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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Mar 26, 2013 8:51:48 GMT
I agree with that entirely. I hear that Ben Gilroy of Direct Democracy is a pro-lifer (the ultimate source of this info is Cathy Sinnott; I think he'd have to be serious to convince her).
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Apr 9, 2013 11:55:03 GMT
Well, one way or other Ben Gilroy helped the pro-life cause by beating Eoin Holmes into 5th place.
Given we all know the affection FF have for the GGs, one must ask was it deliberate to call this by-election to coincide with Cheltenham? Don't think an FF government would have done this.
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Apr 23, 2013 12:00:02 GMT
Back to the point. At this stage, the CSP ought to set their sights on next year's local elections. Do you think they will?
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 23, 2013 20:38:06 GMT
I don't think they have enough candidates, let alone enough activists
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Post by hibernicus on May 24, 2013 22:07:46 GMT
Here's an idea - prospective CSP activists could do worse than buy Robbie Gilligan's 2011 biography of Tony Gregory, which has now been remaindered at E6.99. It contains a very useful description of how Gregory and his friends built up a political base by addressing local problems which had been grossly neglected by the established politicians. (And I mean that these issues ought to be learned about and understood and followed up for their own sake, not that they should be taken up for the sake of "real" Catholic issues - apostolic work for people's material well-being is part of our Faith, and if the full implications of that had been understood we might not be in the current situation.) A couple of interesting touches; Gregory's mother was very devout - he was an altar boy and spent some time in the Legion of Mary. He and some of his pals spent a period as "left Catholics" before going MArxist (of various hues; Gregory went into Official Sf and later IRSP and Noel Browne's SLP, but some of his pals were two-nationist). This actually reflects patterns elsewhere in Europe; some of the big noises in the Italian Red Brigades actually started out as left-Christian Democrats rather than in the Italian communist subculture. In later life he described himself as having reacted against what he thought an over-religious upbringing and appears to have been an agnostic (though he requested a funeral MAss). The book also mentions that he downplayed his views on divorce and abortion (or at least some of his leftie activists thought so) basically because a significant number of Mass-going little old ladies voted for him and he didn't want to scare them off. PArt of the problem we face now is that those little old ladies will have died off and, for a variety of reasons, successor generations are less likely to share their faith. A final odd little detail - he worked quite extensively with the Norbertines of Kilnacrott Abbey who were involved in some work for the inner-city. I wonder did he ever come across Fr BRendan Smyth, and what was his response to that disaster?
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Aug 26, 2013 10:40:11 GMT
I suppose it is a mark of my apathy with the CSP that I have only read Hib's last post on this thread now. But it is interesting. No more than the WP, Gregory built his base on conservative inner city people and the case can be made that the Church itself was negligent. But it shows how to get things done. Gregory was a pretty exceptional serial independent; Neil Blaney was the only other with a career that lasted quite as long.
At present, much is made of the possibility that the 6 independent FG TDs will form a technical group (they'll need another body, but they'll probably get one as there are at least two other former FG members in the Dail and Noel Grealish would probably see eye to eye with them on most matters). But maybe we need to look to our left as well as to our right. As Hib says, we lose nothing by reading the Gregory bio.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Oct 8, 2013 12:40:03 GMT
I have taken another look at Hibernicus' post about Tony Gregory and it is reminiscent of what the WP were doing elsewhere in Dublin. As Hibernicus says - the little old ladies who went to daily Mass and evening devotions are dead; none of the monastic inner city churches supply the devotional need in the same way (and it is not because there was no demand - the devotees were often scared off by Jesuit or Dominican arrogance - thinking of St Saviour's and St Francis Xavier's which could be extended elsewhere). I see several points from the same observation:
1. Liturgical and Devotional life not properly developed killing both church and community life; 2. Failure by the church, either clerical or lay, to do necessary community work other than in a manner detached from the teaching church; 3. Failure to track the likes of Tony Gregory or the WP and point out what they were while offering a viable alternative; and 4. Failure to learn from either ecclesiastical failure or left wing success.
Now it could be too late. Another thing too, a lot of those inner city communities in Dublin were uprooted and ended up out in Tallaght or Ballymun. There was no pastoral plan in place. Ripe fruit into the laps of the WP/DL and ultimately Sinn Féin. Are the CSP even aware of all this?
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Nov 6, 2013 12:04:03 GMT
Got some CSP literature recently. See Richard Greene is still involved. Is this the triumph of hope over experience?
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Post by hibernicus on Nov 6, 2013 21:33:48 GMT
I wonder how old that literature is - Greene resigned as party leader last year and Cathal Loftus is now leader. Greene may still be a member but his principal activity at present is picketing RTE once a week, which troubles RTE as much as a pea-shooter troubles a fully armoured battle-tank.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Nov 6, 2013 21:59:59 GMT
It seems to me bizarre that we can have several pro-life demonstrations of tens of thousands of marchers, most of them animated by their Catholicism, and yet the CSP struggle to reach four figures in elections.
Just as it seems to me bizarre that hundreds of thousands of people go to Mass in Ireland every week, and yet a forum like this only attracts a handful of active contributors. Whereas the atheist-liberal-libertarian tendency seem to be everywhere on the internet.
I'm not saying every Catholic in Ireland should vote CSP, any more than I think every Irish Catholic should be on this forum. But the disproportion between the body of Catholics in Ireland and how active they are in some respects-- political and cultural and ideological activities, for instance- seems staggering.
If it wasn't for the CSP, I would have nobody to vote for.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 12, 2014 20:17:36 GMT
I have just heard that Cathal Loftus, the current CSP leader, is standing for MEath County Council in the forthcoming local elections, but I don't know in which constituency.
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Post by chercheur on Mar 5, 2014 21:35:38 GMT
I note Ronan Mullen is presenting himself as candidate in the EU elections for the Connacht/Ulster Nth leinster area. Someone one can vote for without holding one's nose.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 7, 2014 20:17:50 GMT
Agreed - I would vote for him if I lived in that constituency
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 7, 2014 20:41:09 GMT
To go back to the subject of the thread, how come the CSP never get interviewed about anything outside of election time? Do they just not put themselves forward or are they just not asked?
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 8, 2014 18:23:21 GMT
I think they are just too weak - they have less than 20 activists and no elected representatives
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