ALL OF US HAVE A ROLE IN THE WORK FOR A
NEW IRELAND BY MAIRÉAD FARRELL In her book ‘The Deficit Myth’, economist Stephanie Kelton reminds us that, while public debate today is dominated by discussion of the state’s fiscal deficit, there are other deficits that we have in society which receive comparably little attention; the good jobs deficit, the healthcare deficit, the infrastructure deficit, and the climate deficit. These are the deficits that really matter, but remain marginal to the concerns of very many policy-makers. It is obvious that the economic and social potential of Ireland has been stunted by the two partitioned states on this island. The mandate that Sinn Féin received at the 2020 Leinster House election was undeniably rooted in an instinctive desire for a different way forward. It was a departure from a neoliberal economic framework that has given us a deeply harmful housing crisis, a health system that does
We now begin to track possibly our most challenging course yet as we move toward the final stages of bringing about a United Ireland and the socialist republic that has been envisioned by our heroes over hundreds of years
• Sinn Féin’s mandate was undeniably rooted in an instinctive desire for a different way forward
not serve the needs of its people, increasing levels of precarious and under-employment, and a privatisation model that targets our public services. Sinn Féin is now in the strongest position since before both Partition and the Civil War to articulate and bring about a new, progressive political culture in Ireland. There will be many challenges to this and we should certainly not underestimate the infinite capacity of those sections of the establishment committed to retaining and reclaiming a system that secures their privileges, power, and wealth. Unlike any other political movement in Ireland however, Republicans have been up against these conservative and
regressive elements all along. We now begin to track possibly our most challenging course yet as we move toward the final stages of bringing about a United Ireland and the socialist republic that has been envisioned by our heroes over hundreds of years, from Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken to James Connolly, Liam Mellows and, in later decades, Bobby Sands and Máire Drumm. We now have a huge opportunity to campaign for and achieve Irish Unity. This needs to be our focus and should be threaded through everything we do. As left Republican activists, we know that the successful passing of a referendum on Irish Unity, North and South, is just the first step in achieving national liberation and independence in Ireland, but it is an enormously important first step. Unity creates the potential for a rethinking and reimagining the
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