“I find that an outrage as do other people...the idea that somehow what we have done is not courageous,” she said.
“My question to them is, answer me: is cutting benefits to women and children an act of courage?
“I aim to turn that back on those people and challenge the parliamentary Labour party to say why they are continuing with these policies.”
Ms Childers’ defection – the seventh from the parliamentary party since entering Government two years ago – has refocused attention on a growing sense of antipathy within the organisation toward what many see as self-contradictory austerity policies.
MEP Nessa Childers resigns from disgraced Labour Party
Apparently he was known as 'Eamon Killmore' due to his prowess with an AK 47 . Took out a lot of 'scarecrows in the woods' if you know what i mean . Fought the good fight but had to give it all up for love ,Ive heard theyre making a movie .They are calling it 'Che.....amon '
"Now, I have never seen or heard any evidence to suggest that Gilmore was ever on the army council of the Official IRA in the way that Adams and McGuinness once led the Provisional IRA, but the fact is that he was a leading member of the Official IRA’s political wing and this, surely, raises similar questions to the ones that McGuinness and Adams face ad nauseam. Guilt by association becomes selective when it comes to Tubridy et al.
In fact, the grilling that Gilmore should face ought, in some ways, to be more severe because (as we shall see below) the armed wing that was undeniably linked to his party abandoned all pretence of political activity very early in its political life. It simply became an armed gang – a criminal conspiracy dressed up in fake Irish Republican fatigues. Is this not meat and drink to any good news hunting journalist? It may well be that Gilmore had no idea of his party's links to the Official IRA but the Irish public will never know this unless he is asked in a public media forum.
Eamon Gilmore joined the University College Galway Republican Club, affiliated to ‘Official Sinn Féin’ (later the Workers’ Party), around 1975. 1975 was the year that the Officials started a feud in Belfast by executing the unarmed Hugh Ferguson in Ballymurphy because he broke away from the organisation and supported the Irish Republican Socialist Party. Two years later, the Officials shot dead Seamus Costello in Dublin. Gilmore remained a member of the “Sticks” throughout this whole period of Official IRA activity and just to emphasise the point, Gilmore’s university branch in Galway sold the party’s newspaper at that time, which carried lists of Official IRA prisoners, north and south."
Indymedia ireland
How involved in racketeering and bank robbery were Messrs Gilmore and Rabbitte?
January 14, 2013 by namawinelake
From An Sionnach Fionn
The Labour Party And The Official IRA – They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know
2
Proinsias de Rossa – He Give You Happy Ending!
The hijacking of the leadership of the Irish Labour Party by Official Sinn Féin / Official IRASinn Féin the Workers Party / Official IRA the Workers Party / Official IRA / Group BDemocratic Left in the 1990s is one of the great putsches of Irish political history. Thesequence of events is clear enough. In the late 1960s the higher echelons of Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army had come under the influence of would-be communist revolutionaries more concerned with liberating the global working classes than the Irish population of the North of Ireland. The fact that the working classes of the world weren’t all that sanguine about the glories of communist liberation and that Irish citizens living in the north-east of the country were rather more concerned about being murdered in their beds by rampaging mobs from the British ethnic minority than Marx or Lenin never really bothered these newbie Reds. The proletariat would follow where the revolutionary leadership led them (for the leadership knew better).
In no time at all the Irish Republican movement was split, Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army into Official (‘communist’) and Provisional (‘nationalist’) wings. Official Sinn Féin (OSF) gradually dumped all pretence of being an Irish Republican or Nationalist party and became just another bunch of pretentious Western European Marxist-Leninist beardies, albeit a bunch of pseudos with a rather handy military wing in the form of the Official IRA (OIRA). By the late-1970s the OIRA were on ceasefire while OSF played at holier-than-thou working class politics, decrying all forms of (Irish) nationalism, while making some rather odd friends across the barricades amongst the British separatist minority in Ireland – much to the approval of their fellow communists in Britain, who kindly gave their imprimatur to the whole exercise at which their Irish puppies happily wagged their tails (and some still do). They also managed to infiltrate several key areas in Ireland’s news media establishment, particularly the News and Current Affairs Department of RTÉ, where they openly displayed a Stalinist iron-fistcontrol, deliberately setting news agendas and self-censoring reports from the North of Ireland.
Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run, Here Comes The Farmer With His Gu- Oooops!
By the 1980s OSF had gone through several transformations to become the Workers Party, a straightforward Irish communist party in all but name, anti-democratic authoritarian tendencies an’ all. Wedded to its pure ideology and intolerant of any dissent or disagreement the organisation in the north-east of the country became a by-word for petty street thuggery and intimidation hidden behind the genuine and principled few. The Official IRA was now known internally as Group B and became the party’s enforcers, the breakers of legs and shooters of kneecaps. They also provided much of the party’s funding through an organised web of criminality: robberies, kidnapping, drug-dealing, extortion, prostitution, smuggling and many other ‘special activities’. However the old enmities derived from the original split with the Provisionals never went away and many in the WP / OIRA developed what are best described as ‘mutually beneficial relationships’ with the British authorities in the North of Ireland, military and political, which resulted in the movement becoming, however incongruously, a part of Britain’s counter-insurgency war machine against the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin.
The closeness of these relationships were such that it led to a few members of the Workers Party into becoming spies and informers for the British Forces in the Irish communities of the North (with the approval and connivance of some of the organisation’s leadership), allowing the WP to target political or community rivals as well as bringing in yet more ‘special revenues’, this time from British government coffers. The fact that this ‘collaboration’ resulted in the imprisonment or deaths of Irish citizens seemed not to bother the Workers Party apparatchiks one whit in their single-minded aim of bringing about about a class revolution in Ireland. Yet this dual game of playing at both politics and militarism, while claiming to be unarmed peace-loving democrats and decriers of all forms of violence, could not continue indefinitely and in the early 1990s the Workers Party experienced its most serious split with the formation of Democratic Left (DL).
The Workers Party – Brought To You In Association With Our Overseas Partners!
This short-lived Irish political party eventually merged with Ireland’s Labour Party in 1999 and here is where the real story begins for in a few short years the former DL members who joined Labour had risen to the top of the party and eventually took control of its leadership in a political takeover so ruthless and audacious that it left many traditional Labour activists and members utterly stunned. The new leading lights of the Labour Party were now the likes of Proinsias de Rossa (former IRA, Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left), Pat Rabbitte (Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left, Labour Party leader), Éamon Gilmore (Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left, Labour Party leader) and Kathleen Lynch (Workers Party, Democratic Left). And it is to the latter that we now turn, in this report from the Mail Online:
‘The brother-in-law of Ireland’s Minister of State Kathleen Lynch is a fugitive from justice who is wanted for questioning by police over an elaborate counterfeiting operation.Just weeks ago, Mrs Lynch was embroiled in controversy for hiring her husband, Bernard, who spent a year in prison for murdering a man in a machine-gun attack before being acquitted on appeal.Bernard’s brother Brian, 58, was suspected of being the brains behind a massive counterfeiting scam uncovered by gardaí in a raid at Repsol Ltd, which was on the ground floor of the Workers’ Party Dublin headquarters in 1983.The Workers Party, the political wing of the Official IRA, became Democratic Left in 1992 and merged into the Labour Party in 1999.Brian Lynch was one of a number of men wanted for questioning by gardaí in relation to the operation.Another being sought was Seán Garland, who is currently fighting extradition for his alleged involvement in an international forgery conspiracy involving the KGB and North Korea in a plot to undermine the U.S. dollar.The U.S. has been seeking Mr Garland’s extradition since May 2005 when he was indicted for alleged trading in forged $100 bills as part of the so-called ‘superdollar’ conspiracy that began in the Soviet Union in the 1980s and expanded to involve North Korea – a place Mr Garland visited several times during the period in his capacity as a Workers’ Party officer and as a director of GKG Communications, an international business consultancy.The U.S. alleges that Mr Garland and six co-conspirators, a Russian, a South African and four Englishmen, used couriers to transport supernotes around the world.The indictment also refers to Garland as ‘the man in the hat’ and identified specific dates when he had transported forged currency from North Korean embassies.However, the whole ‘superdollar’ affair has its genesis in a Garda raid on a warehouse on Hanover Quay in November 1983 that uncovered a stack of near-perfect Irish £5 notes worth £1.7m.This raid led to the gardaí searching Repsol. a printing firm where Brian Lynch was an employee and which was run by Mr Garland.Mr Lynch had previously worked in his father’s printing business in Cork and was known among the Official IRA as the ‘master printer’.His sister-in-law, the well respected politician Kathleen Lynch, is the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, equality and mental health. He is also the brother of Ciarán Lynch, the Labour TD for Cork.’
The Workers Party – More Than Meets The Eye!
I previously highlighted the case of Seán Garland (as well as some of the shady history of the Workers Party in Ireland and the baleful influence it has had upon our political and journalistic establishments) but the controversy around Bernard Lynch and Larry White, a Republican activist murdered by the OIRA in highly controversial circumstances in the mid-1970 was largely forgotten, except by his family and friends, until Kathleen Lynch appointed her husband Bernard as a ‘special advisor’, a cushy role paid for by the Irish tax-payer (thank God the Labour Party aren’t like Fianna Fáil, hey? No family-ties, nepotism and cronyism here). As the Irish Times reported:
‘THE FAMILY of a Cork republican murdered more than 35 years ago has called on the Taoiseach to seek the removal of a Minister of State’s personal assistant who was acquitted of the killing in the 1970s.The family of Larry White are angered that Labour TD Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State at the Departments of Justice and Health, has appointed her husband Bernard as her personal assistant. Mr Lynch, who was then a member of Official Sinn Féin, was acquitted on appeal after being convicted, along with three other men, of the murder of Mr White in the mid-1970s.The Lynches declined to comment on the matter yesterday. Neither the Taoiseach nor Labour leader Eamon Gilmore were available for comment.In November 1976, the Court of Criminal Appeal set aside the conviction of Mr Lynch and another man for the murder of Mr White. Two other convictions were upheld. Mr White had been a member of the republican splinter group Saor Éire, which had fallen out with Official Sinn Féin. The 25-year-old was walking from the pub to his home in Cork on June 10th, 1975, when he was killed in a machine-gun attack.Gardaí arrested and charged four men: Mr Lynch and David O’Donnell (then 21), of Rosewood Estate, Ballincollig, Co Cork and Leeson Street, Belfast; Cornelius Finbar Doyle (25), Nun’s Walk, Co Cork; and Bartholomew Madden (34), Owenacurra Court, Togher, Co Cork. Mr Lynch was at the time a leading member of Cork (Official) Sinn Féin, according to The Lost Revolution, a history of the party by Scott Millar and Brian Hanley published in 2009.The trial, which lasted 32 days, was one of the longest seen in the Special Criminal Court. The four men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. There were allegations of Garda brutality and of confessions being given under duress.In setting aside Mr Lynch’s conviction, chief justice Tom O’Higgins said the Court of Criminal Appeal was satisfied there were grounds for suspecting Mr Lynch was aware of the intention to use a stolen white Cortina car for the purpose of some crime, possibly a serious crime of violence. There was, however, no admissible evidence against him of any activity in the preparation or commission of a crime of violence, or the murder of Larry White.Proof of knowledge that such a crime was about to be committed, even if it had been well established against him, would, in the absence of proof of some active participation, not support the conviction of murder, according to the chief justice. The conviction was set aside.’
Ah, well that’s okay then, isn’t it?
Except, of course, its not.
As the Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis pointed out there are an awful lot of skeletons in the cupboards of the former members of Official Sinn Féin that are now found in the Labour Party that have yet to come out:
‘Dessie insists that there are prominent members of Labour today — politicians who had previously been members of Democratic Left, the Workers’ Party and Official Sinn Féin before joining Labour — who were also members of the IRA. ‘There are quite a few hypocrites there. I’m well aware of that. I know some of them from my past. So, I know the positions that they held. Some of them are still there.’
Indeed, for a start one wonders what happened to the arsenal of weapons and explosives retained by the Official IRA that have yet to be ‘decommissioned’ (contrary to public myth the OIRA has not given up or ‘put beyond use’ its stores of weaponry nor does this now seem likely to ever occur). What happened to all those monies raised by the OIRA through criminal activities, and ‘foreign’ donations? Just exactly whose pockets, and whose bank accounts, did all those pounds and dollars and roubles go into?
The Workers Party – The Answer To A Question Nobody Asked
And what about justice? Justice for those people who lost their lives or freedom as the result of actions carried out by OIRA or WP activists?
The next time you see senior members of the Labour Party, and now ministers of the Government of Ireland, spouting on about the necessity for politics only, and their rejection of violence and ‘paramilitarism’, just remember where they came from, what paths they followed, and what utter hypocrisy they cloak their political histories in.
The Official IRA Discusses Education Policy With The BBC, 1975 (No, This Is Not A Joke!)
Eamon Gilmore born 24 April 1955, is an Irish Labour Party politician. In the Government of Ireland, he holds the offices of Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.[1] He has been the Leader of the Labour Party since September 2007. He has represented the constituency of Dún Laoghaire in Dáil Éireann since 1989, firstly as a member of the Workers' Party of Ireland, later as a member of Democratic Left and most recently as a member of the Labour Party.[2] He served as a Minister of State at theDepartment of the Marine from 1994 until 1997 as part of the "Rainbow Coalition" during the Government of the 27th Dáil.
Born in County Galway, Gilmore graduated from University College Galway, becoming President of the Union of Students in Ireland. Later, as a trade union organiser, he entered local politics. As a Democratic Left TD, he was central in negotiating that party's merger with Labour. He was beaten by fellow former Democratic Left TD, Pat Rabbitte, in Labour's 2002 leadership election, and was instead appointed as the party's Environment, Housing and Local Government spokesperson. He was elected unopposed to the leadership in 2007.
At the 2011 general election, Gilmore led the Labour Party to its best ever performance with a record 37 seats. This saw Labour emerge as the second largest party in Ireland for the first time in its 99-year history. He went on to negotiate a programme for government with Fine Gael that saw the Labour party enter government for the first time since 1997 and Gilmore appointed as Tánaiste, with four other Labour TDs having seats at cabinet.
[edit]Early life and career
Gilmore was born in Caltra, County Galway, in 1955 into a small farming family. When he was 14 months old his father died leaving his mother to run the mixed farm and raise Gilmore and his younger brother John.[3]
Gilmore’s primary education was received in Caltra in a small two teacher national school where he was taught through the medium of Irish. He is a fluent Irish speaker to this day. Following his sixth-year state primary exam, he qualified for a scholarship from Galway County Council which enabled him to attend secondary school. He entered Garbally College, Ballinasloe as a boarder in 1965.[4]
Availing of a third-level grant to fund his degree he went on to study psychology atUniversity College Galway (UCG). He was an active member of the Drama Society in university where his contemporaries were the theatre director Garry Hynes and actor Marie Mullen who both went on to found the Druid Theatre Company. He also took part in the university debating scene mainly through the Literary and Debating Society.[5]
A threat from the then cash strapped Psychology Department to scrap the psychology course altogether and transfer the students to University College Dublin propelled Gilmore towards student activism.[6]
He was elected class representative and later at the age of 18 served as President of UCG Students' Union from July 1974 to June 1975. In 1975, towards the end of his term of office as President of the Student Union, he joined the UCG Republican Club, which was affiliated to Official Sinn Féin, subsequently "Sinn Féin the Workers’ Party" and later renamed the Workers' Party. In recent years he was accused of being evasive on the subject and trying to play down that he had joined the Official Republican Movement, stating that the party was in the process of becoming the Workers' Party at that time, I can't recall exactly the dates.[7] [8] Using both names, the Workers' Party's links with the proscribed paramilitary organisation the Official Irish Republican Army throughout the 1970s is well established.[9]
From 1976 until 1978 he served as President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).[10] Together with Charles Clarke (former British Home Secretary) who was President of the National Union of Students in Britain, he worked within a structure which served to unify the student's movement in Northern Ireland during the troubles. Other achievements during his tenure included increasing student grants and securing the right for students to work during the summer months.
Prior to establishing a career in politics, Gilmore served as a trade union organiser. He joined the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union (now SIPTU) in 1978 and, after brief spells in Dublin No. 4 (Hotels & Catering) and Dublin No. 14 (Engineering) Branches, was rapidly promoted to become Acting Secretary of the Galway Branch (1978–79), Secretary of Tralee Branch (1979–81), and of the Professional & Managerial Staffs Branch (1981–89). He was heavily involved in organising tax protests in Galway and resisting redundancies and closures in Kerry.[11]
Gilmore has described the driving factors which has informed his working life whether as a trade union officer or public representative. “I like advocating. I love to share in the joy people get out of cracking it, getting the job or getting some right they should have. I get huge satisfaction out of working for improvements and seeing those come through”.[12]
[edit]Personal life
While at university he met his wife Carol. The couple has lived in Shankill, Dublin since 1979 and have two sons and one daughter.[3]His brother John is a television producer in Washington DC.[13]
Outside of politics he prefers to spend his time cooking, reading and attending sports matches, especially those featuring Galway’s Senior Hurling and Football teams.
A book, Leading Lights: People Who've Inspired Me, written by Gilmore was published by Liberties Press in November 2010.[14][15]
When questioned on the Today with Pat Kenny programme if Ireland was ready for an atheist Taoiseach, he said that he believed Ireland was a very tolerant country where the rights and beliefs of individuals were respected.[16][17] Gilmore has described himself as anagnostic: "I doubt rather than I believe, let me put it that way".[18] In the same interview, when asked "Should abortion be legalised?", he replied "I’m pro-choice.".
[edit]Political career
Gilmore was elected to Dún Laoghaire Borough Council and also to Dublin County Council on 22 June 1985. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1989 general election as a member of the Workers' Party for the constituency of Dún Laoghaire, and has been re-elected at every subsequent general election.[19]
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was linked with Proinsias De Rossa in attempting to jettison some of the Workers' Party's Marxist aspect and the party towards an acceptance of free market economics.[20] Secondly, media accusations had once again surfaced regarding the continued existence of the Official IRA who, it was alleged, remained armed and involved in fund-raising robberies, money laundering and other forms of criminality.[21]
In an attempt to address these issues Gilmore and De Rossa along with their supporters sought to distance themselves from alleged paramilitary activity at a special Árd Fheis held at Dún Laoghaire in on 15 February 1992. A motion proposed by De Rossa and General Secretary Des Geraghty sought to stand down the existing membership, elect an 11 member provisional executive council and make several other significant changes in party structures was defeated.[22] The following day at an Ard Chomhairle meeting, Gilmore resigned from the Workers' Party and joined with Proinsias De Rossa and five other Workers' Party TDs to create a new political partyDemocratic Left (originally known as New Agenda).
In the 'Rainbow Coalition', between 1994 and 1997, Gilmore served as Minister of State at the Department of the Marine where he is credited for overseeing major reform in port ownership, investment in port development, banning nuclear vessels from Irish seas and restricting dumping at sea.[citation needed]
With Labour's Brendan Howlin, Gilmore was a central figure in the negotiations that led to the merger of Democratic Left with the Labour Party in 1999 under the Leadership of Ruairi Quinn.[23]
After Quinn's resignation in 2002, Gilmore unsuccessfully contested the Leadership won by former student union and political colleaguePat Rabbitte.
From 2002 to 2007 he sat on the Labour Party front bench as Environment, Housing and Local Government Spokesperson.
[edit]Labour Party leader
Following Pat Rabbitte's resignation as party leader in August 2007, Gilmore announced his candidacy for the leadership. He received support from senior figures such as Michael D. Higgins, Ruairi Quinn, Willie Penrose, Liz McManus and Emmet Stagg, and did not have to contest a ballot, being formally confirmed as leader on 6 September after being the only declared candidate.[24] He is the tenth leader of the Labour Party.
From early on in his Leadership Gilmore insisted that Labour should aspire to lead the next Government and set about building Labour as a third option for voters.[25] At the local elections of 5 June 2009, the Labour Party added to its total of council seats, with 132 seats won (+31) and by July 2010 had gained an additional six seats from councillors joining the party since the election. On Dublin City Council, the party was again the largest party, but now with more seats than the two other main parties combined.
Though in favour of the 2008 first Lisbon Treaty referendum, when it was lost he declared that the "Lisbon Treaty is dead" and publicly opposed a second referendum being held. According to a wikileaks cable released in 2011, he told the US ambassador privately that he would support a second referendum. The ambasador reported that: "He explained his public posture of opposition to a second referendum as 'politically necessary' for the time being".[26] In 2009 the Lisbon Treaty proposal was passed by the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
At the 2009 European Parliament election held on the same day, the Labour Party increased its number of seats from 1 to 3, retaining the seat of Proinsias De Rossa in the Dublin constituency, while gaining seats in the East constituency with Nessa Childers, and in the South constituency with Alan Kelly. [27]
In September 2009 at the Labour Parliamentary Party Meeting in Waterford the Labour leader, reiterating what he had said in earlier interviews, categorically ruled out a coalition with Fianna Fáil when a Government is formed after the next General Election.[28]
At his Leader’s address to the 2010 Labour Party Conference (17 April 2010) Gilmore reinforced his vision that the Party should lead the way in building ‘One Ireland’. One ireland is based on the idea that by working together we can get the country back on track and restore our economy, our prosperity and our society. In this speech he named the Labour Party’s policy priorities as being Jobs, Reform and Fairness. He also stated his determination that at the coming general election the Labour Party will run enough candidates, to enable the Irish people to make Labour the largest party in the next Dáil and to lead the next Government .[29]
In July 2010 Gilmore again ruled out a coalition between his party and Fianna Fáil after the next general election even if he were in a position to become taoiseach. Gilmore has also predicted his party is well-positioned to win at least a seat in each of the country's 43 constituencies and two in some constituencies in Dublin, Cork, other urban areas and commuter-belt counties. In all, he said the party has the potential to win 50 seats or more.[30]
[edit]Kilmore School controversy
The Irish Independent reported in November 2010 that Gilmore's wife had profited from the sale two and a half acre unzoned site that has the benefit of planning permission for a school obtained by a third party.
In an RTÉ Radio One interview Gilmore denied that the media coverage surrounding the sale by his wife of land for a Galway school was embarrassing for him. “This is land Carol inherited from her late mother. She was approached by the board of management of the school to make the site available. It was publicly advertised by the OPW and independently valued," he said[31]
There is no allegation of wrongdoing by Gilmore or his wife. TDs do not have to declare spouses' interests as only sitting offices holders such as ministers have to declare their spouse interests. A spokesperson for the Department of Education is quoted in the Irish Times as having said “The department has no reason to consider there was anything abnormal about the transaction concerned.”[32]
[edit]2011 general election
At the 2011 general election, Senator Ivana Bacik was Gilmore's running mate in the Dun Laoghaire constituency. Gilmore topped the poll but Bacik was not elected.
In February 2011 Gilmore said the Government's decision to postpone injecting a further €10 billion into the banks until after the election shows the bailout deal must be renegotiated. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan postponed injecting a further €10 billion into the banks until after the election – missing a key deadline under the EU-IMF bailout. "I find it quite amazing that a Fianna Fáil government, that tells us that we can’t renegotiate the IMF deal, can unilaterally take one portion of the deal and decide they are going to postpone implementing it because there happens to be an election," he said.[33]
Gilmore led Labour to the best electoral performance in the party's 99-year history at the 2011 general election. The party won 37 seats, its most ever. It did especially well in Dublin, taking 18 seats to become the largest party in the capital.
[edit]Tánaiste 2011–present
Following the election, Labour opened coalition talks with Fine Gael, which became the biggest party in the Dáil for the first time ever. On 5 March, the two parties agreed to form a coalition government—the seventh time the two parties will govern together. Gilmore became Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.[1] He went on to appoint four other Ministers to the Cabinet, six Junior Ministers and Máire Whelan as Attorney General. Gilmore has also recreated the Office of the Tánaiste within the Department of the Taoiseach to enhance his control over Government policy.[34] This office was originally created under Tánaiste Dick Spring in 1992 but was abolished by his successor Mary Harney.[35]
[edit]Seanad election
In the following election to Seanad Éireann, 9 Labour Party Senators were elected. Gilmore went on to appoint 3 other Labour Senators giving the Labour Party its highest ever membership of the Seanad, at 12, and its largest Parliamentary Party(TDs, Senators, MEPs) at 52.
Gilmore also appointed Katherine Zappone, a human rights and LGBT campaigner, to the Seanad. Though a Labour Party member she sits as an Independent and is Ireland's first Lesbian Senator.
[edit]Vatican
On 13 July 2011 the Cloyne Report was published, detailing the investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by 19 priests in theRoman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne. Among the report's findings were the revelation that the vast majority of allegations made in the diocese were not reported to the Garda, as required by the Church's 1996 guidelines; that the Bishop of the Diocese, John Magee, and others had withheld full cooperation with the Government's investigation and had deliberately misrepresented his own response to the allegations; and that the Vatican itself had both refused to cooperate in the investigation and counseled the Diocese that the 1996 guidelines were not binding.
On 18 July 2011 Gilmore condemned the Church's handling of the crisis and called on the Papal Nuncio to explain the Vatican's role. Following this criticism the Church withdrew its Papal Nuncio form Ireland as international news outlets reported on the unprecedented nature of the Government's criticism of the Catholic Church.[36] Gilmore later claimed the Church did not understand the anger the Irish people felt.[37]
On 3 November 2011 Gilmore announced that Ireland would close its embassy in the Vatican, along with the embassy in Tehran and a representative office in East-Timor, and that the Irish ambassador to the Holy See would reside not in Rome but in Ireland.[38]
Gilmore said the "decision follows a review of overseas missions carried out by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which gave particular attention to the economic return from bilateral missions". "In order to meet its targets under the EU-IMF programme and to restore public expenditure to sustainable levels, the Government has been obliged to implement cuts across a wide range of public services. No area of Government expenditure can be immune from the need to implement savings."[39]
[edit]Presidential election
In October 2011 the Labour Party's President and candidate, Michael D. Higgins was elected as the 9th President of Ireland. As a student Gilmore personally canvassed for Higgins in the 1969 election. Following the election Gilmore praised Higgins' contribution to Irish politics and cited that he would be a president for all people not just Labour Party supporters.[40]
On the same day, Labour's Patrick Nulty won the Dublin West by-election, making the Labour Party the first government party in Ireland to win a by-election since 1982. Though Gilmore's Government also lost the Referendum on Oireachtas inquiries the day was seen as a political boost for the Labour Party in government.
[edit]Croke Park Agreement
In December, Gilmore once again put his support behind the Croke Park Deal on Public Sector pay and conditions. The dismissal of a renegotiation of the deal came in light of Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte's comments that the deal could be renegotiated along with calls from junior Fine Gael TDs that the agreement should be scrapped.[41]
[edit]OSCE Chair
On 1 January 2012, Ireland assumed the 2012 chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) for the first time. In his role as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gilmore serves as the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE. Gilmore said Ireland would be committed to "promoting peace, security and respect for human rights and rule of law" and draw on its experience fromNorthern Ireland to enhance to OSCE's role in conflict prevention. Gilmore is expected to present Ireland's priorities to the organisation's permanent council on 12 January 2012.[42]
