First meeting for new political party

THE first public meeting to launch the new political party, the Irish Citizens’ Party, will be held in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis on Thursday night, May 10 at 8pm.

It will be chaired by party founder, Kilbaha’s Jim Connolly, who will inform the meeting that social upheaval is now inevitable in Ireland.
“People are at the end of their tether and something is bound to give,” he noted.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Mr Connolly said since he announced the arrival of Pairtí Saoranaigh na hÉireann, he has received a good response from different parts of the country. Everyone is welcome to attend the Ennis meeting, especially those who showed an interest in his politics when he sought a Dáil seat as an independent candidate in 2011.
“I am still the same person. I have not changed and I am now attempting to bring my campaign to a new level,” he said.
Also included for discussion will be the upcoming referendum on the Fiscal Treaty.
The founder of Rural Resettlement Ireland, which has resulted in 720 families relocating to rural areas to date and the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association, which seeks justice in planning for rural dwellers, Mr Connolly claims Ireland needs new political leadership and a new party.
“Raking over the smouldering ashes of Civil War politics at every election has left us bereft of an inclusive, humanitarian vision for our country. The recent collapse of our economy, the threat to the euro and the prospect of an implosion of the EU itself, has finally brought the fundamental inequalities in Irish life into stark focus,” he said.
He noted that Ireland has a society with a long history of acceptance of social exclusion, educational disadvantage and poverty as being incurable.
“Before we are overtaken by events, let us collectively adopt a resolution to re-invent social policy in Ireland based on humanitarian values, which place the quality of life of every individual person at its core,” he added.
Even though he is setting up a political party, the resolution he has proposed is not a political slogan, he said. It is his intention that the Irish Citizens’ Party will be a vehicle for giving a political voice to all citizens and groups who presently feel helpless and underrepresented at local and national policy making level.
“Changing the mindset and deeply entrenched power base of the political, bureaucratic, financial, legal, medical, higher education and the trade union establishment, who make sure that they are the major beneficiaries of our two-tier system of governance, will take radical political thinking and action,” Mr Connoly warned.
He explained he is not preaching revolution but rather the full use of the democratic process to restore political power to the people of Ireland.
“Every person in the country contributed to the national purse but, collectively, they have no say in how their money was spent. That power was solely in the hands of the upper tier, who openly abused this privilege to line their own collective pockets.”
Starting a new party is a monumental step at any time, so for that reason, he has published his motivation in a booklet on www.irishcitizensparty.com.