• Sinn Féin president spoke at a packed-out Féile an Phobail event
Mary Lou McDonald has said the lack of an Irish presidential vote for citizens in the north “smacks of a gerrymander” and is a form of “discrimination”.
The Sinn Féin president made the comments during her appearance at a Féile an Phobail event at St Mary’s University College in west Belfast on Tuesday evening.
In a conversation with activist Andrée Murphy, Ms McDonald discussed her entry into politics, her rise to the top of Sinn Féin, and topics including the upcoming presidential election and Irish unity.
Addressing the issue of a lack of vote in the race for Aras an Uachtaráin for northern citizens, she said she was “struck” by the recent Assembly motion calling on the Irish government to extend the vote.
“The idea that you can live in Belfast, and you could be a candidate in the election, you could be elected president as Mary McAleese was, but you can’t vote, is crazy,” she said.
“It smacks actually of a gerrymander. If we’re all equal citizens, if every Irish citizen is equal, how on earth does anybody justify that discrimination?
“Especially for Irish citizens living in Ireland.”
In what she described as a “long-running saga”, Ms McDonald said it was “purely a question of political will” and that it was now a matter of the government in Dublin “bringing forward the legislation”.
“Our job is to end partition,” she said.
“I want us to have referendums on reunification in this decade, by the end of this decade.
“I do believe it’s plausible that after another seven-year term, that actually we will be in a very different landscape.”
The Sinn Féin leader said her party was still assessing their own options ahead of this autumn’s presidential election.
Last month Ms McDonald said her party “are not ruling anything in or out” over speculation she herself might stand as a candidate.
“We can run our own candidate; we can back another candidate,” she said.
“To me, it really matters that whoever is in the Áras is a person who speaks openly on the issue of Ireland’s future reunification and the pathway for it.”
Meanwhile, during her Féile appearance, the Dublin Central TD acknowledged this year’s controversial bonfires in Belfast and Moygashel and said that it was “never good for Ireland” for glorification of sectarianism in any form to “go out” internationally.
by Jeffreys_therapist
19 comments
Question for unionists and neutrals.
Will (would) you vote in a Presidential election when (if) this is implemented?
It is mad that NI is considered overseas for the election, I agree that Irish citizens abroad shouldn’t get a vote as there’s far too many living in Britain/USA but there’s no reason they can’t extend it to NI. I doubt the vast majority would even bother to vote in it but it would mean a lot for those that want to.
She’s right. If there was some Irish Rugby player running who was FF/FG and they thought giving the votes to Northerners would get him in they’d change it tomorrow. The reality is the Irish establishment know SF are the only all Ireland party who would stand a chance of leveraging their voter base in such a way as to affect a presidential election, so the position would become a lock for SF going forward.
I don’t necessarily consider that a good thing, but it’s probably what will happen.
Either way, who ever comes along next will have some big (little) shoes to fill and it’ll probably be something of a poisoned chalice this go around.
The PIRA now want the British to have a say in Ireland…….
It appears there is a *Hierarchy* of Irishness! ..
*————————————————-*
This Gerry Mander bloke has a lot to answer for!
Isn’t there a postal vote system for Irish citizens living outside of Ireland? That would include Northern Ireland.
No problem with a Northern President but no Northern voters, doesn’t seem right.
Its bad enough that the British have always treated us as 2nd class citizens here.. but a Dublin Gov treating us as 2nd class Irish really does sting an bit! ..
Who`d have thought an Irish Government would discriminate against its own people …
Why do they care? I thought they were for a “New Ireland” which is a mythical paradise where there’s nothing bad anymore?
The problem with both the idea of expanding the Presidential franchise to all citizens outside of The State was the same issue that was faced when the idea of letting citizens in NI vote for Irish MEPs.
There’s nowhere for citizens to physically vote. Apparently, the Irish government had this discussion already, and were effectively told that they couldn’t use NI Polling Places, and there’s plenty more jurisdictional issues involved.
The other option would be to use embassies, but since the Irish Embassy to the UK is in London, that’d be awkward to get people from NI to travel to London to vote.
Postal Votes could theoretically be done, but actually verifying that everyone who could vote is a real person would likely involve people having to obtain a PPSN, which you either get at Department for Social Protection office, or through countersigned documents from a solicitor.
The other problem, I think, is that if the franchise in all Irish elections were to be expanded to all Irish citizens, including FBR citizens in the US, who were born there, and only ever go on holiday to Ireland once or twice in their lives, then you’re possibly looking at MAGA Republicanism taking over Irish politics overnight. No more FFG, and it’s onto Aontú and the Ireland First people who want to return Ireland to the functional theocracy it was in the 1950s.
Yeah, I can’t help but agree that if Irish ex pats can still vote then so should people in the north (and I am saying that as Irish passport holding son of an Orange man).
However the next thing will be Irish passport holders in the UK who got them after brexit, how far does the voting right slide down the scale?
Doesn’t the ROI see SF as no better than a proscribed organisation.
The Dahl wants nothing to do with him
Making the election of Pa Adams less likely, she means.
Particularly for the presidency it would make a huge amount of sense to extend the franchise to the North, since it’s a non party-political and symbolic position.
I am curious though, who would be a popular candidate for the NI electorate?
(if the answer is Conor McGregor, I reserve the right to change my opinion 😛)
Would this mean NI councillors would have a shout in who get to run in the elections? Couldn’t the Unionists allow the likes of Conor McGregor to slip into the race for pure spite?
It’s a grand notion more useful to debate and flights of fantasy than any practical implementation.
I agree, I’m just concerned how it would be done legally and in keeping with the Good Friday agreement.
I feel like this tired argument resurfaces every few years, dressed up as some kind of civil rights thing but absolutely divorced from political reality.
How exactly would this even work in practice? Does SF ever actually get into that or does it just stop at slogans?
But for the sake of argument, let’s do the heavy lifting for SF since they obviously can’t be bothered.
Would it be postal only? Limited to passport holders? How would it be administered? Who would oversee it? What happens if the UK government objects, which it obviously absolutely would?
It’s not that the idea is offensive, I get why some might want it given our situation, it’s just that it’s completely impractical and unworkable. And for all the dramatic language about equality and discrimination, I’ve yet to see a single workable proposal be put forward to actually make it happen.
Just wait for a United Ireland. After all, it’s inevitable, isn’t it?
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