Killian Forde confirms to Politics.ie that he has resigned from Sinn Fein

[SideysGhost]

I definitely need to get my eyes tested. I thought you wrote "chum" as in shark bait!

Works both ways, surely?

[Duth Ealla]

For some reason I always thought Killian's role as Irish Times skiing correspondent didn't sit all that well with him being a Sinn Fein cllr.

As someone who has personally never been on a ski holiday I have to wonder what difference that would make.

Shock horror but ordinary working class people also go on ski holidays.

you can spend a week sking in andorra for about 280 with your buddies. Guys and gals on the AIW go sking. At 280 euro even people below the AIW can go as a cheap holiday.

Is this a perception issue and not a substantive one?

[factual]

Adams was always a control freak micro-manager with authoritarian impulses. Internal debate within SF has always been stifled and controlled to the nth degree and youse have lost a lot of good intelligent passionate people over many years because of this.

That kind of party culture is understandable, even excusable, when there was a war on and party members and even elected representatives were being killed by the British and Loyalists....it's even understandable how over-the-top discipline and being constantly "on message" was seen by some to be necessary during all the long years of difficult negotiations to end the conflict - and why people went along with it at the time.

Those days are gone however, and if SF is to remain in any way relevant then this topdown command-and-control structure, attitude and internal culture needs to be decommissioned next. Along with all the old leadership, and all their local yes-men enforcers.

That's SFs real problem. Just sort it out. You have the likes of Ms Ferris already, and a party freed from the cult-like mind-control of Adams will probably attract back a lot of the people who have left over the last 10-12 years. Left not because they were "mad dissident bombers" which has always been the party line (some were physical-force types of course, but very many were not), but left because they were frustrated and disgusted at the increasingly authoritarian and conservative nature of the party.

If you don't act then within 5 years SF will be as visible and as relevant as O'Brádaigh's bunch in the south - dusty old theologians waffling on unheeded, convinced of their own righteousness and that 99.99% of the population is out of step with their One True Church. And eventually you'll wane in the Six too, the muttering amongst the ordinary voter in the street already started about 2 years ago.

You need a palace coup to persuade the Adams regime to step down and quietly retire, and you need it fast, or SF will simply wither away all over the island.

Then again, maybe it is time. Maybe all our old parties are irrelevant. Maybe they are all no longer fit for purpose, and we should dismantle all of them - SF, FF, FG, Labour, SDLP. Start fresh, without all the baggage and mistakes and grudges of the past.

This is reading waaay too much into the departure of Killian. As I have stated elsewhere Sinn Féin reps are not individually self promoting or careerist, Sinn Féin is in contrast an activist campaigning party that puts policies before careerism of individuals. Sinn Féin reps take only the AIW. Killian Forde clearly has found all of this a frustration and furthermore was clearly out of line with Sinn Féin policy position on the progressive left of politics. But this is Sinn Féin's strength and USP in an era when other parties have corrupt power and money individuals, out to line their own pockets. People relate to Sinn Féin because Sinn Féin reps are on the AIW.

[meriwether]

This is reading waaay too much into the departure of Killian. As I have stated elsewhere Sinn Féin reps are not individually self promoting or careerist, Sinn Féin is in contrast an activist campaigning party that puts policies before careerism of individuals. Sinn Féin reps take only the AIW. Killian Forde clearly has found all of this a frustration and furthermore was clearly out of line with Sinn Féin policy position on the progressive left of politics. But this is Sinn Féin's strength and USP in an era when other parties have corrupt power and money individuals, out to line their own pockets. People relate to Sinn Féin because Sinn Féin reps are on the AIW.

This strength and 'USP' isn't being converted into increased support.
In the context of FF shedding approx 80 council seats in the last locals, 'consolidation' was a bad result.
And that is the truth, nonsense about 'slow release growth' aside.

[factual]

This strength and 'USP' isn't being converted into increased support.
In the context of FF shedding approx 80 council seats in the last locals, 'consolidation' was a bad result.
And that is the truth, nonsense about 'slow release growth' aside.

A simple look at the facts shows this is nonsense. Sinn Féin aim for long term sustainable growth and that is exactly what Sinn Féin achieve.

In each and every like for like successive election in the 26 counties since the 1980s Sinn Féin have either increased vote share or maintained its number of elected reps.

In 2009 alone Sinn Féin:

*Increased vote share in the 26 county Euro elections
*Maintained number of elected councillors in the locals
*Increased vote share in bye elections to Dail
*Topped the poll for the first time, by quite some margin, in the six county Euro election.

[cricket]

I haven't read all of this but has this guy gone public yet with his reason for leaving ?
As an elected rep , he can hardly stay silent for too long.

[SideysGhost]

It's not just Killian, factual.

SF have been losing good people in a steady stream now for years and years. Fresh young talent is stymied, prevented from speaking out and developing policy, the tired old heads and their yes-men have an iron grip on the party.

The party is on the verge of disintegrating in the south, SF voters in the north are becoming restless (they just have nowhere realistic to go instead.....so far), the golden opportunity of the last 18 months of economic crisis has been comprehensively fluffed, there is no message anyone wants to hear, and the party vote - and seats - are in decline.

Of course, yer just a yes-man yourself, so I wouldn't expect you to have the psychological make-up to be able to confront these issues head on and take the necessary action.

[gonepostal]

Factual will you cop yourself on in 7 years of politics not one person has ever said to me that they are deleighted we only take aiw in the dail and elsewhere all they care about is the work that is done for them and the quality of the person( i have been to almost every door in my constiturency on more than one occasion) in fact making our elected reps live on aiw will lead to people not representing the party 9 it costs HUGE money to be a politician in this country atfer electrions and as the mantra that we are increasing vote take it from me the last two elections were a disaster for the party that thought we could take votes from people pissed off with the government parties

[factual]

It's not just Killian, factual.

SF have been losing good people in a steady stream now for years and years. Fresh young talent is stymied, prevented from speaking out and developing policy, the tired old heads and their yes-men have an iron grip on the party.

The party is on the verge of disintegrating in the south, SF voters in the north are becoming restless (they just have nowhere realistic to go instead.....so far), the golden opportunity of the last 18 months of economic crisis has been comprehensively fluffed, there is no message anyone wants to hear, and the party vote - and seats - are in decline.

Of course, yer just a yes-man yourself, so I wouldn't expect you to have the psychological make-up to be able to confront these issues head on and take the necessary action.

Repubicans think long term so aim for slow-release incremental long term sustainable growth. So while in any one year the rate of increase in is never dramatic the underlying trend for Sinn Féin is upwardly.

On the facts of seats and votes, since you raise it, you are wrong:

*In each and every like for like successive election in the 26 counties since the 1980s Sinn Féin have either increased vote share or maintained its number of elected reps.

In 2009 alone Sinn Féin:

*Increased vote share in the 26 county Euro elections
*Maintained number of elected councillors in the locals
*Increased vote share in bye elections to Dail
*Topped the poll for the first time, by quite some margin, in the six county Euro election.

[topcat4]

Repubicans think long term so aim for slow-release incremental long term sustainable growth. So while in any one year the rate of increase in is never dramatic the underlying trend for Sinn Féin is upwardly.

On the facts of seats and votes, since you raise it, you are wrong:

*In each and every like for like successive election in the 26 counties since the 1980s Sinn Féin have either increased vote share or maintained its number of elected reps.

In 2009 alone Sinn Féin:

*Increased vote share in the 26 county Euro elections
*Maintained number of elected councillors in the locals
*Increased vote share in bye elections to Dail
*Topped the poll for the first time, by quite some margin, in the six county Euro election.

Factual for gods sake who are you trying to fool, Sinn Féin are collapsing in the 26, they have lost people in every constituency in the country, from elected reps to middle leadership people to ordinary members. The party is in crisis and has been for years, talk about fiddling when Rome burns. By the way percentages are not representation, you can maniplate percentages of the vote to mean anything, as I say you are fooling nobody.