I was at the Sinn Féin electoral launch in the Waterfront yesterday . OK, let me be honest, at most of the launch – I arrived just as Gerry Adams was getting to the end of his speech and expressing good wishes to Martin McGuinness and hoping for his full recovery.
If you look down through the Sinn Féin roster of candidates, you’ll see that a fair number of them are women and a fair number of those are running for the first time. I’d like to do profiles of all these people, but I’ll start with one I know – Nuala Toman (that’s her beside Mary Lou in the picture). She’s running alongside John O’Dowd and she’s got two matters that could be a disadvantage or an advantage. The two things are that her running mate is John O’Dowd and that the person she replaces is Cat Seeley.
John O’Dowd is in every sense a towering figure. He was interim Deputy First Minister when Martin McGuinness was off and he is an articulate, skillful politician. Being his running mate is a disadvantage in that you’re measured alongside him – a tough one. The advantage is that O’Dowd’s abilities are recognized by the electorate and that his popularity can carry over to his running mate.
Cat Seeley is a well-known name, given her work as a teacher in the Boys’ Model School and her removal from it when it was discovered that she was a Sinn Féin supporter. She has quit electoral politics because she had to choose between two careers, teaching and politics, and she chose the more secure option of teaching. Nuala Toman has the disadvantage of not having Cat’s recognisability factor, and the advantage of attracting attention because people will naturally want to know who Cat Seeley’s replacement is.
Nuala Toman has an impressive background. She’s got a Master’s degree in Social Research and Policy Analysis; she’s spent time in Africa working with orphans and vulnerable children; and she’s worked in Queen’s University at senior research level. She’s recently married and has a young daughter, which must make canvassing a lot of fun.
Predictably, she sees this election as a chance to reset political relationships here. Like all the other candidates, she’s determined that future working in government with the DUP, if it is to be, will be on the basis of real respect, with contemptuous mocking of the Irish language and dubious financial deals such as the gigantic cock-up that was and is the RHI scheme a thing of the past.
People vote for candidates taking into account a number of factors. They want to support the candidate’s party, they want a candidate that has the kind of background and ability that will play a worthwhile part in realizing their party’s objectives, and they know and like the candidate as a person. Given that she’s a native of Lurgan and has real breadth of experience beyond – academia, Africa – she seems a good choice as John O’Dowd’s running mate.
OK, I’m biased because I know Nuala Toman and like her, but I think she has the educational background and brains that Sinn Féin need in its coming generation of politicians. Adh mór ort, Nuala.
You’re just a sucker for a young pretty face,Jude. I’m torn between a big turn out for PSF and a slap in the mouth for the DUP and a poor turn out to put manners on PSF because they maybe think that the camel’s back could maybe take a wee bit more. Let them be careful.
Has Nuala any family background in republicamism.I only learned recently for example that Cat Seeley is a neice of John Francis Green who was killed by the SAS.
fiosrach
Which party in the election is PSF? Or is this something you imagine?
Are you calling the URDUP camels? Do they have one hump or two?
I refer to Provisional Sinn Féin and the camel I refer to is the nationalist electorate which is growing humpier by the day. Hope this answers your question or maybe you were making another point entirely?
Jude
Have you ever met a SF representative that was not wonderful in every way?
We know you are a supporter of the party so of course you will present them in a positive light.
But if they are all uniformly super, each one wiser than the last, then it is hard to take your endorsement too seriously.
But perhaps it is meant for traditional SF voters anyway.
Yes I have met some SF people that weren’t wonderful in every way – just as some of the commenters on this blog aren’t wonderful in every way. In fact if you’d been paying attention, gio, instead of talking, you’d have noticed I more than once remarked that frequently people whose opinions I totally reject are in fact very pleasant company. And vice versa. I know it’s very bad of me, and obviously decent people wouldn’t stoop so low, but I think SF have objectives and conduct themselves in ways that several other parties don’t. And as I say, I like Nuala. I like lots of SF people. Not all of them, but lots. I like some SDLP people too. And UUP. I even like Jim Allister (good example of someone whose views I reject but who I enjoy(ed) talking to ). If people from other parties – including unionist – would like me to do a profile of them, or an interview, I’d look at it with an open mind. So now. Have a think so you can come up with some other criticism, there’s a good llad…And btw, (i) when are you going to tell us who you are?(ii) When are you going to write a guest blog, so we can see in more detail what you think?
Jude
Thanks, that’s me told.
I was not really referring to their personal charms so much as their fitness for office or whether you can think of any who have been just inept. Must be one or two surely?
I have no problem with your admiration for SF but surely we can ask follow up questions?
As to my name I don’t see the need. Opinions can be debated on their merits and in fact probably should be without concern as to the identity or background of the opinionated one.
Gio
I note that that you have touched on one of Jude’s raw nerves!He seems unusually keen to know your identity!Presumably he’ll also be asking other posters such as Fiosrach and Sherdy to reveal themselves or is it only the occasional dissenters that he finds it hard to tolerate!
Argenta
Yes it often comes up if I have had a wee jab at him. I don’t mind.
Jude can be as uncritical of SF as he likes,that is his right.
But his analysis of their team would certainly carry more weight (for me at least ) if occasionally he found someone who was not quite perfectly suited for the task.
stop talking to yourself gio, it is a sign of insanity
Well you don’t have to be mad to comment on this site but…
But if they are all uniformly super, each one wiser than the last, then it is hard to take your endorsement too seriously.
Gio, if they are all uniformly super, none would be wiser than the last.
Sherdy
Yes indeed.
Fine pedantry!
I don’t know any party running called Provisional Sinn Fein As far as I am aware Sinn Fein is it’s name. Why do you insist on calling it Provisional SF when no such party exists especially on voting papers?.
It was their name choice in 1969. I think it was meant to mean that we are provisional until the real one comes along. But not sure. Maybe it was to distinguish them from Sinn Féin. Who knows?
This is 2017 Grow up.
This says you’re stuck in the past.
Ulster Resistance is also the past but I don’t see you mentioning the URDUP.
We camels can all play that game.
When exactly did they become Sinn Féin? Or did they just quietly assume the mantle? I get easily confused, Angela. You’ll be old one day,too.
Sinn Féin is the only Sinn Féin and the only republican movement / party on this island.
Your bad mouthing them isn’t going to change that
Your denouncing them isn’t going to change that
In fact, nothing you or anyone else can do or say could or ever will change that
“Sinn Féin is the only Sinn Féin”
It’s not. There’s also Republican SF.
“and the only republican movement / party on this island.”
Wrong again. All parties other than the unionist parties and Alliance are republican. In the pure ‘Irish republican’ sense, RSF, Workers Party, FF and I’m sure others would declare themselves republican.
“When exactly did they become Sinn Féin? Or did they just quietly assume the mantle? I get easily confused, Angela. You’ll be old one day,too.”
By around 1980, I think. Once the rea ‘official’l SF changed its name to the Workers Party , people started to drop the ‘Provisional’ when referring to the Provo faction. I suppose there was no need for differentiation anymore, but calling them simply SF does confer on them a republican legitimacy that they do not deserve.
I’m in my seventies fiosrach! And certainly not confused.
fiosrach should change his name to breisleach.
Jessica, bad mouthing, denouncing? What are you talking about? You’re probably too young to remember when there were two Sinn Féins. And Angela there is no such word as breisleach but I’m sure you remember two SFs.
I am not that interested to be honest.
I like where Sinn Fein are going and that is good enough for me.
I didn’t think that a Marxist Socialist republic would be your cup of tea,Jessica?
Marxism is proven flawed bullshit economic thinking
Will never happen and will not prevent the republic, why should it?
It was you who said that you liked where PSF was going. I was surprised,that’s all.
‘dubious financial deals such as the gigantic cock-up that was and is the RHI scheme a thing of the past’.
Jude, you and quite a few others still refer to RHI as a ‘cock-up’, and, being more cynical than yourself, I think you are letting the DUP off the hook.
Are they dumb enough to cock things up? Yes, but I don’t think that is the case here.
I am convinced that it was policy by those involved to pull another fast stroke on the unsuspecting electorate, and that corruption was indeed involved.
But of course I agree there is as yet no concrete proof of my assertion.
God, help us, are we depending on the forthcoming revelatory divine tablets of stone that Dissident-DUP man Jonathan Bell has promised to bring down from the holy mountain!
The only cock up Sherdy was going over the 660 million fronted by london.
Had they stayed within this, they could have continued their deliberate agenda to draw down public money directed to select unionists to buy up land and property.
I remember Official Sinn Fein and Republican Sinn Fein both splits from Sinn Fein.
The provisional bit was a media embellishment.
As to the word breisleach it comes from the same source as fiosrach.
“I remember Official Sinn Fein and Republican Sinn Fein both splits from Sinn Fein.”
You’ve got it the wrong way round. PSF split from SF. That’s why SF got the description ‘official’.
“The provisional bit was a media embellishment.”
It wasn’t. It came from their allegiance to the ‘Provisional Army Council’.
Who and when and where did Official Sinn Féin split from,Angela? Genuinely interested. But still no such word as breisleach. Maybe you’re confusing it with something else?
Oh Dears
“You’ve got it the wrong way round. PSF split from SF. That’s why SF got the description ‘official’.”
You mean The Workers Party
Same advice to you as to fiosrach Google is your friend.
“You mean The Workers Party”
No I mean SF. They didn’t become the WP until 1982.
“Same advice to you as to fiosrach Google is your friend.:”
I don’t need Google. In already know and understand the history. Unlike you.
Enough fiosrach Google will be friend….when you’re not confused that is. Best wait til the morning.
For once, l am in complete agreement with MT.
Not only is the race on, Esteemed Blogmeister, but the racism is too, albeit in the ma’amouflaged delivery of the DUPoll-topper.
If Arlene Foster (for it is she!) snarled in the same measured tones about say, let us take another language at random, let’s see, ah yes, f’rinstance, Hebrew, as Iníon Ní Cheallaigh (for it was formerly she !) does about the Leprechaun she’d soon enough be hissed at and dissed as a goose-stepper.
Ditto down here South of the Black Sow’s Dyke.
Where Pat ‘Patio’ Kenny not at all unwillingly played the role of – in his own rather rotundly-remunerated words – ‘played the role of Devil’s Advocate in the absence of Arlene Foster’.
Devil’s Advocate?
Eh?
That’s what the Darby O Gill of the DOBlin media said. The Perkin says: sexist language, sir ! What the h for hell is wrong with She-Devil’s advocate ?
‘Patio’ incidentally is short hand for South Dublln Dortlander. And is a nod and w. too towards the way Pat puts the pat into the compatibility between him and her, Kenny and Kelly: while she deals in flags he trades in, erm, paving flags.
Where he might differ from she is purely in the matter of verbal style: whereas Ms. Kelly (the origin of the species) prefers the staccato style one normally associates with, erm, a machine gun, Mr Kenny would be more inclined towards morphing the Liffey into the Rio Bland.
Indeed, Patio Pat’s spat-free chat has been compared to the deliberate unravelling of a spool of binding twine, though not quite as spell-binding. Even twine, especially binding twine, occasionally lends itself to being tied and this can be seen when the knots stand out in Patio Pat’s pulsating neck.
This tends to happen when the Leprechaun is under attack, oops, discussion in the shows (r and t ) of the Darby O Gill of the DOBlin media. Which phenom must be seen in the context of the Anti-Discrimination Legislation on Liffeyside.
Which newish Legislation has been numbered with the old Province of Ulster: specifically, the number, erm, Nine.
Nine is the number of grounds upon which discrminaiton is outlawed in the Equality Act of 1998:
-gender
-family status
-marital status
-age
-disability
-sexual orientation
-religion
-race
-membership of the traveller.community.
One might ask why the number wasn’t rounded off with the addition of language to the list by the Aunties of the Anti-Discrimination legislation; one indeed might.
So, why then indeed did the Frauleins of the Galiphate say nein, nein to the Number Zehn?
Well, even the mildest of Frauleins must be allowed the odd night off to don their Jill Boots and valk all over ze Untermensch who insist on sprechen der Leprekaunschen.
Thus, Patio Pat as surrogate of ma’am, the foster-child (as it were ) in the Jill Boots of Hausfrau Marlene, oops, Arlene, snarling thus:
-Thus we get these Gaeilgeoirí looking for their damn Irish-language forms just to be bloody minded about their so-called rights !
And the interrogatee in the romper room of Radio DOBlin?
-Sit up straight there Julian de Spáinn, Ard-Rúnaí Chonradh na Gaeilge while I,Patio Pat, as a Southern Yune grill you on behalf of our separated Brethern and Sistern, the Northern Yunes.
Imagine.
BIPOLAR, GIRLPOLAR
.
Having, erm, shinned up the greasy pole
Foster ’s in charge of population control
A heroine from Dublin
‘n all the way to Lublin
No Shins allowed, snarls Arl, up the poll !
Jude
“If you look down through the Sinn Féin roster of candidates, you’ll see that a fair number of them are women and a fair number of those are running for the first time. I’d like to do profiles of all these people, but I’ll start with one I know – Nuala Toman (that’s her beside Mary Lou in the picture).”
Why do you want to do profiles only of new PSF people?
Why not new SDLP people? Or DUP or UUP or Alliance or PbP or Green …? Why only PSF?
I
in your words Jude, Cat Seeley had to choose between two careers, well bully for her as they say in Lurgan, that we all had that choice and didn,t she step into her father,s old job, jammy I say,glad I didnt tramp the highways and byways to get her elected.
I would agree with you there Bridget.
I have to be honest I havnt heard a SF cllr, M.L.A etc in my town say anything or do anything that caught my attention that suggests they even know what they are doing. It seems to be pure optics bringing in young/female faces. However on their plus side I do like the sound of their free state brethren.
I have said it before, SF would be remiss to let this election evolve into an orange and green election. The very fact they have indulged the BBC etc with debates about irish language, Brit terrorists investigations etc suggests they are contented for it to be an orange and green thing. That to me tells a tale. SF are not out of the woods with this election; not by a long shot.
Irish language and investigating british state terrorism are not orange / green issues WT.
These are key issues that will need to be resolved with both states before Stormont comes back.
In fact they are more important to me than Stormont coming back.
Yes indeed Jessica, these issues are more important than stormont. They were more important 10 or 20 yrs ago too. Alas I will predict SF will return to stormont minus a lot of the wish list. I maybe wrong, indeed I hope I am, but I can’t get away from the fact SF often claimed stormont was ‘the only show in town’ I.e there was no alternative. Feichidh muid.
WT, do you believe the current support and popular opinion just appeared out of thin air?
Do you believe there was there an alternative way of achieving it?
“WT, do you believe the current support and popular opinion just appeared out of thin air?
Do you believe there was there an alternative way of achieving it?”
What ‘popular opinion’ are you talking about? The popular opinion I can see, and you have alluded to in previous posts, is that SF, and Martin McGuinness in particular, sat in stormont and rolled over whilst DUP did as they pleased. I would suggest the ‘alternative’ would’ve been not roll over and let the DUP do as they please? Ironically, that’s what SF are claiming they will do now. We will see. But I’ll say it again: the SF wish list is all good on paper and for sound bites, however I suspect to get stormont up and going again SF’s wish list will soon be forgotten.
Bridget
Could you possibly be inferring that M/s Seeley was lucky enough to be able to walk into a teaching job that her father had vacated?!!Surely not!!What about the equality agenda that her party is always preaching about?I’m sure lots of young teachers nowadays would like to be in her position.