Comhbhrón

CONCANNON, Deepest sympathy is extended to the Concannon family on the death of their mother Mary. From the Ard Chomhairle, Republican Sinn Féin.

CONCANNON, Deepest sympathy is extended to the Concannon family on the death of their mother Mary, Harold's Cross, Dublin, who died 1 January 2000. From the Liam Mellows Cumann, Dublin Central.

CONCANNON, Deepest sympathy is extended to the Concannon family on the death of their mother Mary. From Comhairle Ceantair Átha Cliath, Republican Sinn Féin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the family and friends of Russell Farrelly on the death of his wife Dawn who was buried on December 22 last. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam usual. From the Carroll/O'Donovan Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, Dublin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly and family, Lucan, Co Dublin, on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn who died in December. From the Officer Board, membership and supporters of the Máire Drumm Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, Dublin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Russell Farrelly and family, Lucan Co Dublin on the recent death of his wife Dawn. From the CABHAIR Christmas Crew and the 'Second Sunday Raffle Committee'. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam usual.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly, Dublin, on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From Comhairle Ceantair Átha Cliath, Republican Sinn Féin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From Bernard, Inchicore and John, Clonsilla.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From Wolfe Tone Cumann, Tamhlacht, BÁC.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From the Liam Mellows Cumann, Dublin Central.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From the Ann Devlin Cumann, Dublin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From Patrick Cannon Cumann, Raheny, Dublin.

FARRELLY, Deepest sympathy is extended to Mick Farrelly on the death of his daughter-in-law Dawn. From the O'Conaill/Sands Cumann, Blanchardstown, Dublin.

McCARTHY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the wife, sister and brother of the late Tom McCarthy, Dundalk, who passed away suddenly over the New Year. From the Willie Stewart Cumann, Dundalk.

O'DOHERTY, Comhairle na Mumhan extend their deepest sympathy to the family of Éamon O'Doherty, Co Tipperary, who died recently.

O'DOHERTY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the family of Éamon O'Doherty, Co Tipperary, who died recently. From Bobby and Geraldine McNamara.

O'DOHERTY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the family of Éamon O'Doherty, Co Tipperary, who died recently. From the Seán Treacy Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, Tipperary town.

O'DOHERTY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the family on the sudden passing of Éamon O'Doherty, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary. Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam uasal dílis.
And though we part in sorrow,
Still Seán Ó Duibhir a cara,
Our prayer is God Save Ireland
And pour blessings on her name.
May her sons be true when needed,
May they never feel as we did,
For Seán Ó Duibhir a Gleanna,
We're worsted in the game.
Philip Kent, Toronto, Canada.

O'HALLORAN, Deepest sympathy is expressed to Paddy O'Halloran, Thomond Gate, Limerick on the unexpected death of his mother, Mary. From Republican Sinn Féin, Limerick.

O'HALLORAN, Deepest sympathy is expressed to Paddy O'Halloran, Thomond Gate, Limerick on the death of his mother, Mary. From Joe Lynch, Limerick.

TUOHY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the wife and family of Joe Tuohy, Tralee, Co Kerry who died suddenly on December 5 last. From Kerry Comhairle Ceantair, Republican Sinn Féin.

TUOHY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the wife and family of Joe Tuohy, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry who died suddenly on December 5 last. From Michael Mitchell, Castleisland, Co Kerry.

TUOHY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the wife and family of Joe Tuohy, Republican socialist, Tralee, Co Kerry who died on December 5 last. From Margaret and John Houlihan and Mrs Doherty, Currow, Killarney, Co Kerry.

TUOHY, Deepest sympathy is extended to the wife and family of Joe Tuohy, Connolly Park, Tralee, Co Kerry who died on December 5 last. From Danny Leen, Brosna, Co Kerry.
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I gCuimhne

McGUIRK, Dermot -- 2nd Anniversary. In proud and loving memory of my husband Dermot McGuirk, Dublin, who died January 4, 1998. Never forgotten and sadly missed from Cathleen Knowles McGuirk.

Ó Conaill, Dáithí -- 9th Anniversary. In proud memory of Dáithí Ó Conaill who died January 1, 1991. Never forgotten by Cathleen Knowles McGuirk, Dublin.

IN PROUD memory of Seán Mulcahy, Budgie Callaghan, Jack Nolan, Joe Nash, Jimmy Barry, Jim Healy, Alf Larkin, Paddy Ryan, Jimmy Wallace, John Sheedy, Paddy Smith, Paddy Greaney, Con Greaney, Willie Gleason, Rodlum McNamara, Tommy Moloney, Packie Sheehy, Tadg Fitzgerald, Pa Healy, John O'Shaughnessy, Jackie Hassett, Dominic Kennedy, Con Colbert, Matt Sheedy, Capt Danford, Jack Brown, Mick Brody, Lanty Hanaghan, John Nalty, Mayor O'Callaghan, Shells Costello. Limerick and Clare Republicans. Always remembered by Republican Sinn Féin, the Republican Movement and Na Fianna Éireann, Limerick.
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Beannachtaí

CONGRATULATIONS to Martin Calligan, Kilmurry McMahon, Co Clare on his 87th birthday, a true Republican since birth. From Joe and Nora Lynch, Limerick.

CONGRATULATIONS to Martin Calligan, Kilmurry McMahon, Co Clare on his 87th birthday. From Republican Sinn Féin, Limerick. Tiocfaidh Ár Lá.
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New Year's Greetings

BEST wishes to Josephine Hayden for the New Year. From Bobby and Geraldine McNamara, Tipperary.

BEST wishes to Michael Hegarty for the New Year. From Bobby and Geraldine McNamara, Tipperary.

NEW Year's Greetings to all Republican prisoners in Portlaoise, Limerick, Maghaberry and Hydebank prisons who will not accept Leinster House, Stormont, Westminster or British Mercs. From Republican Sinn Féin, Limerick.

NEW Year's Greetings to Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Hydebank, Limerick and Portlaoise prisons. From comrades in Belfast.

NEW Year's Greetings to Josephine Hayden, Republican POW, Limerick jail and her comrades in Portlaoise jail. From the Liam Mellows Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, BÁC.

NEW Year's Greetings to Eddie Grieve, Long Kesh. From the Lynch family, Limerick.

NEW Year's Greetings to all readers and supporters of SAOIRSE in Clare and Limerick. From Republican Sinn Féin, Limerick.

NEW Year's Greetings to Josephine Hayden, Limerick jail. From the John Whelan Cumann, Liverpool, Ó Conaill/FlanneryCumann, London, Fitzsimmons/McDade Cumann, Midlands, and Glasgow Republicans.

NEW Year's Greetings to Tommy Crossan, Maghaberry prison. From the John Whelan Cumann, Liverpool, Ó Conaill/Flannery Cumann, London, Fitzsimmons/McDade Cumann, Midlands, and Glasgow Republicans.

NEW Year's Greetings to Mick Hegarty, Seán Moore, Martin McGrath, Robert McGilloway, Gerard Moyna, Portlaoise jail. From the John Whelan Cumann, Liverpool, O'Conaill/Flannery Cumann, London, Fitzsimmons/McDade Cumann, Midlands, and Glasgow Republicans.

NEW Year's Greetings to Mick Hegarty, Seán Moore, Martin McGrath, Robert McGilloway, Gerard Moyna, Portlaoise jail. From Brendan Casey, London.

NEW Year's Greetings to Liam Grogan, Anthony Hyland and Dan Mulholland (England). From Rose Lynch, London and Pat McDonnell, Liverpool.

NEW Year's Greetings to Paul Wells. From Rose Lynch, London.

NEW Year's Greetings to Brendan Burns, Hydebank. From Rose Lynch, London.

NEW Year's Greetings to Eddie Grieves. From Rose, Paddy and Bev (England). I will love you always xxx Rose Lynch.

NEW Year's Greetings to Tommy Crossan, Maghaberry. From Pat McDonnell, Liverpool and Rose Lynch, London.

NEW Year's Greetings to Seán Braniff, Jan Taylor and Dingus Magee. From Pat McDonnell, Liverpool and Rose Lynch, London.
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What They Said

Only a few of the [Provisional] Sinn Féin Assembly team did not have IRA pasts, he [the DUP's Cedric Wilson] said. Mitchel McLaughlin was regarded as a "bit of a draft-dodger" in Republican circles, he said. And for once, everyone – except poor Mr McLaughlin – smiled.
— Irish Times report on Stormont debate, November 30, 1999.

There is criticism from Republican Sinn Féin that they are just talking shops. They are not talking shops but neither are they going to take over the role of administration.
— Reg Empey, Ulster Unionist Stormont Minister, Sunday Business Post, December 12, 1999. What Republican Sinn Féin said was that the Cross-Border bodies "would remain powerless showpieces". His own leader, David Trimble said in December 1998 that the bodies would have "no significant function".

It is in the nature of things, certainly if history tells us anything, that Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brún may yet face the type of decisions which confronted Kevin O'Higgins in 1923 and Éamon de Valera in 1939 in dealing with their former comrades.
— Drapier, Irish Times, December 18, 1999.

[Provisional] Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are to be given offices in Westminster without having to swear the oath of allegiance to the Queen, according to reports. However, they will not be allowed to enter the Commons chamber.
— Sunday Tribune, December 19, 1999.

Gerry Adams is sounding more and more like a clone of John Hume with every day that passes.
— Journalist Gerald Barry, News at One, RTÉ Radio One, December 19, 1999.

Few bothered to point out that the SDLP refrained from comment on the incongruous sight of the north's education minister, Martin McGuinness, standing at a microphone exulting at the inception of a body [North South Ministerial Council] which is a pale reflection of the Council of Ireland he devoted himself to destroying 25 years ago. He has that much at least in common with Trimble and Sir Reg Empey, both leading lights in the extremist Vanguard movement of the same era.
— Columnist Brian Feeney in the Sunday Tribune, December 19, 1999.

The NSMC (North South Ministerial Council) is a far cry from the comprehensive Council of Ireland envisaged in 1921. . .
— Brian Feeney, do.

The six implementation bodies represent only half of those earmarked in the [Stormont] agreement. Nationalists will be pressing for the other six to be up and running as soon as possible. Unionists won't. Already the whole process is over a year late.
— Brian Feeney

Any further progress will have to be based on agreement. In Trimble's words: "Where there is agreement it will be with our agreement". In other words, unionists have a Veto over further developments.
— Brian Feeney.

Linda [Sutherland], who was 12 when her oldest brother, Johnny, was killed, said they "knew" there was an official cover-up after the [1974 Dublin and Monaghan] bombings. "Why are they still covering up? It was the biggest mass murder ever. All those people lost their lives for nothing and hundreds more were maimed and scarred for life. "It's time now for answers. We are not going away. We will fight to the end for them."
— Evening Herald, December 20, 1999.

Two years ago at our Saint Patrick's Day Dinner here in Scranton, Pennsylvania, we were privileged to have Gerry Adams, President of [Provisional] Sinn Féin, as our main speaker. He identified denial of civil rights to Catholics in Northern Ireland (sic) for the last 80 years as the cause of the Troubles.
— Provisional member James Byrne, Letters to the Editor, Irish News, January 3, 2000. So the SDLP were right all along - it was all about 'Civil Rights'! and how wrong Republican Sinn Féin is to continue saying it is about the British presence!!

Their own first cousins, Fianna Fáil.
— Ruairí Quinn, 26-County Labour Party leader, description of the Provisionals close relations to Fianna Fáil, Irish News, January 5, 2000.
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Anti-poor, anti-women, anti-family Budget

The 26-County Budget 2000 was unfair, lacked vision and squandered the substantial resources which were available to the Dublin Administration.

Charlie McCreevy — an accountant's budget

That was the response of CORI (Conference of Religious in Ireland), the organisation who, in regard to social and economic issues have been described by commentators as "the only real opposition" to the cosy Leinster House consensus. We publish part of their response to the FF/PD Budget here:

The Budget was unfair because it failed to use the small proportion of the available resources needed to eliminate income poverty.

It was unfair because it distinguished between the so-called "deserving" and "undeserving" poor (ie the elderly seen as "deserving" and the unemployed seen as the "undeserving"). It was unfair because those who were already better off gained far more than those who were, and remain, poor.

This Budget was anti-poor. Government was faced with a wide range of choices and it chose the rich. Benefits were skewed towards the better off, giving them substantial gains, and against the poor who were left, once again collecting crumbs from the Celtic Tiger.

The Budget was anti-women because it discriminated against women because it discriminated against women who wish to stay at home.

It was anti-family because it favoured single people and gave very little benefit to children and to families who decide to have one parent stay with their children in the home rather than take up employment. This was a deeply divisive Budget.

Squandered

There were more resources available to the Government this year than ever before. It could have used these resources to eliminate income poverty, to tackle child poverty and childcare problems, to take everyone on the minimum wage out of the tax net, while still having enough to address disabilities, healthcare, homelessness and adult literacy problems.

It could have given everyone with a job the same benefit from the tax changes but chose instead to give the big benefits to the better off.

This is a scandalous squandering of resources and is indefensible in the context of the poverty and social exclusion that is still so prevalent throughout the country.

This is a very unfortunate beginning to the Millennium and leaves many people with no reason for rejoicing.

IGNORED

The Minister for Finance spoke of the Government drawing its mandate from the will of the people and cited the General Election of June 1997 to support his reduction of tax rates. In doing this he ignored the recent Irish Times/MRBI poll (November 6, 1999) which showed clearly that the people favour social spending over the reduction of tax rates. It was clear from this poll that there was a clear mandate for budgetary resources to be more fairly distributed and for a balance to be maintained between equity and productivity.

This was an accountant's budget. It tried to meet the demands of those who see success in Budgetary terms, as developing a better environment for investment and competitiveness while ignoring the centrality of social inclusion to these very issues. It was totally blind to the needs of those who are unemployed or have low paid jobs.It was also blind to those who cannot access well-paid jobs because of ill-health, poverty or disability. It failed to address major issues in areas such as the environment, rural development or economic and social sustainsability.

It was a Budget that lacked the vision we need in our politicians if we are to see the emergence of a just, fair and sustainable society in the 21st century.
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