FF want to become an All-Ireland Party

Killer Pigeon

It seems after Fianna Fáil want to regroup in the North after their historic failure in the South. Something tells me that Fianna Fáil wants to wipe out Sinn Féin so they can regain seats in the here.

Michéal Martin says Fianna Fail may now look to Northern Ireland

FIANNA FAIL leader Michéal Martin has said that his decimated party is looking at entering the political scene in the North. He said the party was “actively considering” a move towards getting involved “on the ground” in Northern politics, although he denied that it would be as part of a merge with the SDLP.
He told RTE’s Radio’s News at One:

We are a republican party and we will advance that postition.

He said the party had taken on lots of work in peace and reconciliation and wanted to extend that participation.
Martin, who yesterday retained his seat in Cork South Central, said the fundamental factor in Fianna Fail’s fall from grace in this general election was the economic recession, which he described as “the worst since 1928″. He said: “The impact of that is enormous and there is a wider range of issues as well, 15 years in power, all of that is cumulative…”
The challenge for Fianna Fail now is to “remain a vital force” in Irish public and political life, he said. As for the role of the Fianna Fail TDs returned to the Dail – 15 have been elected so far – he said that they would be opposition, but not as the public had known it. He said:

I picked up behind all of the anger that people undoubtedly have is that we must change the way we do politics. They don’t want opposition for the sake of opposition.

http://www.thejournal.ie/micheal-martin-says-fianna-fail-may-now-look-to-northern-ireland-2011-2/

*Sigh*

Will they ever just go away...

drunkmonkey

There going to take on Sinn Fein on their turf, I wish them the best of luck with that one.

smcgiff

I wonder if holed up in the Bunker on the 30th of April if Hitler considered launching an attack on the US.

joulter

does he want to bring the imf to the north aswell?

Min

Good luck to Micheál Martin in his bid to take on SF and make FF an all Ireland party.
If it is a merge with the SDLP then let's hope they return to former glory up north at the expense of SF.

bmarley

I think Micheal Martin has lost the plot. I don't think they'd entertain them in Northern Ireland after the damage they have done here. I think he should give up his seat after coming out with something like that.

lucozader

FF have destroyed the south, now their mission is to bring the north to their knees as well

god help them

Biggins

FF can't look after 26 counties - and they want to take on-board more?
Yea right. That will work!

Wolfe Tone

Best of luck to them, they will do sh!t though

Biggins

If anyone in the SDLP has any sense, they will run a mile away from FF.

Monty Burnz

I have the sense that the SDLP are a bit too honest to combine with FFailure - there would be a clash of cultures there as FFailure try to explain to them the ideas of dirty tricks, brown envelopes, adopting any position they think will get a vote, and having no principles other that to win power for its own sake.

Pherekydes

If he wants to try the north why doesn't he look into moving (him and his party and their supporters) to Spitzbergen. I hear it's nice this time of year.

cyclopath2001

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

Will they ever just go away...

I could not believe it when he blamed the recession fot the voter backlash, as if his government did nothing wrong, made no mistakes, not to blame at all.

If he thinks northern voters are gullible, he's deluding himself.

insight_man

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

I could not believe it when he blamed the recession fot the voter backlash, as if his government did nothing wrong, made no mistakes, not to blame at all.

If he thinks northern voters are gullible, he's deluding himself.

Best thing FF can do is just go away...just like their old friends the pee dees

Sierra Oscar

This should not come as a surprise at all, as it has been on the cards for the last decade. FF launched Ógra in the North with the intention of having party members ready to contest elections. Ógra was officially launched in the North in 2008 but FF organising in the North was pushed off the agenda when the financial crisis emerged. FF will be reorganising in the South after the election and the chances are it will organise in the North simultaneously to make it an all Ireland party. Looking like the North is being put back on the agenda for FF.

UDAWINNER

this has to be a joke, the negative comments he made about northerners he made a while back will come back to haunt him

Biggins

Aaaa sure when all else fails, chance your arm elsewhere!

Canvasser

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

Wolfe Tone

Canvasser wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

lol

smcgiff

Canvasser wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

About 95 years too late for that, no?

Nah, this is an attempt to steal some headlines. FF are yesterday's men and will be starved of publicity. Besides, FF are broke, and I doubt they have the funds for it.

Biggins

smcgiff wrote: »

...Besides, FF are broke, and I doubt they have the funds for it.

Good point. They are very broke.
From that alone, its going to take them some time to recover.

insight_man

Biggins wrote: »

Good point. They are very broke.
From that alone, its going to take them some time to recover.

Yeah very broke on real ideas to help the people. Plenty of ideas to hel[p their banker and developer friends though.

The people of the North won't be taken in so easily like the people in the south. They know chancers when they see them.

OhNoYouDidn't

Canvasser wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

:D:D

Is this random noise to galvanise the troops or FF's last throw of the dice before irrelevance and oblivion?

OS119

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

...Is this random noise to galvanise the troops or FF's last throw of the dice before irrelevance and oblivion?

i don't doubt that FF will be on their arse for a year, but lob in some horrific spending decisions, some cock-ops (every government makes them, why not FG?), and a bit of flag waving i'm afraid they will be back.

never underestimate the stupidity of the public when some otherwise utterly discredited politician starts banging the drum and whipping out the flag.

blinding

So now that they are in the deepest pooh pooh the decide to become an all-Ireland party.

They might as well fool themselves as they are not fooling anybody else !

OhNoYouDidn't

OS119 wrote: »

i don't doubt that FF will be on their arse for a year, but lob in some horrific spending decisions, some cock-ops (every government makes them, why not FG?), and a bit of flag waving i'm afraid they will be back.

never underestimate the stupidity of the public when some otherwise utterly discredited politician starts banging the drum and whipping out the flag.

I think this could be curtains for them as the driving force in Irish politics. Their support base has vanished, and was old and rural anyhow. They have no real talent coming through the ranks, look at the age profile of their candidates.

They need to rebuild from scratch. Operating on a 32 count basis might give them a slight boost, and its logical to do it now if they are ever going to do it, but the stoops are in as much trouble as they are.

dlofnep

Republican party my arse. Where were they over the past few decades while northern nationalists were being treated with utter contempt by the British establishment?

This is opportunistic bollocks. They understand that a large portion of their vote has gone to Sinn Féin. If they were really a Republican party, they would have engaged in the north far sooner. They didn't and as such, even the most hardened critic of Sinn Féin will agree that this is a hollow effort by Fianna Fáil.

joulter

fianna fail claiming to be a republican party is fairly laughable. they let the nationalists in the north die on the vine for 50 years.

who are they trying to kid though. who would be stupid enough to have anything to do with them after they brought the imf here. what alternative would they market themselves as to differ from sf,sdlp or even the alliance party?

whoopdedoo

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

It seems after Fianna Fáil want to regroup in the North after their historic failure in the South. Something tells me that Fianna Fáil wants to wipe out Sinn Féin so they can regain seats in the here.

http://www.thejournal.ie/micheal-martin-says-fianna-fail-may-now-look-to-northern-ireland-2011-2/

*Sigh*

Will they ever just go away...

just do what I do and jump straight onto their website and send them an email, a fair few mo fos have got mails of me the past few months

ilovesleep

I would love to see FF try. Im sure the north have been following events from down here in the south. There isn't a hope in hell northern ireland will allow FF to bankrupt their counties. I want to see FF try to take over the north so that the people can send a FCUK OFF message to FF.

Killer Pigeon

Canvasser wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

super_furry

They see that Sinn Fein are their biggest rivals right now, so they're trying to steal their identity. Totally cynical and totally laughable.

OS119

ilovesleep wrote: »

I would love to see FF try. Im sure the north have been following events from down here in the south. There isn't a hope in hell northern ireland will allow FF to bankrupt their counties. I want to see FF try to take over the north so that the people can send a FCUK OFF message to FF.

i don't think for one second that FF believe that they will pick up votes in the North, but i'd bet cash money that they believe that if they are seen to be 'organising' in the north and banging this 'the republican party' drum (however ridiculous that may be) they will pick up votes in the South.

utterly see through, but i'd lay odds on it working to some degree or other.

darragh16

They are already registered as a party in Northern Ireland. They wanted to extend speaking rights to NI MP's and MLA's. They had a planned merger with SDLP that was shelved.

This does not surprise me in the slightest. If its going back to its roots it wants to serve the people of this Island as a whole.

Killer Pigeon

darragh16 wrote: »

They are already registered as a party in Northern Ireland. They wanted to extend speaking rights to NI MP's and MLA's. They had a planned merger with SDLP that was shelved.

This does not surprise me in the slightest. If its going back to its roots it wants to serve the people of this Island as a whole.

Why would a centre-right wing party want to merge with the centre-left Social Democratic & Labour Party?

darragh16

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

Why would a centre-right wing party want to merge with the centre-left Social Democratic & Labour Party?

Because Fianna Fail have generally been a centist party, some left leaning and some right-leaning policies.

dsmythy

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

Why would a centre-right wing party want to merge with the centre-left Social Democratic & Labour Party?

Maybe they're going back to their roots.

Essexboy

darragh16 wrote: »

Because Fianna Fail have generally been a centist party, some left leaning and some right-leaning policies.

or to put it another way, devoid of principles!

Shea O'Meara

It's most amusing. They kept 'the republican party' moniker on the down low in the mid-nineties and are now resurrecting it in a lame last ditch effort to have some reason for being.
It has even been accepted by FFail supporters that they are a populist party who will change a viewpoint for a vote. So now they have little or no power, they struggle for a reason to open the HQ offices of a morning.
Trying to cash in on any united Ireland sentiment is an insult to people who have been genuinely seeking it and will be seen as that by all walks.
Also they seem to be hanging up their progressive line of drivel for some old school civil war politics, if they get a few votes out of it.
Just as voters like politicians telling them what they want to hear, we'll always have FFail, just not for a while.

Monty Burnz

darragh16 wrote: »

Because Fianna Fail have generally been a centist party, some left leaning and some right-leaning policies.

A populist/peasant party, I think you mean. Centrists actually have a sort of ideology. Populists go where they think they might get votes - hence Fianna Failure's bizarre policies in the last decade.

Monty Burnz

Canvasser wrote: »

I think it's a good idea as we could easily compete with sinn fein up there and use it as a base to be back in power in time for the 1916 rising.

Um...I knew FFailure were a bit behind the times, but this is ridiculous.

Fitzerb

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There going to take on Sinn Fein on their turf, I wish them the best of luck with that one.

Its not the wrost idea. The people of West Belfast are none to happy with Adams moving to Louth to live

Fitzerb

Shea O'Meara wrote: »

It's most amusing. They kept 'the republican party' moniker on the down low in the mid-nineties and are now resurrecting it in a lame last ditch effort to have some reason for being.
It has even been accepted by FFail supporters that they are a populist party who will change a viewpoint for a vote. So now they have little or no power, they struggle for a reason to open the HQ offices of a morning.
Trying to cash in on any united Ireland sentiment is an insult to people who have been genuinely seeking it and will be seen as that by all walks.
Also they seem to be hanging up their progressive line of drivel for some old school civil war politics, if they get a few votes out of it.
Just as voters like politicians telling them what they want to hear, we'll always have FFail, just not for a while.

I think FF have done more to reconsile NI over the years than other party.... Including SF. If it were not for he work of FF on the peace process SF would still be bombing and murdering its way to democracy

Shea O'Meara

Fitzerb wrote: »

I think FF have done more to reconsile NI over the years than other party.... Including SF. If it were not for he work of FF on the peace process SF would still be bombing and murdering its way to democracy

Not so. Sinn Fein were having secret talks with the British long before FFail went along for the ride. They played the role, in respect to the north, like any party that was in power would have.
If you think they had any stronger hand in it and/or Sinn Fein took their lead, you are deluded.
Also working for peace and picking up the flag for a good aul' united Ireland wave are completely different things.

FF and proud

Ah sure its about time, sure isnt Fianna Fail the party of the Irish after all. Dont be letting one election however bad make you think that Fianna Fail are gone. Now I will admit that it was a bit of a bad result there, but these things happen.

Sure ive told a few people myself isnt it better to take time out and reform and let the people see that them Fine Gael people can do no better with the current global recession that some people have been blaming on the party.

A sad day, but sure reform might not be such a bad thing altogether and starting up the North would be good to get back on track for 2016.

Nothingbetter2d

lol Fianna Fail claim to be a a republican party yet they handed sovereignty over to the IMF/Germans.... FF should disband

belacqua_

darragh16 wrote: »

They are already registered as a party in Northern Ireland. They wanted to extend speaking rights to NI MP's and MLA's. They had a planned merger with SDLP that was shelved.

Absolutely right. The thread title is inaccurate, FF have been an 'all-Ireland' party since 2007 when they registered with the UK electoral commission. They've even recruited a former UUP councillor (and retired RIR/UDR Colonel), Harvey Bicker (OBE TD -- different sort of TD ...), and that was in 2008:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7260556.stm

Sir Oxman

Oh dear. Mr Martin seems to think that his gaffe in the 5way debate has gone unnoticed - 'how dare you come down here and preach' he says to Mr Adams, betraying his partionist mindset.
He and FF are not republicans, they use it as a tagline on their posters and as a handy, populist rallycry in desperate times (their own internal party desperate times)

As someone else said - FF, just go away.

shefra

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

lol Fianna Fail claim to be a a republican party yet they handed sovereignty over to the IMF/Germans.... FF should disband

Totally agree

walrusgumble

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

This should not come as a surprise at all, as it has been on the cards for the last decade. FF launched Ógra in the North with the intention of having party members ready to contest elections. Ógra was officially launched in the North in 2008 but FF organising in the North was pushed off the agenda when the financial crisis emerged. FF will be reorganising in the South after the election and the chances are it will organise in the North simultaneously to make it an all Ireland party. Looking like the North is being put back on the agenda for FF.

ah, like Dev and Haughey before him, when the economy is bust and they have no more relevance, trust Fianna Fáil to rediscover their republican green roots and turn green on northern ireland as a means of relevancy. Whilst I would always conmend all Southern parties to try and franchise into a true all ireland constituency, this wreks. But, if I was Martin, I would do the same, people have slow memories. It would probably help those who have lost faith in the SDLP but would never vote SF. As long as it does not split the Nationalist/ Republican vote

walrusgumble

FF and proud wrote: »

Ah sure its about time, sure isnt Fianna Fail the party of the Irish after all. Dont be letting one election however bad make you think that Fianna Fail are gone. Now I will admit that it was a bit of a bad result there, but these things happen.

Sure ive told a few people myself isnt it better to take time out and reform and let the people see that them Fine Gael people can do no better with the current global recession that some people have been blaming on the party.

A sad day, but sure reform might not be such a bad thing altogether and starting up the North would be good to get back on track for 2016.

Whilst I fully believe that FF will be back by the 2020's, I think 2016 is a tad bit hopefull, they should do well in locals (could not get any worse) but there is a lot to do. I say it will rip the hearts of die hard FF's that Fine Gael will possibly (no guarantee) head the procession for 2016 centenary. I really hope Enda does not do a complete Bruton win Mrs Windsor heads over.