by Alan Jacques
THE annual commemoration of Limerick republican Seán Sabhat’s death last Sunday provided the local Sinn Féin organisation with a platform to build support for the party’s aim of “achieving Irish unity and a fairer society”.
After assembling in Bedford Row, the 250-strong crowd marched to Sabhat’s grave at Mount St Lawrence Cemetery where Sinn Féin party council leader Cllr Maurice Quinlivan, predicted that 2015 will be a very important year for both Sinn Féin and Ireland.
“We will more than likely have a General Election and we are now the lead party of opposition both in Limerick and across Ireland. Our party was the clear voice for change in the recent elections and we appreciate the support we were given then,” he said.
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A wreath was laid at Sabhat’s grave on behalf of the Republican Movement by Eileen Shields from Navan before the main address from Sinn Féin councillor Lisa Marie Sheehy who said she believed Sabhat would be proud to see how things have come along in the party but not so proud to see the state of the country, “where emigration, poverty, housing crisis and other important issues are not being adequately addressed”.
“We look at society today, the divide is still prevalent perhaps caused by the lack of political will by past and current governments to actively create an equal society. Still the rich get richer and the poor get poorer due to the lack of protection of vulnerable people in society.
“I think people see through this now where we as citizens cannot be fooled by budgets where they seem to give something back to people but take it out of another pocket. In fact people are voting a lot more cautiously, once followed the lead of a parent, now looks at how the government’s decisions affect them,” the Cappamore-Kilmallock councillor said.
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