Posted by Jim on June 25, 2018
Relaunch the Irish Independence Party as a Northern moderate nationalist alternative to the supposedly new-look ‘republican-lite’ of Sinn Fein. That’s the recommendation controversial political commentator, Dr John Coulter, makes in his Fearless Flying Column today.
A person would need to be totally politically naïve to believe that the election-battered SDLP can be revived. That experiment hatched by John Hume and the late Gerry Fitt to obliterate Eddie McAteer’s Irish Nationalist Party has itself run its course.
What is needed to combat Sinn Fein is a new Northern-based moderate nationalist movement with a strong moral influence on abortion and same-sex marriage.
I used to think that the solution to the moderate nationalist dilemma was to merge the SDLP with either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael to combat Sinn Fein’s all-island identity.
There was also the alternative that now that Fianna Fail had organised in Northern Ireland, that republican party’s next move was to formally contest elections, with perhaps next year’s local governmental poll a top target.
Even if there is another Westminster snap poll over Brexit, at least Fianna Fail MPs would take their Commons seats. But there’s another elephant in the political room which even Unionism has had to deal with, which Southern republicanism wants to avoid – sharing power with Sinn Fein in a future Dail.
Southern politicians have witnessed the political mayhem which Sinn Fein is capable of unleashing on democracy if the crisis at Stormont is taken as a benchmark.
The nightmare scenario for both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is that either may need to ‘sup soup with the devil’ politically and form a coalition government in Leinster House with the Provisional IRA’s political wing.
While Sinn Fein has already indicated at a special conference that it would be prepared to enter a coalition Dail government, both main Southern parties are still publicly adamant that a deal with Sinn Fein is not on the cards – no matter how much lipstick and mascara the republican movement plasters on its manifesto.
Sinn Fein is now piling all its political eggs into the Leinster House basket as it now firmly believes it can achieve its united Ireland via Dublin rather than Belfast.
The late Martin McGuinness’ legacy was to create a situation where it had backed the DUP partners into a political corner. For the time being, Sinn Fein can park its Stormont agenda because it has electorally blasted the SDLP off the political map.
Sinn Fein has wiped out the SDLP’s three MPs; the republican movement has more MLAs at Stormont, and if Sinn Fein can play its ‘middle class dolly bird’ card, it could dish out another battering to the SDLP in next year’s council elections in Ulster’s 11 super councils.
The bitter reality which the SDLP must face is that Sinn Fein has done to the SDLP, what the SDLP inflicted on the Irish Nationalist Party. While merger with Fine Gael or Fianna Fail contesting Northern elections may seem like the obvious solution, could it be implemented in time to prevent a moderate nationalist meltdown in the council poll?
The Sinn Fein all-island agenda has an Achilles’ Heel – the emergence of a new six-county moderate nationalist party in Northern Ireland, especially with battles over same-sex marriage and abortion about to become the big summer talking points.
Irish politics is full of ‘what ifs’. What if the Protestant nationalist leader – John Turnley – of the Irish Independence Party of the 1970s had not been murdered by the UDA in 1980 in the Co Antrim coastal village of Carnlough. If Turnley’s brand of radical middle class nationalism had eaten into the SDLP vote, would there have been a need for the republican hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981?
While I have maintained that Sinn Fein needed to copy the IIP in holding the moderate nationalist middle class voter base in Northern Ireland, that was before the republican movement abandoned its historical traditional values as espoused by Padraig Pearse.
As one of the main signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, he must be spinning in his grave at how the modern Sinn Fein movement has drifted away from the Christian faith and into the evil world of secular atheism. That was copper fastened earlier this month at the Sinn Fein ard fheis in the abortion debate with Sinn Fein’s clear message – if you are a nationalist with a pro-life Christian faith, then just clear off!
During the Troubles, Sinn Fein constantly acted as apologists for those who attacked the living; now the party has deteriorated into the pathetic apologists for those who wish to attack the unborn. How can any God-fearing Catholic who calls themselves a nationalist now vote for Sinn Fein?
Prayers for a miracle political revival for the SDLP will more than likely go unanswered. Only SDLP candidates who have built up a strong personal vote will hold their council seats in 2019. The local government poll in the weeks after Brexit will be a political Requiem Mass for the SDLP.
But moderate nationalists have one ace card – they can, and should, reform the IIP as a movement for pro-life Catholic voters. Stormont looks like being moth-balled for the foreseeable future. When it does return, there may well be a new realignment in Parliament Buildings – not along the traditional Unionist/Nationalist/Other divide, but along pro and anti-Christian lines.
Given the march of the secular society, I have often warned that Christians in the future may need to form their own party, although the odds of that succeeding are doubtful given the constant theological bickering among churches and denominations.
But there could be an unofficial Christian alliance between pro-life politicians across the political divide. Pro-choice campaigners were heralding the next stage in their secularist agenda with placards boasting ‘The North is Next’.
Politically and organisationally, moderate nationalist should pool their resources into forming a six-county movement rather than trying to organise on an all-island basis. Sinn Fein may not be completely derailed by a new IIP movement, but the brakes could be put on the bandwagon.
If the moderate nationalist fightback by the SDLP was genuine – and achievable – then the party should have reduced West Tyrone to a Sinn Fein marginal. But the reality is that West Tyrone is still a Sinn Fein stronghold.
The new IIP must be a moderate middle class nationalist movement which clearly espouses all that is good in conservative Catholicism, especially on the pro-life agenda. But moves to launch this movement must be made now as time is not on moderate nationalism’s side.
Dr John Coulter has been a journalist working in Northern Ireland since 1978. As well as being a former weekly newspaper editor, he has served as Religious Affairs Correspondent of the News Letter and is a past Director of Operations for Christian Communication Network television. He currently also writes political analysis articles for national newspaper titles. He is author of the ebook, An Saise Glas’: The Road to National Republicanism, available on Amazon Kindle.
Posted by Jim on
June 25th
WTC
Active Assistant Chief
Ronald R. Spadafora
Chief of Fire Prevention
WAKE
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Frank E. Campbell – The Funeral Chapel
1076 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10028
FUNERAL
Friday, June 29, 2018
11:00 am
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
1 West 53rd Street (on Fifth Ave)
New York, NY 10019
All Off-Duty Members should attend in Class A Uniform.
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First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petitition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Third Amendment
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fifth Amendment
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Sixth Amendment
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
Seventh Amendment
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of common law.
Eighth Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Ninth Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Tenth Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Posted by Jim on
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Posted by Jim on
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.