Newsflash Sinn Fein are no longer Republicans

[Applesisapples]

According to Newton Emerson in todays Irish News, Gerry Adams has indicated at recent meetings that SF would consider alternatives to a 32 County Sovereign Republic. He apparently suggest a federal state and that talks would be necessary with Unionism as to how Britishness can be accomodated in the new Ireland. Newt suggests that this is an indication of SF's acceptance of a NI identity as distinct from an Irish identity he goes on to say that SF are getting ready to love (a 6 county) Ulster. Maybe the sight of Caral and Mary McArdle standing for the Queen at Windsor and cheering on the real boys in Green is not as daft as I thought.
Maybe Gerry is coming around to the view that Conal McDevitt has expressed that as Nationalists we need to debate the kind of unity we aspire to or maybe as Newt suggests we are all becoming unionists as the recent poll suggests.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

[Applesisapples]

Very good

[Rossfan]

Two weeks behind up north it seems 

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=19037.105

[ExcellentDriver]

I'm not after a United Ireland, I want Joint Authority under a Bipartisan Stormont (with the British Secretary of State acting as First Minister and the Irish Foreign Minister acting as Deputy First Minister).

This will ensure no Sinn Fein First Minister, whilst opening the door for the likes of Martin Ferris or Pearse Doherty to become Deputy First Minister should Sinn Fein become part of a Dail Coalition.

[Ulick]

According to Newton Emerson in todays Irish News, Gerry Adams has indicated at recent meetings that SF would consider alternatives to a 32 County Sovereign Republic. He apparently suggest a federal state and that talks would be necessary with Unionism as to how Britishness can be accomodated in the new Ireland.

What are you saying you can't have a Federal 'Republic' or that a 'Federal Republic' is not 'Sovereign'? Maybe you should tell that to the Yanks, or the Swiss, the Russians, the Germans...

The idea of a Federated Irish Republic has been bandied since the 70s by Sinn Féin and other republican groupings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ire_Nua

[theskull1]

Ulick ..your own wiki link tells us that SF (paticularly Northern Republicans) were totally against it from the off 

The ordinary man in the street SF supporter from the north, I believe has been fed a darby o'gill utopian idea of what a united ireland would look like whilst ignoring the elephants in the room (i.e unionism and the reality of how poorly the free state is currently governed). Yes they have in recent times talked about "a shared future" etc but I would doubt that rhetoric alone has convinced unionism in any way. About time the SF leadership have at least decided to change the record and come at the AI question from a different angle, but the economic problems and the gombeen politics of the dail makes it a tough sell.

[Ulick]

Ulick ..your own wiki link tells us that SF (paticularly Northern Republicans) were totally against it from the off 

Skull, I'm simply pointing out the contradictions in the initial post which implies that a federated state cannot be republic or indeed is not sovereign.   

The ordinary man in the street SF supporter from the north, I believe has been fed a darby o'gill utopian idea of what a united ireland would look like whilst ignoring the elephants in the room (i.e unionism and the reality of how poorly the free state is currently governed). Yes they have in recent times talked about "a shared future" etc but I would doubt that rhetoric alone has convinced unionism in any way. About time the SF leadership have at least decided to change the record and come at the AI question from a different angle, but the economic problems and the gombeen politics of the dail makes it a tough sell.

I don't believe the "ordinary man in the street" has been fed anything of the sort, in fact there has been a distinct lack of serious discussion as to what the reunited state will look like (feel free to point me in the right direction in case I missed it). SF (IMO) have been a lone voice in trying to stimulate this debate but the fact that most people assume that they favour NI being subsumed into the current ROI, illustrates very clearly they haven't been getting their message across.

[Applesisapples]

According to Newton Emerson in todays Irish News, Gerry Adams has indicated at recent meetings that SF would consider alternatives to a 32 County Sovereign Republic. He apparently suggest a federal state and that talks would be necessary with Unionism as to how Britishness can be accomodated in the new Ireland.

What are you saying you can't have a Federal 'Republic' or that a 'Federal Republic' is not 'Sovereign'? Maybe you should tell that to the Yanks, or the Swiss, the Russians, the Germans...

The idea of a Federated Irish Republic has been bandied since the 70s by Sinn Féin and other republican groupings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ire_Nua

No i'm not saying that at all, Newton emerson was drawing this conclusion from Adam's comments. What I would like to see is greater debate on all sides as to how a new ireland would look.

[Evil Genius]

The ordinary man in the street SF supporter from the north, I believe has been fed a darby o'gill utopian idea of what a united ireland would look like whilst ignoring the elephants in the room (i.e unionism and the reality of how poorly the free state is currently governed). Yes they have in recent times talked about "a shared future" etc but I would doubt that rhetoric alone has convinced unionism in any way. About time the SF leadership have at least decided to change the record and come at the AI question from a different angle, but the economic problems and the gombeen politics of the dail makes it a tough sell.

I don't believe the "ordinary man in the street" has been fed anything of the sort, in fact there has been a distinct lack of serious discussion as to what the reunited state will look like (feel free to point me in the right direction in case I missed it). SF (IMO) have been a lone voice in trying to stimulate this debate but the fact that most people assume that they favour NI being subsumed into the current ROI, illustrates very clearly they haven't been getting their message across.

Ah right.

So when everyone thought that SF simply wanted "Brits Out" and "A Nation Once Again", it was we  who were wrong. Silly Us - however could we have got that idea? 

Oh well, in the meantime here's something else you can put the "ordinary man in the street" right about, Donagh Ulick.

One million Unionists aren't going to be tricked into anything, by the same lying, beardy fcuker who first spent 30 years trying to bomb us into submission, and then 10 years trying to negotiate us into it.

So if this current speculation is just the opening shot of a SF campaign to ease everyone into the idea that their (SF's) target is now rather less than we had all been led to believe, that might fool their own supporters - God knows, they've been gullible enough to swallow whatever s h i t Connolly House spews out up to now  )

But Unionists will recognise it for what it is, i.e. merely the latest step in a process of backtracking and capitulation by a chastened loser. And after all this time, we're not going to throw away "a winning hand" now!   

[AZOffaly]

The ordinary man in the street SF supporter from the north, I believe has been fed a darby o'gill utopian idea of what a united ireland would look like whilst ignoring the elephants in the room (i.e unionism and the reality of how poorly the free state is currently governed). Yes they have in recent times talked about "a shared future" etc but I would doubt that rhetoric alone has convinced unionism in any way. About time the SF leadership have at least decided to change the record and come at the AI question from a different angle, but the economic problems and the gombeen politics of the dail makes it a tough sell.

I don't believe the "ordinary man in the street" has been fed anything of the sort, in fact there has been a distinct lack of serious discussion as to what the reunited state will look like (feel free to point me in the right direction in case I missed it). SF (IMO) have been a lone voice in trying to stimulate this debate but the fact that most people assume that they favour NI being subsumed into the current ROI, illustrates very clearly they haven't been getting their message across.

Ah right.

So when everyone thought that SF simply wanted "Brits Out" and "A Nation Once Again", it was we  who were wrong. Silly Us - however could we have got that idea? 

Oh well, in the meantime here's something else you can put the "ordinary man in the street" right about, Donagh Ulick.

One million Unionists aren't going to be tricked into anything, by the same lying, beardy fcuker who first spent 30 years trying to bomb us into submission, and then 10 years trying to negotiate us into it.

So if this current speculation is just the opening shot of a SF campaign to ease everyone into the idea that their (SF's) target is now rather less than we had all been led to believe, that might fool their own supporters - God knows, they've been gullible enough to swallow whatever s h i t Connolly House spews out up to now  )

But Unionists will recognise it for what it is, i.e. merely the latest step in a process of backtracking and capitulation by a chastened loser. And after all this time, we're not going to throw away "a winning hand" now!   

EG, I might be wrong, but I think Ulick's point is that a 32 county republic would be a brand new country, not simply a case of 26+6=32. I don't think Sinn Fein have much of a grá for the institutions of state in the Republic today.

[Applesisapples]

EG are you saying as Unionists what we have we hold, no surrender, not an inch? Or are you prepared to consider a state that actually reflects the aspirations of all citizens, their language and their culture. Because from what I can see very little actual concessions have been made to nationalists under the GFA in terms of equality of citizenship and nationality. A genuine question.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

There goes EG with his "one million unionists" rubbish again!
And when did anyone actually listen to Newtons opinions about SF, hardly like he's going to give a balanced view.

[Applesisapples]

There goes EG with his "one million unionists" rubbish again!

Its only 800,000 oh and 1, I forgot Rory!

[Ulick]

There goes EG with his "one million unionists" rubbish again!

Its only 800,000 oh and 1, I forgot Rory!

DUP + UUP + TUV = 302447
SF + SDLP = 275510
Others = 70000 approx

Long way from a million.