Éire Nua: A New Democracy (Republican Sinn Féin)

Éire Nua: A New Democracy
Author	Republican Sinn Féin
First published	1990

“Is amhlaidh atá Gaeil na haimsire seo agus a bhformhór ceannaithe ag Gallaibh. Ní heol dóibh gurab amhlaidh atá, ach is ea. Táid tar éis a ndíolta féin ar ór agus ar airgead nó ar luach óir agus airgid. Tá an fear saibhir tar éis é féin do dhíol ar mhórán, agus tá an fear daibhir tar éis é féin do dhíol ar bheagán".

Sin mar a scríobh an Piarsach sa bhliain 1912. Ach ní raibh sé gan dóchas, mar san alt céanna dúirt sé:

"Tá drong bheag de Ghaelaibh nach bhfuil ceannaithe agus is chucu sin atáimid”.

Ní bhfuair Gaeil a saoirse i 1922 ná ó shin. Táid fós faoi cheannas Gall agus tá comharthaí agus torthaí an éigirt sin go follasach in Éirinn an lae inniu.

Le foilsiú an pholasaí seo ÉIRE NUA tá an Barr Bua á sheinm arís agus tá an meirge á ardú. Tá idir anailís agus treoir sa cháipéis seo. Déanaimis staidéar uirthi agus gríosaímis clanna Gael chun misnigh agus chun saothair.

A New Beginning

Ireland in its national experience is unique in western Europe. The country's history as a colony of England has left its mark on Irish political, social, economic and cultural life.

Though the Ireland we have inherited has all kinds of resources and great potential for national achievement, it is far from realizing that potential. Ireland is marked by underdevelopment, unemployment, emigration, poverty on a large scale, and a huge national debt. These problems, serious enough in themselves, are magnified by the continuing conflict in the Six Counties, which also has its origins in Ireland's colonial history.

A realistic assessment of Ireland's condition in 1990 shows that we have enormous problems, two failed states, and a political system that perpetuates our plight. One great obstacle to changing all that is our own lack of hope. Another major obstacle is the slave men­tality engendered in many of our people by centuries of conquest.

Yet the ideal of an independent Irish republic-the ideal proclaimed by the leaders of the 1916 Rising three-quarters of a century ago-still inspires those who continue the struggle for national unity and freedom. From the wellsprings of that ideal we can draw hope, inspiration and determination to forge a New Ireland-making a new beginning, based on sound principles and a realistic plan, through the Éire Nua programme.

This programme can be our instrument to build a sound future for our nation. The programme embraces all the people of Ireland; it provides for a system in which all creeds and traditions can be represented and all citizens can exercise real power, without any group infringing on the rights of others. The alternative to the forging of a New Ireland is to endure the present affliction-perhaps in the blind hope that our politicians and their EC friends will somehow magically find ways to transform our present debilitated, impoverished and undemocratic society into a nation that is strong, prosperous and democratic. But what makes that a wholly unrealistic expectation is that these politicians, the system they sponsor, and the policies they sustain and operate, are themselves at the core of the problem that confronts us. We know from bitter experience that Ireland has no real future under the direction of such politicians.

The system of partition government in Ireland has been main­tained since 1922, and since 1973 under the growing influence of the EC. It is an inescapable fact, on the supreme test of results, that this system has failed. It is time to think of radical change.

The Éire Nua programme provides for strong provincial and local government in a federation of the four provinces designed to ensure that every citizen can participate in genuinely democratic self-government, and to guarantee that no group can dominate or exploit another. Under this programme all traditions in Ireland can make a valuable contribution to the nation. The programme and its structures will make it possible to bring together all the positive forces in the country. Éire Nua will provide the basis for implementing progressive social, economic and cultural policies.

Like other peoples, the Irish have their virtues as well as their faults. Irish men and women have made their mark throughout the world in many fields of endeavour. They have contributed in great measure to the development of America, Canada, Australia, and other countries. The Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence inspired whole nations, particularly in Africa and Asia, to throw off the yoke of colonial oppression. In the light of these achievements, and of the spectacular recent advances of national rights and democracy in eastern Europe, it is tragic that the shackles still binding Ireland to its colonial past have prevented us from developing our own nationhood.

So we must work to liberate the Irish people and establish a demo­cratic system, based on justice and equal rights-to build Éire Nua: a New Ireland. In that Ireland, Irish people will begin to experi­ence real power in their own communities, with those communities serving as the foundation for a modern, pluralist Irish republic.

The programme is available for wide distribution, study and debate throughout the country and among our exiled children.

Éire Nua-A New Ireland

Introduction

1.1 Irish people have demonstrated a native talent for formulating unusually effective policies for govern­ment and social administration. We have seen this, for example, in the Brehon Laws, which were in force in Ireland from the eighth to the sixteenth century, and in the dramatic influence exercised by the emigrant Irish on the constitutions and politics of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma, and various African states.

The creative political genius of the Irish has flourished abroad; sadly the same cannot be said for Ireland itself, especially during the years since 1922.

Divided Ireland

1.2 Entering the last decade of the twentieth century, Ireland is a divided country. Six counties, containing nearly one-third of the total population of Ireland, are under a British administration whose power in Ireland is maintained by heavily armed forces of occupation. The Irish population is now in decline; almost 20 per cent of the Irish work force is unemployed; 30 per cent of the Irish people live below the poverty line as defined by western European standards; and emigration, mostly of the young, is now draining many of the best Irish away at a rate of nearly 50,000 people a year. There has been a deterioration in the Irish public services-health, education, and social welfare. Disillusion and frustration with the prevailing conditions have led in some sectors to a near-breakdown of social order, particularly among young people in urban areas.

These problems have been compounded by policies of cultural deprivation, with Irish identity and the Irish language deliberately downgraded. The only culture many Irish young people know is a commercialized Anglo-American pop culture, and they are denied access to any real knowledge of Ireland's long history of struggle for freedom. For years now the people of the Twenty-Six Counties have been paying more per capita for the maintenance of the Six-County border than have the people of Britain. Yet the continued British presence in the North, and British influence in the South, have brought only tragedy and a scandalous waste of resources.

Partition states

1.3 The political systems found today in Ireland have evolved from the 1921 British-imposed settlement that arbitrarily divided the island into two partition states. Before 1921, during the many centuries of British rule, Ireland was administered as an integral political unit. Then came the establishment of the British-controlled unionist Six-County state-imposed on this nation in 1922 contrary to the will of the great majority of the Irish people. Four years earlier, in 1918, in the last all-Ireland election, the Irish people had voted overwhelmingly for the political unity and sovereignty of Ireland.

The rejection of unionism by the vast majority of Irish people is again clearly shown in the map, based on the results of the 1985 Six-County local elections.

A new electoral map of the Six Counties

This map gives a visual impression of the very extensive republican/nationalist rejection of union with Britain. Even within unionist-majority areas there is a consid­erable and often strong anti-union vote-in the region of 30 per cent in Belfast and as high as 49 per cent in other areas.

When this map is placed where it belongs-within a map of the  thirty-two counties of Ireland-the unionist enclave is revealed for what it is: a small area in north-eastern Ireland.

Yet from its north-eastern redoubt the unionist mi­nority has exercised for nearly seventy years a sweeping veto over the political will of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people. This anti-democratic faction is underpinned in its power in the north-east by the guarantees of the Westminster government. In the Hillsborough agreement of 1985, this minority veto was guaranteed by the Dublin government as well, in violation of Ireland's 32-county sovereignty.

A failed arrangement

1.4 The failure of the partition arrangement is evident from nearly seventy years of "the nationalist nightmare" in the north-occupation, repression, thought control, eco­nomic stagnation, and emigration-and from the British government's abolition of the Six-County Stormont par­liament in 1972. Subsequent solutions, such as the 1973 Sunningdale agreement and the Hillsborough agree­ment of 1985, have underlined the failure of partition. The current policy of direct British rule-enforced by the British Army and the armed paramilitary police of the Royal Ulster Constabulary-ensures the prolonging of armed resistance, political instability, and economic underdevelopment in the Six Counties.

In the Twenty-Six Counties partitioned off from the north-east of the country, politicians operate a "clientelist" system; public office is achieved and main­tained by buying people's allegiance, through the op­eration of such devices as "clinics", at which politicians trade favours for votes. Enormous sums of money are borrowed to perpetuate this system, keeping the 26-county state tottering on the edge of bankruptcy: Ireland still has one of the highest per capita debts in the world.

The Irish people deserve better government than this.

Economic consequences

1.5 The partition of Ireland led to a dissipation of scarce resources, north and south. There has been no uni­fied long-term capital investment in areas like energy, education, health and industry; there has been great duplication of expenditure. The impact of partition on areas of Ireland along the British-imposed border has been particularly injurious.

British systems of government and economic man­agement, inappropriate for a country of our size and economic condition, have been slavishly perpetuated, north and south, since partition. Other small countries in Europe, some with fewer natural resources than Ireland's, have made great economic strides in modern times, particularly since the Second World War, and have achieved high standards of living for their people. The unemployment, poverty and emigration the Irish have experienced would be completely unacceptable in Sweden, Switzerland, or Finland; they should also be unacceptable here.

EC membership

1.6 Our problems were magnified when both states were led into full membership of the so-called "European Community". Such membership was unsuited to a country at our early stage of economic development-the result of Ireland's being a British colony for centuries. No modern nation has managed to bring itself from underdevelopment to full development in circumstances of unrestricted free trade-a situation that in Ireland's case is compounded by continued foreign occupation.

Under the Act of Union of 1800 Ireland lost half its population and suffered dire poverty and stunted growth. In the early twentieth century Ireland attempted to break entirely with Britain; but under the partition arrangement the malign influence of British power has persisted for nearly seventy years. This influence persists within the neocolonial framework of the EC.

Since 1972, when we were promised "markets in Europe and jobs at home," native manufacturing in­dustries, never designed to withstand competition from heavily bankrolled multinational European industries, have been shut down. The consequence has been a massive rise here in unemployment and emigration during the EC years. In Ireland, EC agricultural policy has resulted in 70,000 people leaving the land.

This country, with its history of colonialism and ex­ploitation, has much in common with former European colonies in the Third World. Hand-outs from the EC will never substitute for a thriving native economy, with Irish jobs for Irish workers, firmly based on Irish development of Irish resources. And if we look at the successful small countries in Europe, we see that their self-interest led the majority of them not to join the EC but to negotiate associate membership or favourable trade agreements with it.

A new beginning

1.7 The following proposals indicate ways to remedy Ireland's weakened and wasted condition and gradually bring the nation to its full health. These proposals aim to abolish the failed, undemocratic system of partition rule, and to replace this with a democratic system based on the unity and sovereignty of the Irish people, as well as on their right as free citizens to equal treatment and equal opportunity. After decades of armed conflict and political turmoil-and given the clear failure of the

British-model systems now in operation to provide adequate and improving standards of living-there is an obligation on all Irish people to work together to find a new, constructive way forward. Our nation is made up of diverse traditions, each of which can make a valuable and positive contribution to the community as a whole. On the eve of the twenty-first century it is finally time for the Irish people to apply their undoubted creative genius, and the talent for government that they have so often demonstrated abroad, to the needs of the Irish nation at home.

Proposed governmental structures

2.1 The object of Sinn Fein Poblachtach is to establiih a new society in Ireland: Éire Nua. To achieve that, the structures of undemocratic partition rule must be abolished; they must be replaced with entirely new structures based on the unity of the Irish people as a whole. The new system would embody two main features:

(1) a new constitution; (2) a new government structure.

A new constitution

2.2 The new constitution would provide for:

(a) a Charter of Rights, to secure for citizens effective control of their conditions of living, subject to the common good;

(b) a structure of government designed to provide the maximum distribution of authority at provincial and subsidiary level;

(c) the right of Ireland to join international organiza­tions-e.g. the United Nations, the World Health Organization-so long as such organizations do not subvert Irish sovereignty or neutrality.

Draft Charter of Rights

2.3 2.1    A Charter of Rights would be formulated, along these lines:

We the people of Ireland are resolved to establish political sovereignty, to secure human justice and social progress in this island, to achieve a better life for all, and henceforth to live in peace with one another. And so we declare our adherence to the following principles:

Article 1. Every citizen is born free and equal and shares the same inherent human dignity. Everyone is entitled to the rights of citizenship without distinction as to race, sex, religion, philosophical conviction, language, or political outlook. Article 2. Every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.

Article 3. Every citizen has the right to freedom of conscience, to free choice and practice of religion, and to the free and open teaching of ethical and political beliefs. This includes the rights to freedom of assembly, the right to peaceable association, the right to petition, and the right to freedom of expression and communication.

Article 4. Every citizen has the right to participate in the government of the country, and to equal access to its public service.

Article 5. The basis of government is the will of the people. This is expressed in direct participatory democracy and free elections by secret ballot. The right of every citizen to follow his or her conscience, and to express his or her personal opinion, stands against any demographically contrived attempt at repression.

Article 6. Every citizen has the right to education according to personal ability, the right to work, and the right to a standard of living worthy of a free human being. This right extends to food, housing and medical care, and to security against unemployment, illness, and disability.

Article 7. Every citizen has the right to marry and found a family. Mothers, children, the aged and infirm deserve the nation's particular care and attention.

Article 8. Every citizen has the right to equal pay for equal work, and the right to join a trade union for the protection of workers' collective interests, and these rights must be acknowledged by all employers.

Article 9. In the exercise of their rights, citizens shall be subject only to such constraints as may be necessary to ensure recognition and respect for the rights of others and the welfare of the larger community.

It is intended that the European Convention on Human Rights, promulgated on 4 November 1950 in twenty-one countries, be made part of the internal domestic law of the New Ireland.

Governmental structures

3.1 The system outlined here envisions a federation of the four provinces of Ireland under the co-ordination of a national parliament, with powers devolved through regional administrative councils to local bodies, so that at all levels citizens may have an effective voice in their own governance.

Dáil Éireann

3.2 The New Ireland will have a national parliament, to which all citizens of the thirty-two counties will give common allegiance, and which will embody the unity and sovereignty of the nation as a whole. This parliament-a true Dáil Éireann-will have the responsibility of protecting the nation's interests at home and abroad. All its actions will be governed by a constitution freely adopted by the majority of the people of the country.

Provincial government

3.3 Decentralized local government will be fundamental to the new system.

The four traditional provinces-Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connacht-have emerged as definite regions within the island of Ireland, with distinctive characteristics. Irish people in any region will be found to have a natural affinity-in culture, sport and economic interest-with those of their own province and county.

Uniting the historic province of Ulster will help eliminate the sectarian divisions of the past and realize the full potential for development of separated counties-especially Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cav­an, and Monaghan. The people of the long-neglected province of Connacht will find power to escape from their isolation. The people of the provinces of Leinster and Munster will be able to pursue policies that will secure them a more equitable and balanced form of development.

Regional boards

3.4 Regional boards will plan and oversee the economic, social and cultural development of areas within their jurisdiction. They will be served by secretariats em­ploying modern means of administration while ensuring attention to and care for the problems of all the people of the region.

District councils

3.5 District councils will give people a direct voice in their own local governance, ensuring that their public representatives are more closely accountable to the electorate.

Community councils

3.6 Community councils will give people the opportunity to improve conditions at parish level.

3.7 It is proposed that-to signify the beginning of a new era and the unity of the country around its geographic centre-Athlone be made the capital city of the New Ireland.

National or federal parliament

4.1 The national parliament, Dáil Éireann-which will also be a federal parliament in that it will be drawn from the federation of Ireland's four constituent provinces-will consist of a single chamber of about a hundred deputies, elected 50% by direct universal suffrage according to the proportional representation system and 50% in equal numbers from each provincial parliament. Each deputy (TD) would represent about 25,000 voters. The precise figure would be based on the ratio between the density of population of an electoral district and its geographical area.

4.2 Dáil Éireann will be representative of the whole of Ireland and elected by the suffrage of all its citizens. It will be the supreme national authority, acting in trust for the people. Its primary duty would be to uphold the Constitution and Charter of Rights adopted by the Irish people.

4.3 The national parliament, Dáil Éireann, will have the following special responsibilities:

(a) defending the nation, physically and politically;

(b) upholding the interests of the Irish people, and representing their concern for other people, in any international forum;

(c) formulating Irish foreign policy, maintaining Irish neutrality and independence from all power blocs, including the EC, and seeking to secure a nuclear-free world; and

(d) protecting and promoting Irish culture, language and literature.

4.4 Functions of the national parliament:

(1) the national parliament will control all powers and functions essential to the good of the nation;

(2) the national parliament will elect a President, who will serve as both prime minister and head of state;

(3) the national parliament will elect a Government, consisting of a limited number of ministers nomi­nated by the President;

(4) the national parliament will secure the independ­ence of the Supreme Court and of the judicial system as guardian of the Constitution;

(5)      the national parliament will initiate national legisla­tion, through any of the following agencies:

(i)       its own deputies,

(ii)     the central Government,

(iii)  a provincial parliament, or

(iv)   an initiative;

(6)      the national parliament will adopt national legisla­tion, either

(i)       directly, through its own deputies, or (ii)     by initiative in specified cases;

(7) the national parliament will oversee collection of the federal revenue.

Provincial parliaments or assemblies

5.1 Assemblies or parliaments will be established for each of the four provinces. The representatives will be elected by the people of each province according to a system of proportional representation.

5.2 The functions of the provincial parliament will be:

(a) to co-ordinate activity and development in the vari­ous regions in the province, with particular care for the unique character of the Gaeltacht areas;

(b) to initiate and promote legislation for the social, economic and cultural development of the people within the region, with the right to initiative; and

(c) to co-ordinate the development and expansion of third-level education;

(d) to collect provincial revenue.

Regional boards

6.1 Regional boards will be established to promote and co-ordinate the economic, social and cultural affairs of clearly defined economic regions. The regional develop­ment board would be a single chamber consisting of:

(a) representatives of district councils within the region concerned, elected according to a system of proportional representation, and (b) expert representatives appointed by the provincial parliament.

6.2 The regional board would have the following responsi­bilities:

(a) to assess and co-ordinate the work of district coun­cils in their regions;

(b) to provide for hospitalization and care of the young, aged, and infirm;

(c) to supervise regional planning;

(d) to plan for economic growth;

(e) to provide for cultural development.

6.3 The following regions are suggested:

Connacht-two regions: North Connacht, consisting of Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo and the Boyle and Ballaghaderreen county electoral areas of Roscommon; and South Connacht, consisting of Galway, the remainder of Roscommon and the Claremorris/Ballinrobe area of Mayo plus the Gaeltacht area of Tuar Mhic Eide in South Mayo.

Munster-four regions: Cork city and environs; South Munster, consisting of Kerry and North and West Cork; East Munster, consisting of South Tipperary, Waterford and East Cork; and North Munster, consisting of North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.

Leinster-four regions: Midlands, consisting of Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly; East Leinster, consisting of South Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow; Greater Dublin; and South Leinster, consisting of Wex­ ford, Carlow and Kilkenny.

Ulster-four regions: East Ulster, consisting of Antrim, East Derry, East Tyrone, North Armagh, and North and East Down; South Ulster, consisting of Cavan, Monaghan, part of Fermanagh, South Down , South Armagh and North Louth; Greater Belfast; and West Ulster, consisting of Donegal, Derry City and the Faughan and Limavady districts of Co. Derry, the Strabane and Omagh districts of Co. Tyrone, and most of Co. Fermanagh.

All Gaeltacht districts would constitute a Gaeltacht Region.

Each Region will be served by a fully staffed secretariat.

District councils

7.1 A district council will consist of a single chamber elected by the people of a clearly defined area covering a population of 10,000 to 40,000 people.

7.2 District councils will have the following areas of respon­sibility:

(a) the welfare and security of the community and the application of the law in a humane and just manner;

(b) primary and secondary education;

(c) job creation, regulations governing employment and standards of work, trading practices, etc.;

(d) local planning and environmental development;

(e) agriculture, fishing, and small industry;

(f) health centres, youth and recreational develop­ment;

(g) housing and control of rented accommodation;

(h) social welfare and social services.

Each district council will have a secretariat, where all services would be provided under the same roof.

Community councils

8.1 Community councils will be voluntary bodies, representing close-knit communities based on parishes or other suitable centres, such as a district electoral area. To ensure the welfare of their people and the good of their communities, community councils will have the right of audience at all district council meetings.

Please note: The above proposals are not definitive; they can and inevitably will be modified. Sinn Fein Poblachtach would in fact welcome constructive criti­cism of these proposals.

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