Enda Kenny address

Speech by Enda Kenny TD at Collins 22 Society launch

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny TD, speaking at the Mansion House, Dublin at the Collins 22 Society national launch, drew a stark contrast between the idealism of Michael Collins and the extreme style of Republicanism of Sinn Fein. The Fine Gael leader also said the Party would be commemorating the formal foundation of the Sinn Fein party by Arthur Griffith later this year.

“One hundred years after the founding of the original Sinn Fein Party, the current users of that title dishonour the memory of the founding fathers of Sinn Fein through their association with the IRA and its criminal network that stretches the length and breadth of this country and spreads even further afield in its attempts to disguise its operations.

“A political party with clear links to organised criminality, defenders of suspected beneficiaries of the proceeds of such criminality are not inheritors of the legacy of Griffith or Collins. They undermine the vision and aspirations of constitutional republicans and corrupt the political process that they previously refused even to recognise. Their attempt to wrap the modern manifestation of Sinn Fein around the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the original Sinn Fein Party is a tortured exercise in collective delusion.

“Instead of the idealism of Collins we have the destructive and corrosive effect of modern day Sinn Fein. Collins once said: 'The real riches of the Irish nation will be the men and women of the Irish nation, the extent to which they are rich...rich in body, mind and character. What we want is the opportunity for everyone to be able to produce sufficient wealth to ensure these advantages for themselves'.

“Today's Sinn Fein merely offers outdated and discredited policies and an approach to politics that only serves as a warning to the present generation of the risks associated with a flirtation with a Party that shares nothing but the wording of the Party founded by Griffith and none of the true Republican idealism of Collins. The continued ambiguity about FF support for Sinn Fein must be a continuing source of concern, especially among the business community.

“If today's Sinn Fein wants to be fully accepted as an exclusively democratic Party then all links with criminality have to be severed. In addition, the Party should have no problem, if it is truly democratic, in assisting the authorities in the recovery of the proceeds of criminality wherever it has information that can help in such a process.”