D-Day: Ireland's Utah Beach Moment.
Irish Nationalists suffer huge losses but establish themselves politically
Almost 80 years to the day since D-Day in World War II, Irish Nationalists from various platoons assembled themselves into a block of nearly 150 candidates and waded into the Irish local elections process. Those that thought there would be a landslide victory were indeed foolish, as were those who wrote us off or did not understand the value of the attempt alone. In truth, we only needed a handful to make it, and make it they did. Malachy Steenson, Gavin Pepper, Patrick Quinlan and Glenn Moore are among some of the names who have crossed the line, establishing a forward base for nationalism within the political system.
This particular victory was achieved off of the back of major loss and sacrifice, with many nationalists going out early. A sizeable amount of us however remained competitive and our transfers, not unlike the ammo being scavenged from the dead, managed to find their way into use against our enemy. Many, many independent candidates received our transfers across the LEA’s with an absolute belter of transfer from my good self and another candidate over to the independent in my LEA, taking him over the quota. Although these independents are not explicitly identifying as nationalist, they are absolutely taking a stand against the establishment and deserve our support. In my LEA, the transfer independent strategy has shown to be the kryptonite of the establishment as we put Sinn Fein’s Denis Hynes to the sword. We can only hope now that these independents do not get swallowed up by the parties or worse, become vote whores like the Healy Raes. The benefit of the doubt is granted here by default in order to requisition establishment held seats.
Sinn Fein have suffered massive losses at local level, and at the EU level seem to be struggling to cash in on all of that support they had only a year ago. It is just over one month ago that a document emerged from Davy Stockbrokers describing a meeting between them and Pearse Doherty where Doherty pitches their services to the Stock Giants. In the briefing Doherty promises that Sinn Fein can “tame the far-right”. It is important to note that the word ‘tame’ is associated with large cats and that the image that comes to mind after the last few days, and indeed the referendum, is that of Siegfried & Roy. Siegfried & Roy were two word famous large cat tamers. They specialised in taming cats such as ‘White’ lions and tigers. Their careers eventually came to an end when the cats they had “tamed” mauled Roy Horn nearly to death, leaving him permanently disabled for the rest of his days. As it turns out, dressing and behaving like faggots and prancing around the place tormenting wild animals seems to me be a bad formula for leadership. Sinn Fein should take note of this before they try put people in a cage politically.
Amidst shouts from the left that FFG have gone unpunished, I must point to the fact that they have actually had their worst overall vote return “in their entire history” according to Paddy Cosgrave. This proves that the entire establishment is in a state of rigor mortis. The independents have swelled. The socially conservative left has swelled too under Aontu’s stewardship which in an overall sense is not awful. The right itself, having previously had no elected representation, is set to finish up on a small but respectable total. Sinn Fein will no doubt be suffering from mass panic and finger pointing internally as you read this, however the FFG behemoth has also had its armour pierced. Many sitting TD’s have announced they will not be running with existing remaining TD’s being unpalatable after the last 8 years or so of total treachery. The reality is despite Sinn Fein’s boy who cried wolf moment, we are living through one of the most incredible social transitions in the history of the state with the post-referendum rebellion in full swing.
While the battle rages on the beech there is a small matter to clear up. The side-quest election-within-the-election, of Justin Barrett and James Reynolds seems to have been settled. I have always held the view, correctly at that, that Barrett was illegitimately, and freakishly removed from the party but I also wanted the Reynolds junta to manage a performance at the polls as a party in the interim. Having betrayed his friend of 30 years it seems Reynolds has indeed come up short as Barrett has beaten him on the first count with no campaign spend. I doubt he even knocked on a door. I have no shame in admitting I was rooting for the Ceannaire. Although I believe the best thing for us all is for Quinlan to take it from here as the only elected member, I still feel the need to register my distain for Reynolds. Only this evening I saw a video of him renouncing the party proving once and for all, he was never one of the NP, nor was he ever one of us.
As for my own performance, and that of my party, I have a few bits to say. Firstly, AJ Cahill deserves the respect and the admiration of the entire movement for carrying out one of the most difficult campaigns of any party. A totally inexperienced patriot invested his time and money in order to provide a platform for me and 50+ local candidates as well as one candidate in all three EU constituencies. We were given total freedom and were allowed to demonstrate ourselves to the electorate in our own way. AJ also committed to an alternative poster campaign that avoided the cult of personality and replaced it with nationalist slogans and imagery. AJ also gave the more irregular people in society a streamlined entry point to politics that most of us would otherwise have not been able to navigate. Supported of course by the great David O’Reilly, the Hold The Line experience and networking skills was infused with with fearless street activism and slick organising on the back end. Although at this point it looks like we have not returned a candidate we have indirectly caused havoc at local level. As I have said, my transfers alone have resulted in the removal of sitting councillor. I intend to go through the rest of the candidates transfers in time and do a post election report on how our votes were distributed but it seems to me that we have prevented a very substantial amount of globalists from retaining or obtaining seats. Bang for buck? absolutely but only in the eyes of those who want to win the war, not the battle. As for the candidates individually, I have nothing but the height of admiration for you guys and I am proud to have suited up with every one of you.
My interview with The Irish Political Roundup at the count centre.
Finally I want to address the question I asked myself the most; am I happy with my return? The truth is I am. I am happy to know 260 people out there believed in me and also themselves and our people. I am happy to know 260 such people exist in the area of North Kilkenny that they will prioritise the future of this Island and their offspring over the virtuous materialistic present. I found them and I gathered their spirit with mine as I went. I brought it to the theatre of politics and laid it down in challenge to the status quo. I took the loss on paper because it was was infinitely more important for those 260 people to be visible in this election. I shrugged off fear of personal embarrassment to register the immaculate fact that 260 nationalists are alive and well in North Kilkenny, and you can be sure the number is double that or even triple it in real terms. As the dust settles on the battlefield I want to remind all of you of the words that were spoken on D-Day as the beech was stormed …
"We'll start the war from right here!" - Theodore Roosevelt Jr., June 6, 1944, D-Day.
Interesting take on the battle. I like the Normandy landings analogy and I would like to make one of my own. While the Normandy landings established a foothold in France. The real battle was well underway in the eastern Front. The Nazis were in retreat in Russia and most likely have been beaten even without the allied landings.
Across Europe today a similar political battle ( not Ukraine) is taking place. The results from Germany , Holland, Belgium Hungary and especially France show that there is mood for change and a swing to the right in European politics.
These swings have a habit of being infectious and I would not at all be surprised if this nationalist conservative mood gained ground over the next few years.
Humans are funny creatures and like to bet on a winner. If it looks like the right is winning then that is the way the crowd will go.
Stephen, I don't understand how the transfer system works.
Poor Stephen Kerr apparently had enough votes for the 7th seat in Castlbar. But transfers pushed him out.
Also I don't think it's fair or right that legitimate votes for an opposing candidate could elect an opposition candidate.
How are transfers allocated?