Big weekend for Sinn Féin with the opening of its ard fheis in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on Friday.
A three-hour short programme sharpened Shinner appetites for Saturday’s packed agenda, culminating in Mary Lou McDonald’s presidential address at 6.30pm.
Party vice-president Michelle O’Neill delivered her keynote address at the start of proceedings on Friday evening, after an opening address by North Belfast MP John Finucane. Two hours later, there was another keynote address, this time from Donegal TD Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader in the Dáil.
But there was a treat in store for diligent delegates in need of a break from the speechifying. An intriguing fringe event was scheduled for 7pm in Room 1A, offering a “Kneecap Lyrics Workshop”.
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There’s no getting away from those bilingual Belfast rappers these days.
Kate Nash and Irish politics’ foundations
Meanwhile, English singer-songwriter and activist, Kate Nash, released an album of Irish songs earlier this month which includes a cover of Sineád O’Connor’s Famine.
The Sinn Féin TD for Kerry, Pa Daly, got a sneak preview of the song when he hosted Kate in Leinster House last December.
“I can pay her no greater compliment than to say that Sinéad would be delighted and proud of her fellow Irishwoman. A privilege,” wrote Pa afterwards.
The singer has strong Irish roots – her mother is from Dublin and she has cousins in Cavan and Athenry.
That visit to Kildare Street certainly struck a chord.
She recently wrote about how she finds it “shocking” that she wasn’t taught more about Ireland and Britain’s shared history during her school years adding: “I was lucky to be invited to Leinster House in December last year.
“I noticed immediately how different it feels inside the building in comparison to the UK Parliament, where I have also been invited over the past couple of years to talk about my experiences in the music industry & to give evidence.”
She talks about the intimidating formality of Westminster – “this scary formal place and a reminder of England’s history”.
But in the formal spaces of Leinster House she noticed paintings of people who “were revolutionaries and rebels, people my grandad would have looked up to, a stark contrast to the likes of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher & Tony Blair that line the halls in London”.
Kate also visited the Dáil chamber and sat in on a session of the Committee on the Good Friday Agreement Committee.
And she wondered what her Irish grandad would have thought of her being invited there.
Mayo Person of the Year
Congratulations to former first lady Sabina Coyne Higgins who was named Mayo Person of the Year last weekend.
Former president Michael D Higgins was all smiles as his wife accepted the Virginia Gallagher award at the Mayo Association Dublin gala in the Clayton Hotel.
An actor (she cofounded the Focus Theatre), a lifelong social activist and proud daughter of the village of Ballindine, Sabina was described by the Mayo Association as “a true advocate for a kinder, more equal Ireland”.
Among the guests at the top table was former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, who also hails from Ballindine. He kept his old party colleague company while Sabina collected her gong and engaged in a rather lengthy question and answer session with the MC.
Those Higginses love to talk.
“You’re not thinking of running in the Galway West by-election, by any chance?” enquired one of the guests when Sabina returned.
Michael D had his own moment a little later when a big cake was produced to mark his 85th birthday. The band stuck up Happy Birthday and everybody sang along.
He got many compliments for his recent speech at the Into congress. The general consensus was that it won’t be his last.
It was a great night.
Last year’s recipient, former TD and minister for State Michael Ring, was also at the top table along with senior counsel, John Gallagher (of Mahon/Flood Tribunal fame) and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill with her mother Mary, who is from Bohola.
They were joined by officials from the Mayo Association and the representatives of the Meitheal award winners, Cuimsiú Mhaigheo – an initiative by Mayo Comhaltas to encourage participation in competition and community events by performers with additional needs.
Dáil’s revised seating plan
The Healy-Raes are still grabbing headlines a week after Michael resigned from Government, stepping down as minister of State for forestry.
Talk of a rift between Micheal and his brother Danny – both of whom signed up after the general election to support the Coalition for the Government’s lifetime in return for one ministry and unwritten constituency concessions, surfaced very soon after they voted against the Government in a confidence motion.
Danny has been adamant that there was no rift in the Healy-Rae camp. He did an interview with Radio Kerry to stress this. “I didn’t influence him one way or the other ... whatever discussions that were had behind closed doors,” he declared.
DHR, a successful plant hire contractor, made no bones about the way he intended to vote in the wake of the fuel protests.
The night before the vote, MHR – who was part of the Government team which negotiated the €505 million fuel relief package – pledged his support for the Government.
On the day, their families sat apart from each other in the public gallery.
Now, the fallout from that fateful confidence vote is set to tear the formidable Healy-Rae organisation apart.
In an exclusive story this week, Aidan O’Connor writes in Kerry’s Eye of “War in the Camp” and reports that Michael “is cutting all political ties with his brother Danny” and planning to align himself with other Independents in the Dáil.
There was no sign of Michael in the Dáil this week.
O’Connor writes that he has taken the events “personally” and “poorly” and uncharacteristically withdrawn almost entirely from public engagements.
While his younger brother remains incommunicado and despite the comprehensive report in his local newspaper, Danny told The Irish Times on Thursday “there has been no falling out at all between us, none at all”.
The Great Schism may not confirmed, but the seating plan for the Dáil chamber gives us a clue.
Before the general election, Michael and Danny sat together in the small block of seating to the far right of the Ceann Comhairle’s chair. Independent Ireland and some Independents, including Danny, now occupy that area. There are two free seats in front of him.
In the revised seating plan issued on Tuesday following the ministerial departure, those two seats are still marked “inactive”. Danny remains in the back row at E-44 while Micheal is also in the back row, but half way around the chamber in E-27, 17 seats away with independents Gillian Toole and Michael Lowry on one side and a vacant seat on the other.
Abandoned Central Bank meeting
Apart from the Healy-Raes, another casualty of last week’s tumultuous confidence debate in the Dáil was an unlikely one – the Central Bank.
On the same day, its representatives were to meet the Committee on Budgetary Oversight to discuss the medium-term economic outlook. It was scheduled for two hours from 3.30pm in the afternoon.
The big vote in the chamber happened about 10 minutes earlier.
Chair of the committee is Independent Ireland’s Richard O’Donoghue. He issued a statement ahead of the meeting: “We welcome the opportunity to examine the State’s medium-term fiscal and economic outlook, including emerging risks to the public finances and the broader economy.”
They would look at “growing underlying vulnerabilities” in the light of recent international developments even though headline performance remains strong.
“We will consider prudent fiscal planning and how to provide targeted supports where they are most needed,” said O’Donoghue, a staunch supporter of the fuel protests.
Speaking of targeting supports, he got into a shouting match with the Taoiseach this week on capping the price of fuel.
“If you had done what I told you on a cap on the cost of fuel, you wouldn’t have had to introduce any package,” he told Micheál Martin.
“I’m not talking about a package for this person or that person. I want a package for everyone, and a cap applies to everyone, not just one sector,” said Richard.
His middle name is Prudence, but only when he’s got his Budgetary Oversight Committee hat on.
The discussion with the Central Bank never happened.
Nobody turned up – apart, it seems, from Fine Gael’s Grace Boland. The meeting was eventually abandoned and, after hanging around for ages, the slightly peeved people from the Central Bank left.
