Other Irish Political Parties

So once you're convinced that FF PD have reduced their party to a crowd of war-mongering, misguided people, who should you vote for ?   As the Republic of Ireland is a democracy it's up to each of its 3,897,000 ( from www.eirestat.cso.ie/... ) inhabitants to decide and no one can dictate that choice to them. Maybe you're a long time FF supporter since the Irish civil war, but if they're recent behaviour doesn't change your allegiance, nothing will. I don't know the history of many of the parties but below is how they seem to me to be behaving on the Iraq War via Shannon airport  issue.

Party name	Preference	Iraq war stance
FF	0/5	Pro-war
PD	0/5	Pro-war
FG	0/5	Pro-war even though they are in opposition. No representation at any of the anti-war marches.
Labour	3/5	Michael D Higgins has given convincing anti-war speeches in Dublin on many occasions, but with Tony Blairs Labour / New Labour being the governing pro-war party in the UK, I don't think the anti-war message is strong enough in this partys PR.
Sinn Fein	1/5	Anti-war with major representation at Feb 15 march. When Bush came to Belfast though, no SF protestors were present. SF representatives were asked to boycott talks with Bush but met with him anyway. Since then SF have not been very visible at any protests.
Green Party	3/5	Anti-war. The Greens have had representation at many marches and John Gormley is there most vocal antiwar speaker. They protested  up to Nov / Dec 2003 but since then, especially at the Dec 6 2003 Shannon protest / blockade they were not seen. During the anti-bin charges campaign the Green Party sided with the governents annual fee based bin collection policy which does not relate to the amount of waste produced, therby alienating a lot of supporters.
Socialist Workers Party	4/5	Anti-war The Socialist Worker Party seems to be complaining about everything all the time, which is why I think a lot of people write them off as a bit fanatical. But they were present at every anti-war protest I've seen and are willing to put money and people into organising anti-war protests.
Socialist Party	4/5	Joe Higgins TD with the socialist party was dragged away from a protest on Kildare street in early 2003 by police in riot gear. He is the most visible & vocal antiwar TD.

Fianna Fail

Phoenix Annual 2003 pg 24 :
    "When the anti-war movement turned its attention to Dublin and on a fine spring day brought some 100,000 demonstrators onto the streets, bringing the capital to a good-humoured standstill and surprising the bejaysus out of the Government and commentators alike.  Of course it was all quite futile ( besides everyone becoming aware that there are 100,000 antiwar votes out there) and although the opposition at once revived its Dail campaign to try to find out just where Bertie stood the answer was perfectly obvious. Like it or not, there was simply no way we were going to irritate the US.
   Still, it was Bertie who told us that the US report to the UN Security Council had provided the world with clear evidence that Iraq had secretly produced those weapons of mass destruction and the upshot of the Iraqi saga was that we aligned ourselves, morally at least, with the new-world Coalition of the Willing against the old UN."

  Good to see Bertie using US / CIA / NSA reports to determine Irish Foreign policy... not.

Started off as a splinter group of the FF.  Now it's the economy party.   Their main aim is to privatise every state resource and sell it off to the highest bidder for some short-term gain.  Michael O'Leary of Ryanair, builders & other big business are this partys main source of funding.  Wouldn't be surprised if they decided to privatise the government and contract it out to a cheaper operator from abroad.

  At the same time, Fine Gael demanded the abondonment of neutrality, the joining of a European defence union and more military spending. Foreign Affairs spokesman, Gay Mitchell, was given carte blanche to vent his support for Western military actions, with Kenny rowing in enthusiastically bewith him - and even grabbing the limelight - in a recent policy annoucement calling foor Irish participation in European military action abroad"

   The security / military party.  Intent on a police state, joining NATO, getting nuclear weapons and invading somewhere...

Labour

The "Democratic Left" party merged with this party in the 90's.  
Phoenix Annual 2003 pg 34 :
   "Labour worked hard to stop the anti-war movement being hijacked by its opponents, with Rabbitte (Labour leader) himself  contriving to lead one of the big anti-war marches in Dublin. However, it was the Greens and Joe Higgins ( and SP & SWP) that reaped most benfit - and publicity - from the US troops at Shannon issue."

www.dontcountusin.com/ Labour backeded anti-war site.

Sinn Fein

The only party with TDs in the Dail and MPs in Westminster. The "national question" is the issue on which they focus but seem to favour neutrality

Green Party

Facts about Socialist Workers Party

Facts about Socialist Party

Phoenix Annual 2003, pg 22 in "Goldhawk's Awards for the Passing Parade 2003" ....
"The Nelson Mandela Award for Political Bondage goes to Councillor Clare Daly, whose brutal incarceration by the capitalist state has reived memories of Robem Island and the Bulag's corrective camps." Daly's Socialist Party was outraged at the presectution of its members, Daly and Joe Higgins TD, by their jailing in Mountjoy following their revolutionary agitation over dustbins."
   These 2 spent 4 weeks in Mountjoy prison over blockading roads where bin lorries would not collect bins unless householders paid the new ~ 300 Euro P.A. charges.  
   On the antiwar front Joe Higgins was similarly dragged off Kildare Street, during a sit down protest in front of the Dail by  unbadged Gardai in full riot gear, but this didn't receive much media coverage or jail sentencing since it would put the spotlight on how far FF/PD would go to participate in a dodgy war.
     Article on Joe Higgins TD in Sunday Business Post.

Independents

Finian McGrath

http://www.gov.ie/debates-03/11Dec/Sect5.htm - Tells the Dail how it is re. Shannon, patriot missiles, Nato "Nuclear club" etc etc.