SINN FÉIN JILTED AGAIN BY THE COMRADES OF THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY

There are few more disappointed with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government – not a wet week in Whitehall – than Sinn Féin.  When their “comrades” were elected there were lots of smiley photos but, as is often the case in such dysfunctional relationships, the dominant partner who really doesn’t care for the other was not long about reminding them of the parameters. 

So, in short order we have had one of the former Colombia 3, Martin McCauley, pinched on foot of an extradition warrant, which one might surmise does not augur well for what may come of Labour’s promise to repeal the Legacy Act. It would be naïve in the extreme to believe that the British state will not protect its own interests when it comes to investigating and prosecuting  the past. Perhaps the McCauley case represents a shot across the bows?

Most tellingly of all, Starmer and Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn – son of another great leftist bluffer on Ireland, Tony Benn – chose their visit to Dublin to meet with their “friend” Simon Harris to discuss anything meaningful concerning the part of Ireland of which Sinn Féin, along with the DUP, is the local administrator.  Talk about having your nose rubbed in it….

Then on Friday, the Labour government announced that actually they would not after all be stumping up for the redevelopment of Casement Park in Belfast, which is owned by the GAA, in time for it to be one of the host stadiums for the 2028 European soccer championships.  (Says a bit too about where the GAA’s head is at these days.)

The King’s First Minister in the north, Michelle O’Neill, yesterday posted her disappointment with the decision.  However, that does not mean that she has lost faith in the brothers and sisters of the great party of the British working class.  For she added that: “The British Secretary of State has said clearly that Casement Park will be built, so I would urge his government to honour the commitments they’ve made and let’s get it built.”

And it would be a poor show now if an Irish republican was not to take the word of a British Secretary of State.  You know ….

Last Thursday, O’Neill went to London to tell the Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves that she ought not to follow the mean Tories in implementing austerity and all.  She was referring to Reeve’s decision to stop the payment of winter fuel allowance to almost 10 million pensioners – a decision that Sinn Féin will be part of passing on to the old folk in the north. 

Mind you, and as was pointed out in several social media responses, Sinn Féin is in a weak position when it comes to condemning even “Tory austerity.”  They themselves have had no compunction over the past years of involvement in the Stormont executive in imposing “austerity cuts” in order to keep the clapped-out colony as a viable entity. 

They will of course claim that their true friends are on the “left” of the Labour Party.  Just as they were in 1969 when the troops arrived, in the 1970s when Labour were building the H Blocks and filling them from the Castlereagh conveyor belt, and when they sold us a pup with the Good Friday Agreement.  Indeed, you can go back further to the 1920s when the British trade unions did not stop one train or ship carrying the Tans and munitions to Ireland. 

The Shinners have long been bigging up Mick Lynch the leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. They even asked him to speak at Féile an Phobail this year.  (They conveniently forget that Lynch and the RMT supported Brexit.)  

You might imagine that Lynch as a self-proclaimed disciple of James Connolly might have come out in support of the 54 Labour dissident MPs (one of whom voted against and the others abstained) who have opposed Starmer’s policy on fuel allowance.  You would be mistaken. On Friday he was full of enthusiasm for Labour and “the good things Labour are doing.”  

Perhaps fellow Kamala Harriste Taylor Swift might pen a song about the angst felt by former Irish nationalists over being jilted once again by their crushes.  

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