‘What a Sinn Fein Government could do for you: Towards a Beautiful Country!’ by Donal Lavery.

 We all need inspiration and motivation in life. Regularly, I find myself playing the ‘Now we are Free’ tune from the Gladiator film on my violin, and pondering, with the grandeur of youth despite greying hair, what sort of Ireland will emerge when Britain packs up and leaves. My grandmother used to have a saying, that ‘’Ireland was Ireland when Britain was just a pup; And, Ireland will become Ireland again when Britain’s buggered up!’’ With the divisions entrenched by Brexit across the UK state, that could be a reality happening sooner rather than later. But the point of my writings is to ask this : what do we do with the sovereign power that independence affords us? I don’t want to become part of a European Super-State, where we go from one set of colonial masters in London to another in Brussels. For those who are prepared to sacrifice liberty/sovereignty for the sake of ‘prosperity’ in the end will enjoy neither. I think of all these great anti-colonial leaders, like Gandhi and  Mandela, and how they sought the one thing which successive Free State Governments have been so keen to give away – Government by the people, for the people and of the people.

Irish reunification isn’t an ideal, it will become a reality with time and patience. Whenever a border poll or vote on the issue happens, we may fail the first time around in the face of massive opposition from all quarters (including some fair-weather friends who call themselves ‘’Nationalists’’ or ‘’Socialists’’, for Britain has many accomplices). But this will be a continual process every six years until one day, looking into the whites of the enemy’s eyes, we’ll snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when a sufficient number of people exercise that age-old right of overthrowing an old order and forming anew. But with power, as we are told, comes enormous responsibility. It isn’t acceptable simply to have a 32 county Irish Free State. We haven’t borne the brunt of militarism and British death-squads for centuries simply to achieve more crumbs on the plates of the hungry; No no! Put simply, we want the effing bakery!

DeValera once spoke of a noble image of fair maidens and cosy homesteads, with fields abundant with produce and factories busy with commerce. It struck a chord for its time but took no real account of the struggles of ordinary Irish people beyond the lofty confines of top-hats and fine whiskey. So here’s a contemporary outlook of what a real republican government could do for YOU.

Foreign Affairs – We as a nation have no business occupying ourselves with aiding the oppression of others when we suffered war and death for the larger portion of a millennium. Ireland must remain neutral and all American forces using her land and skies to wage aggression abroad must be told to leave, with an authoritative eviction notice from the Irish people. We respect that a brave number of folk in America trace their roots to these shores and we welcome them as exiled children of this land. But we can’t make the mistake of deeming the enemies of the American State to be our enemies. Any interventions we make abroad must always be to advance the only war worth fighting – that on world poverty. Other than this and using our influence for the common good of mankind, we’ll exert a foreign policy of ‘splendid isolation’, for we know all too well that no company is better than bad company.

The Economy – With the collapse of the Soviet Union and many former Communist states now embracing the Corbyn desire for a Keynesian model and the ‘mixed economy’, we should seek only to generate wealth as a means of advancing the living standards of the population as a whole. More taxable profits means more hospital beds and school places. This means regaining the right to our own currency, which we can devalue to invest in our infrastructure and the toiling sweat of our people. Firstly, let’s hire more scientists to scrutinise that machines and technology will develop at a rate to ensure that all of the daunting jobs that so dampen the spirits of the working-class can be carried out by computers who bear no scars and hardships.

Secondly, let’s have a real statutory commission made up of Trade Unions and experts to exert their knowledge, independent of Government, on what must be a mandatory minimum wage enshrined in law. In order to move away from centuries of forced emigration and exporting our children to the far corners of the globe, we may need to have a serious rethink about our relationship with the European Union. The level of our deficit and public expenditure has to be decided on the doorsteps of each province of this land, and not in the corridors of luxury or Brussels. I’m not proposing a Workers International state, for anyone who knows me even to see can tell that I’m certainly no Marxist. I want us to be more like Norway, statistically the most equal country in the world, where markets and the state work in harmony to equate the best living standards known to man. Universal Basic Income, as a reality and not a concept, will abolish from this land the evils of poverty and squalor, making them as remote as the wolves which once infested our forests.

All natural resources must be taken within public ownership and any profits generated from them deemed additional revenues for the expenditure of the Irish exchequer. No longer can we prostitute our dearest of assets on the market of international inequity and the tyranny of the corporation. The money garnered from these sources can be used to provide a wage increase to those working within the public-sector, who will then spend their additional earnings on increased purchase of goods and services delivered by the creativity of the private realm of the economy. If you’re a small to medium business with an enterprising zeal for products and services, new and known, we will be your best friends; for it is your sweat and tears which finance the upkeep of our hospitals and the maintenance of our roads.

The gist of our fiscal policy will be this: a knowledge-box mixed economy, leading the way in the ‘white hot heat of the technological revolution’, where the profitability of financial services will be redistributed to invest in developing indigenous manufacturing and commerce. We’ll manage the public finances so as to give you the ink and pages, in the form of resources, to write a best-selling book of your own life.

Education & Health – Being the most important aspects of governance to each and every household, we appreciate that neither of these sectors can be put out to competitive tender or marketization. We need both a National Health and Education Service, free at the point of need, and using technology to ensure a confident, informed and healthy electorate with the wind at their backs in this world. Encompassed in this must be free provision of nursery level education and childcare to get as many people into work as possible, increasing our revenue pool. Additionally, we can skill and train the current unemployed to help facilitate a National Care Service, to ensure that nobody in this country is left to the misery of isolation that regularly comes with old age and sickness. Irish people are known throughout the world as the most compassionate and caring towards their neighbours, so it’s about time we had a Government which reflects this ethos at home in all that we do. This must involve prioritising mental health to be as important as physical health, with each person having access to a psychologist in the same way they attend their GP, tackling the scourge of emotional hurt and turmoil that engulfs our fellow citizens.

Our Constitution – Like I said before, a 32 county Free State isn’t within our comprehension. We’ll establish a people’s forum, made up of the population, civic groups, academics and Government, to compose a real republican Constitution, guaranteeing all the ancient rights (including those set out by Habeas Corpus and the Magna Carta) and a Bill of Rights which reflects the contemporary needs of our people. Included in this will be a mandatory right to life, work, opportunities, education and the best standards of care. We’ll utilise the genius of the Irish nation to make this land the nicest place in the world to be born, to raise a family, to live in and to die. No Government will ever be able to come along and take away your fundamental rights and liberties, enshrined in a Constitution drawn up from the ethos and visions of 1916, without first obtaining permission in a referendum.

The Founding Fathers in America, testimony to their noble ideas (which inspired Tone & Davis), decided that the meaning of life and thus the state, must be ‘’life itself, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’’. Too often this was confused as ‘’life, liberty and the pursuit of property’’. Needless to say, everyone will have a home in Ireland, which they can own, that right will never be jeopardised. But nor will we make the mistake of assuming that the pursuit of wealth can masquerade as a means in itself towards a full and complete life. The dogma of Church Hierarchy and fundamentalism will know no place in the affairs of this country. In this respect, we won’t talk of the plausibility of an ‘American Dream’ made possible through subordinate hard-work – We’ll work to ensure you have the peace and quiet to securely live your own life from the cradle to the grave.

Parliament & The People – The current model of a Prime Minister, Cabinet Government and ceremonial President-elect must be reformed to ensure greater accountability. For one, we’ll enshrine in law mandatory voting every five years, so you always get the Governments you want. Additional seats may be created in the Seanad to appoint a sufficient number of people to adequately represent all sections of Irish society, including at Cabinet. A Federal Ireland, with a central government in Dublin and regional administrations in each Province, is the best way to offer security to Unionists in the North that they will still exercise some influence over the legislative process. There must be Cabinet Ministries for Women and Minorities, to guarantee that the open-air prison that was systemic discrimination becomes confined to the dustbin of history.

There are many who would think these ideas too radical or cosy to ever amount to the reality that is a solid parliamentary majority, which would be required to bring life to them. Perhaps their scepticism has some justification, given the toxic interference in Irish affairs by agents of an alien government and the connivance of the ruling clique. We have to remember also that Stormont and power-sharing (this temporary little arrangement), put simply, are a means of travel and not a destination in itself. But remember this, that when all is said and done, and the rhetoric of commentators and pundits (whether for or against us) becomes spent, we’re not a party of individuals or self-serving careerists. It is often opined that we didn’t get into the game of power to take part, we’re here to take over, and on that basis I write with a numerate realism – Our Majority need only be ONE.