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Fine Gael Call on Goverment to discuss Iraq national |
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news report
 Thursday January 09, 2003 20:56 by In support of Alex
 The Dáil should be reconvened to discuss the country's position on Iraq, the Government was told tonight. The situation was too important to be decided by long distance phone conversations between leaders, said Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Gay Mitchell. His call came as campaigners intensified their demands for the Government to clarify its position on the use of Shannon airport for refuelling by United States forces. At a time of potential war and as US troops pass through Shannon, the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, and Minister for Foreign Affairs are all out of the country, Mr Mitchell said. The Dáil should be reconvened to discuss the country's position on Iraq, the Government was told tonight. The situation was too important to be decided by long distance phone conversations between leaders, said Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Gay Mitchell. His call came as campaigners intensified their demands for the Government to clarify its position on the use of Shannon airport for refuelling by United States forces. At a time of potential war and as US troops pass through Shannon, the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, and Minister for Foreign Affairs are all out of the country, Mr Mitchell said. He said the Dáil, which is not due to return until the end of the month, should be given the chance to debate and vote on issues including the inspection of Iraqi weaponry and the threat of terrorism. Meanwhile an Irish Green Party delegation was visiting campaigners at Shannon airport, pledging its support for their protest. Campaigners claim the use of Shannon airport by US military goes against Ireland's military neutrality. Green Party chief whip Dan Boyle said Foreign Affairs minister Brian Cowen His party believed an open debate on Iraq in the Dail was essential, and that |
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8A few weeks ago I heard John Bruton on radio saying that "One is either for George Bush or Saddam Hussein!". This fundamentalism is worthy of the Taliban. I believe there are a lot of people 'for' neither but just anti war. I'm not convinced things would be much different if Fine Gael were in power. At the moment they are just trying to ride the anti war tide.
Fine Gael stands firmly for whatever you're having yourself. Unless of course you'd like something else - we could stand for that too.
Ah go on, give us a vote.
Yep I agree with you. John Bruton has very definite views!! But he reflects a point of view that is not necessarily that of the rest of the party.
Check out Michael Nonnan's Dail question which dates back to October last.
http://www.gov.ie/debates-02/23Oct/Sect8.htm
I guess there is a lot of reorganising within FG at the moment, esp after the election (the less said about that the better!) and one thing evident within our structures is that there is a very definite left wing and right wing element within the party. That's something that has always been a part of FG historically(thats why we are a 'centre party')
Go back to the Just Society document, the successful 1995 coalition government with FG, Labour and Democratic Left. Then look at the leadership debates the party had in the last few years...John Bruton, Michael Noonan, Enda Kenny...centred on very nature (swing) between left and right within the party.
Anyway, there you go. I guess every organisation has its own internal wranglings, and thats what is going on with us at the moment....trying to redefine our ideological position. I guess that's something we have to seriously re-examine.
From comments to indymedia from FG members/supporters over the last few weeks you might have noticed that. Particulary at the responses given by some of our members and supporters at the assumption that we are right wing fanatics etc.
You know, believe it or not, but we have members who are not white, who are not christian, who have a regualar pasttime of participating in protests, who are from very different socio-economic backgrounds, who are members of gluaseacht, anti-globalisation movements....
YFG/FG supporters/members essentially believe in trying to change (the system?) things from within. We have the same concerns as many others who partipate on the forum but our methods are just different to others. And for that we are regulary held up as lamb for the verbal slaughter. You wonder then why bother volunteer to try change things, to help. I refer here to the posting made by Limerick YFG on the 24hour sleepout for the homeless.
Good to be in the indymedia forum, when its logical debate and not blank insults and assumptions about us.
But there you go, I guess that's what being in a political party is all about.
Alex wrote:
--------------------------------------
From comments to indymedia from FG members/supporters over the last few weeks you might have noticed that. Particulary at the responses given by some of our members and supporters at the assumption that we are right wing fanatics etc.
You know, believe it or not, but we have members who are not white, who are not christian, who have a regualar pasttime of participating in protests,
----------------------------------------
I take it then Alex that you believe that being a right wing fanatic is exclusively tied to being a White Christian with an Irregular Pasttime of Participating In Protests?
Where does that leave the Hindu fundamentalists of the BJP? They're non-white, non-Christian. What about poor old Osama bin Laden?
I think that you're in danger of swallowing right wing rhetoric about "political correctness".
Being right-wing is to do with one's beliefs, not ones' skin colour or religion and only a racist would believe that including minorities in their party means that the party can't be right wing.
Here are some of the beliefs that will help you to identify right-wingers without having to examine their skin colour or see if they've got a nice little gold crucifix on a chain round their neck:
1. Undue respect for illegitimate authority
2. A tendency to support the Capitalist system
3. An unwillingness to hand over huge amounts of cash and land to fix the problems caused by Capitalism.
4. Support for militarism (including the Gardai)
5. A fear of Democracy (note: don't confuse this with representative parliamentary democracy)
Interestingly some "socialists" will score low marks on points 1, 4 and 5 although they do well on points 2 and 3.
to ensure that Irish Defence resources are only used for Humanitarian or Peacekeeping purposes.
Or
You have an opportunity to ignore the wishes of the majority of Irish people in Ireland and the UK to stop this war against Iraq at best and honour Irelands constitutional obligation to peaceful settlement of international disputes.
One could point to a ream of Fine Gael politicians thoughts on such obligations since 1949.
One could also supply you with a list of US senators and congressmen who would support the use of Shannon for the transport of humanitarian Aid alone.
One could point out that long distance phone calls letters faxs and emails can often make those decisions you resent or apologise for, which is the essential weakness of your oligarchic state system of governance.
One would never think to deny that there are some of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as well who have supported the very wide coalition of movements which have developed globally in the last ten years.
One might just say that is why the evolving revolution is very very safe.
oh and welcome to the forum.
--------------------------I have left details of the public order act 1936 and the reasons for its passing into law on another thread for your better understanding of your own history.
Despite what our Fine gael contributors claim, their party has no aspirations other then to replace Fianna Fail as our Elitist overlords.
both partys are just different shades of the same colour stringing out different versions of the same bullshit for as long as anyone can remember.
The ONLY difference in the irish political scene is that these days we play ball with the new Empire . WE ARE THE EMPIRE. we all profit from imperialism, no one more than FF/FG. Anyway my point was that theres just no way FG would be taking action against US troop movements through shannon if they were in power.
They've always shown themselves to be equally adept at selling out their countrymen as their political sparring partners.
But he was a fine figure of a man.
Big deal. Fine Gael ask for a dail debate on the Shannon stopover. Which way would they vote Alex? I notice that you have still refused to reply to my allegation that FG, YFG and many others support terrorism as detailed in my comment (under the heading Ice Cold in Alex) at the following link...
http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23232&start=50
Your lack of response, after numerous reminders looks like agreement...
By the way, if you're going to deny the allegations, support with some evidence :)
Later...