Opinion

Jim Gibney: Nicola Sturgeon's radical politics creates a stir

It was standing-room only in Seanad Éireann, and rightly so, when Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, made her historic address. Picture by Gary O'Neill/Press Association
It was standing-room only in Seanad Éireann, and rightly so, when Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, made her historic address. Picture by Gary O'Neill/Press Association It was standing-room only in Seanad Éireann, and rightly so, when Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, made her historic address. Picture by Gary O'Neill/Press Association

WHAT a difference a day makes. What a difference an issue makes.

It was standing-room only in Seanad Éireann, and rightly so, for Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, when she spoke on Tuesday of last week.

Members of the chamber crammed in to hear the first minister make her historic address.

She spoke about putting Scotland first and the likelihood of a second independence referendum if the British government’s Brexit negotiations fail to meet the needs of the people of Scotland.

Needs that will be tightly judged by Sturgeon and her rejuvenated Scottish National Party (SNP) whose independence appeal has mobilised and radicalised the people of Scotland like never before.

The first minster’s speech was motivational and clearly affected many Seanadóirí who responded to her with references to Ireland’s long struggle for independence and drew comparisons between Ireland and Scotland, two small countries, colonised by the same neighbour.

But there was an edge and a certainty to Sturgeon’s speech based on the overwhelming strength of the SNP who now dominate Scottish politics, having effectively wiped out the Labour and Conservative parties.

She said that the desire for independence had been reinforced by the selfish ‘little Englanders’ desire to suit their needs and ignore the needs of her people in Scotland, who had voted to remain in the European Union.

There was a ‘patriotic’ edge too in many of the Seanadóirí’s questions and responses to Sturgeon’s speech as they urged the Irish government to put Ireland first in the Brexit negotiations; to ensure the vote to remain in the EU in the north was respected and to support the call for a border poll on Irish unity.

That was last Tuesday. But it was a different Seanad chamber the following day. On the order paper was a proposal with all the potential to provide another historic occasion for the people of Ireland, one with more far-reaching and long-lasting implications.

There had been an informal agreement between Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Labour and a number of independent Seanadóirí to support a Sinn Féin motion urging the Irish government to hold a constitutional referendum to allow the people of the north and the Irish diaspora to vote for the next Irish president in the 2018 election.

For a week, the scene had been set for the Seanad to trigger a national initiative which would breach the politics of partition and put the needs of the people of the nation at home and abroad first.

An initiative which had the potential to generate a national momentum for democratic change inclusive of the people of the north long abandoned by the south’s political establishment.

Yet for such an occasion the Seanad chamber was almost empty unlike the previous day. Such high national expectations and hopes had been secretly unravelled by the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who decided to scupper support for the Sinn Féin motion and support the government’s amendment which effectively long-fingers the issue until after the 2018 presidential election.

There are implications, especially for Fianna Fáil, in explaining to its supporters why it jettisoned a key party issue – voting rights for the people of the north and the Irish diaspora.

The people of the north are letting their voices be heard in the council chambers as they vote in support of voting rights and the diaspora outside of Ireland will do likewise.

The Seanad result is an opportunity missed but by no means lost.

Women in politics and the transition in Sinn Féin were to the fore last week as one of the party's leading and high-profile figures, Jennifer McCann, left electoral politics to work with the minister for health, Michelle O'Neill.

Jennifer has spent her entire life in the struggle for Irish freedom – almost forty years.

A former political prisoner she became a very effective junior minister in the north’s executive. With her roots firmly embedded in the community she was an inspirational figure for republican women activists and the broader women’s movement.

Her replacement, Orlaithí Flynn, represents the new generation of republican women shaped by women like Jennifer McCann.

Radical politics as espoused by Nicola Sturgeon and Jennifer McCann, and other women in Irish politics, will ensure the parliamentary arena is permanently a shared gender space.