s Army.
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Former SF Councillor Risteard O’Fuarain will probably sign up at the Tralee meeting.
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I see there were 3 ex SF Councillors from Wicklow at The Frank Driver Commemoration where Peadar Tóibín spoke.
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So it could become the vehicle of choice for lots of ex-SF councillors and members. Thing is though, they are all ex-SF for loads of different reasons, mostly local rows ultimately around who will be the local top dog/candidate.
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Yes, however as said before if he gets anyone with a different political past than SF it signals that it’s something more than a pro life SF splinter group.
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But say he gets a load of ex-SFers, some ‘pro-life’, some ‘pro-choice’ and no-one else (some of those people mentioned as attending Tóibin-supported events left SF for other reasons than the termination of pregnancy issue). Then it’s more than a pro-life SF splinter group – it’s a mixum-gatherum ex-SF splinter group!
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I wonder what MacGough is thinking and Leahy,at 0%? They would seem to be fishing in the same murky waters.
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Another two Cllrs signed up today Gerry Ginty in Mayo (a longstanding Independent who has no SF links that I know of) and Seamie Morris who is ex SF.
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All those SFers who left over the last long number of years. Nothing became of pretty much any of them. Those lads in Wexford, the one who said Doherty reminded him of an insurance salesman :), and all the rest – they all pretty much disappeared without trace. SF seemed able to let them go, put up new people and keep the vote.
This is the biggest test now – Tóibín definitely has some heft. Still can’t see it amounting to much more than him though.
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A quote from last night’s debate in the Dáil from Tóibín.
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Tóibín didn’t like Coppinger calling him out on this;
https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2018-11-29a.359#g366
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It is not unreasonable to talk about India and China that way.
Racial stereotyping is stupid thing to say given the facts on the ground there.
Or are we supposed to say the wholesale termination of pregnancies because they are girls or forcing a one child policy is out of bounds for discussion.
I support the abortion legislation. It’s a good thing it’s here but that doesn’t mean I must pretend India and China aren’t the way they are.
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It is unreasonable to demand that records be kept of the marital status and ethnicity of women getting abortions.
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It was hardly out of bounds for discussion, as the below quoted paragraph from Coppinger (once Toibin let her speak) makes clear. What is wrong is making use of gender inequities in sections of society (sex-selection isn’t universal in India and China; and not exclusive to Asia, nor is misogynistic views like the ones that created the Magdalene laundries) as a tool to restrict abortion availability not only to people from these backgrounds (through racial profiling) but in a wider sense by creating barriers both bureaucratic and intimidatory like the ones implied by the Amendments Toibin and co. proposed.
And incidentally, here below is the amendment that Toibin was speaking on in the initial quote above in this sequence.
I think it’s fairly hard to see how that combined with the other amendments seeking documentation of ethnicity aren’t trying to institute racial profiling of women seeking abortions based on the racial stereotype that said women might be prone to seeking sex-selective abortions.
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FF Cllr Sarah O’Reilly in Cavan has quit FF to join Peadar Toibins new Party. First elected FF rep to join.
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