Over 500 Attend Conference on Uniting Ireland

Over 500 Attend Conference on Uniting Ireland

Over 500 people packed City Hall at the weekend for a conference on Uniting Ireland hosted by Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was joined on the platform by broadcasting legend Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Ann Piggot of Cork Council of Trades Unions, Barney O'Reilly former CEO of Kerry Educational Service and former IFA leader Ruaidhri Deasy.

In his keynote address at the event – the second of a series of conferences on the theme I dTreo Poblacht Nua/Towards a New Republic – the Sinn Féin leader said that partition had a “catastrophic effect on the island of Ireland and hindered economic development”.

He referred to Cork as the birthplace of “social reformers, activists and rebels,” citing O'Donovan Rossa and William Thompson as two examples.

Ann Piggot, a teacher who is president of Cork Council of Trades Unions, said there were more similarities between Ireland north and south than we realise, and pointed to the fact that physical barriers and imaginary borders were ignored by sporting, artistic and cultural organisations. She focused on the plight of workers in the recession and on the contact and co-operation between workers organisations from both sides of the border in ICTU. “Justice and unity are within our grasp,” she said.

Barney O'Reilly, former CEO of Kerry VEC focused on the education system. Founded in 1831 as “a national school system”, it was based on religious diversity at the beginning. As time passed, he said, “separation was the best we could do to manage diversity” with the VEC's being “a small bridgehead in a denominational system”.

The audience of hundreds joined enthusiastically in the discussion when it was opened to the floor on two occasions during the evening. Concluding the event, Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris said the conference was the opening of a conversation about Ireland’s future and it was up to everyone present to take it forward from here.

For further information contact Deputy Jonathan O’Brien at 086-0274142