Friends of Sinn Féin USA

The Road to Now · Episode

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The success of my case against the British Broadcasting Corporation and in my opinion it is a very important and very significant breach in that institutions monopoly on how it broadcasts ‘news’ especially in Ireland. As I said outside the Four Courts I took this case to put manners on this institution. I stand over that comment. And I reject the over the top responses to it. The British Broadcasting Corporation is supposed to be a public service provider. It is paid from public funds.   It upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, that goes without saying almost, but it should be publicly accountable for its broadcasting content.   It rarely is. That’s what this court case did. That’s what the jury did. The BBC lost.

Irish Americans and Irish diaspora from all over the Chicago area came together to the Irish American Heritage Center for the latest installment of the Irish Unity People’s Assembly for the Diaspora. Chicago’s history of connection with Ireland spans generations, from James Conolly organizing and founding the Irish Socialist Federation in Chicago and New York, to the annual hunger strike memorials hosted by Clan na Gael for decades, Chicago is home to one of the largest and most active Irish and Irish American communities in the country.

People's Assembly events in the United States are designed to provide activists and supporters with an update on the political situation around Irish Unity and just as importantly, provide a clear channel for Irish America and Irish Diaspora to provide feedback directly to The Commission on the Future of Ireland. The event kicked off with a welcome from Friends of Sinn Féin President Mark Guilfoyle who set the tone for the evening by introducing Pat Cullen MP as a political leader whose roots in activism and advocacy provide the perfect example of the purpose of the evening.

Dozens gathered at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, TN for the Irish Unity People’s Assembly for the Diaspora on Wednesday, May 28th, 2025. The event was the fifth People’s Assembly event hosted in the United States by Friends of Sinn Féin and the first in Tennessee.  Pat Cullen MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone was the special guest and speaker for the event and she was joined by Ciarán Quinn, Sinn Féin’s Representative to the United States.

I will be traveling to Nashville, Cincinnati, and Chicago next week for a series of Commissions on the Future of Ireland sponsored by Friends of Sinn Féin. These follow other events in the US and Canada and are part of a wider series of citizens' Assemblies hosted by Sinn Féin across Ireland.  These events are an opportunity to learn more about Irish Unity. An opportunity for you to inform the work of Sinn Féin, and most importantly, to identify your role in building a new and united Ireland.  When the British and Irish governments dismissed the potential of the peace process and refused to engage, it was the people of Ireland and our diaspora who acted and brought them to the table. Together, we can challenge the refusal of the Irish Government to plan for unity. Together, we can build a new and united Ireland.

The Irish government as the sovereign government for three quarters of the island is not just best placed but is duty bound given its responsibilities under the GFA to lead this planning and preparation phase which we are now entering. It is the obvious next step for the Irish government following on from their work through the Shared Island initiative which has made involvement in the debate by those who identify as culturally unionist much easier. The debate now needs to be accelerated through a Citizens Assembly, or other forums, which should be established by the government to encourage greater participation by populations across the island in deciding their future.

I urge the Irish government to begin the detailed and comprehensive planning necessary for a referendum on Irish Unity. Cross-party agreement was reached on the Good Friday Implementation Committee for the ‘setting up of a central portal in the Department of the Taoiseach where all research carried out regarding the constitutional future is contained and accessible to all’. “This is to encourage an exchange of learning, to co-ordinate initiatives, ensuring additionality and avoiding duplication. We have an opportunity to design a fairer, more equal society. We must invest in these initiatives and ensure that the hopes and dreams of the women who participate are realised in a new constitutional future.”

By Seán Mac Brádaigh The weekend of 18 and 19 January saw Irish republicans from Sligo, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Roscommon, Cavan and further afield mark the 50th Anniversary of the death of IRA Volunteer Kevin Coen through commemoration and reflection. A native of Rusheen, near Riverstown Co Sligo, Kevin was a Volunteer with the IRA’s South […]

Last week, hundreds of people registered and attended a series of events featuring John Finucane, MP in Washington, DC, New York City, and Rockland County, New York. The Belfast North MP was in the United States to deliver keynote addresses at the latest in the Irish Unity People’s Assemblies: Diaspora series. While in New York, […]

The theme of Irish Unity was front and centre in the fringe meeting at this year’s Ard Fheis that focussed on the life and activism of our friend and comrade Rita O’Hare who died last year. Several hundred people packed into the room where a panel discussed Rita’s contribution to the struggle for freedom and self-determination and then listened as people in the audience reminisced about their personal memories of Rita. I chaired the event and was joined by Rita’s husband Brendan Brownlee, Dawn Doyle and Danny Morrison. Rita correctly believed that Irish Unity is at the heart of the politics of change. It is at the core of our republican politics, our anti-colonial, anti-sectarian, desire for social justice, and for equality. All the speakers touched on this. On the need for planning and cohesion and the obligation on United Irelanders to harmonise the national and the local.

Latest News Featured March 9, 2025 The Next Chapter A Letter from Ireland a Chara, I am back on the road again. I am in Washington DC to meet up with labor, community and political leaders. It has been … Read More → Explore Our Newsletter Archive! Catch up on past issues filled with insights, […]

At Fisk University, Pat Cullen, Greg, and I visited the church in which Dr. King, Malcom X, John Lewis all spoke. The funds to build the church were raised by tours of the Fisk Jubilee Singers tours of Ireland and Britain. Beneath the church was a warren of old tunnels that ran under the campus. It was in these tunnels that small groups of activist would meet to plan their civil disobedience campaigns. The rise of the civil rights movement in Nashville and across the South would inspire a generation of activists in Ireland. Just as the calls for equality were met with state violence in Nashville, so to would the civil rights in the North of Ireland. This trip is an opportunity to explain political developments, the opportunity we now have to achieve Irish unity and to examine the role of activists to realise that opportunity.

The British Government continues to refuse to hold a public inquiry into the killing and is again appealing the court's judgement. Last week, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill travelled to Bellaghy to support the family of Sean Brown. Simon Harris, the Irish Government Foreign Minister, also called on the British Government to hold a public inquiry into the handling of the investigation. Despite the obligations of the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government wants everyone to forget the killings by their military and state agents. To continue the cover-up, refuse to acknowledge their role, and so undermine reconciliation. The rights of the Brown family must be vindicated in line with the commitments of the Good Friday Agreement.

Theobold Wolf Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism sought to unite ALL under the common banner of Irish men and women to break the link with Britain. The Proclamation declared, “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally...” There was no clauses, color bars, qualifiers, ifs or buts in either of these republican tenets. Racism, wrapped in the flag of nationalism is an insult to the memory of the patriot dead. You cannot be a racist and an Irish Republican.

Easter is the time when we remember Ireland's Patriots. Those who have struggled, and those who gave their lives for the cause of Irish freedom. Marking the 1916 Rising and also the advent of Spring and renewal. It is a time to catch up with friends and comrades, to remember, and to recommit to building a new and united Ireland. Unlike other generations, we have the Good Friday Agreement which provides a peaceful and democratic pathway to Irish unity.  The years of conflict are over. Politics, dialogue, and campaigning are the way forward.

We are living at a time in which political precedents are being swept away. What was once thought to be unacceptable is now celebrated. In the Dáil (Irish Parliament), a row has been growing since Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael established this new government with the support of several “independent” TDs. This week it resulted in a vote of “no confidence” in the Speaker Vorona Murphy, an “independent” TD elected from Wexford. All of the opposition parties voted “no confidence” in the Speaker. She only survived by the votes of the Government TD’s. This was without precedent as all previous Speakers worked with the confidence of both government and opposition.