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labour mayor to be investigated for 'disgraceful' comment
Article from 'Irish Times' Monday June 20th 2005
The Mayor of Sligo and former Sligo/Leitrim TD, Declan Bree, is to face an internal party investigation following his criticism of two party councillors on Sligo Borough Council, who voted against plans to house Travellers. The Mayor of Sligo and former Sligo/Leitrim TD, Declan Bree, is to face an internal party investigation following his criticism of two party councillors on Sligo Borough Council, who voted against plans to house Travellers.
Mr Bree was told last week that a complaints committee is now to be established to investigate the issue, on foot of a complaint by Peigin Doyle, secretary of Labour’s Sligo/Leitrim constituency organisation.
A list of 13 possible members of the complaints body including former Cabinet Minister Barry Desmond has been put forward from which five names will be drawn.
The committee can reject the complaint, suspend Mr Bree or expel him from membership of the party, or it can recommend that no further action be taken.
A complaints committee was established to investigate allegedly racist remarks made by former Lord Mayor of Cork Joe O’Callaghan, but he quit the party before it ruled.
The row began after Sligo Borough Council voted by seven votes to four on February 7th against the town’s draft Traveller accommodation programme. Two labour councillors, Veronica Cawley and Jim McGarry, voted with two Fine Gael councillors and three Fianna Fail councillors, while Mr Bree and three Sinn Fein council members voted in favour of it.
In an interview with the ‘Sligo Champion’, Mr Bree said: “The disgraceful decision to vote down the programme compels these Traveller families to continue living in appalling and intolerable conditions.
“How can anyone who claims to share the values of the Labour movement, or how can anyone with an ounce of compassion tolerate such a situation?”
The remarks made by Mr Bree, who was elected to the Dail in the 1997 election only to lose out five years later and who strongly opposed Mr Rabbitte’s coalition strategy during the party’s Tralee conference, have caused tensions within Labour’s Sligo organisation.
He was called on to apologise for his criticisms of Councillors Cawley and McGarry at a party meeting in late February, but he refused to do so.
*Article by Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, published in today’s ‘Irish Times’ (20th June 2005. Page 5 ‘Withdrawal strengthens Rabbitte’)
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rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
Monday June 20, 2005 15:07
by Sean Dowling
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Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13He's too much old labour and out of step with the Rabbitte Line...
Mayor Bree is be congratulated for highlighting the scandalous behaviour of his colleagues.
Unfortunately, principles are set aside when coalitions beckon.
The purge of the 'left' begins.
Maith thu !!!
Declan Bree should be congratulated. Keep up the good work.
you can hardly call bree left wing. opportunist would be a better term. the labour party is not representative of the working class, in fact, i doubt many of its current members would care to be associated with the working class. labour is a party run by sticks who chose the easiest route to power. if rabbitte thought fine gael would elect him leader, he be off like a hot snot.
as for bree, since he jumped ship from being an independent to a labour puppet, he has seen a decline in his political fortunes. you cannot fool us cute hoors, declan and your attempts at seeking sympathy will fall flat.
Bree stands up for Travellers, an unpopular thing to do in many parts of rural Ireland, and you rather than see it as an act of principle, imply it's a desperate attempt to curry sympathy from...what, Indymedia readers?
I've never voted Labour in my life but that doesn't mean i can't congratulate a member of the Labour party for not only doing the right thing, but attacking those members of his aprty who do not.
Did anyone else have to read the original article twice to find out who was being criticised for saying what?
Exactly Jonah. I'm no fan of Bree or his political record which if I was to be very charitable I would describe as "patchy", but standing up for travellers isn't an opportunist thing to do. Fair play to him.
The episode is certainly revealing about the Labour Party though. Screwing over travellers is fine, objecting to that is cause for an investigation!
I don't know this bree guy but I can't understand who the labour leadership would not support his actions. Fair play to him, sometimes it's harder to go against your own than finna fail or fine gael. And if anything it could cost him votes. He should be supported for his action not "investigated"
Bree’s been around a long time fighting the good fight in the North West. He organised the Connolly Youth in Sligo in the 60’s when socialists were considered heretics. Bree and the CYM were attacked by the employers, the clergy, cops, F.F., F.G., S.F., Labour - by everyone! Yet they refused to throw in the towel.
Bree has been to the fore in every progressive campaign down through the years - Civil rights, housing action, Vietnam, family planning, the divorce and abortion referendums, against the war on Iraq, supporting strikers, and countless local issues.
Whether its travellers rights, gay rights or rights for asylum seekers and refugees Bree has made his voice heard.
He was elected to the Council as a socialist in the mid 70’s and has been re-elected at each election. He and some of the Graltons from Leitrim organised a Sligo Leitrim Socialist Party in the 80’s and that merged with Labour sometime in 1990 or 1991.
Even when he went into Labour he stuck to his views as a Connolly socialist. He opposed the bin charges, he spoke out on Northern Ireland, he campaigned against the Nice Treaty, and he was carpeted by Dick Spring on numerous occasions.
Bree’s most recent opposition to Rabbittes pre election deal with Fine Gael and his opposition to the European Constitution hardly won him friends in the higher echelons of the Labour Party
I don’t think this ‘investigation’ is going to change Bree’s views
Bree is hundred percent correct on this issue and regardless of his position on other issues he deserves support especially since the leadership seem determined to attack him.
However past record does not maketh the socialist. Yes, Bree did spend years in the wilderness and despite his stalinist links, he did lots of good work. But by joining the Labour Party he veered sharply to the right. On the fundamental question of coalition he is not opposed to coalition with a right wing party in principle, just to a pre-election pact with FG. Like all the 'left' in Labour he had no problem with the 1992 agreement with FF and amongst other things voted for the disgraceful tax amnesty. This coalition issue is not just any old issue but a key question which divides socialists of all kinds from social democrats: you either believe in the creation of a socialist society or you think left parties should participate in administering a capitalist society, albeit introducing ameliorating reforms in the process. Fine if thats what you believe, there has always been a debate between these two conceptions, but there's no point in confusing the issue by claiming Bree is something he is not.
are you sure that he supported coalition and tax amnesties, militant was in labour during coalitions but it didn't mean they supported them. Did he publicly support the amnesty and coalition or simply not split from the party over it. There's a huge difference.
It may be possible for a rank and file member of Labour to stay in the party while opposing coalition etc. but not a TD. As a TD, Bree and all the other Labour TDs voted for Albert Reynolds as Taoiseach in 1992 and the tax amnesty given during that governments term. No Labour TD opposed the amnesty or the coalition arrangement. Its no use speaking against these things and then voting for them. Bree has made it quite clear that he is not opposed to coalition with a right wing party but only to the specific idea of a pre-election pact with such a party. Essentially he wants Labour to run an independent campaign during an election and then make a deal with one of the conservative parties afterwords. In fact this seems to be the position of most of those who opposed Rabbittes strategy. There seems to be no member of Labour , except a few members of their Youth Section, who is opposed to coalition in principle. To return to the original point, Bree has taken a principled stance on this issue relating to Travellers rights and it is an absolute disgrace that he is being hounded rather than the reactionaries he criticised but this shouldnt lead us to airbrush his past conduct. Of course it says a lot about Labour's current leadership that its Bree rather than the reactionaries who's being investigated.