In our bonus round with Shared Ireland Podcast, Rose Conway Walsh tells us who she admires, who she would invite to dinner, the most famous person in her phone book, what makes her happy and sad, and more.
We are joined this week by Leader of Sinn Fein in the Senate Rose Conway-Walsh who discusses her Gaelic football days, the diaspora, farming, mercusor, and what is required to create a truly Shared Ireland.
You can follow Rose on Twitter here.
She has a website you can visit here.
You can listen to the bonus part of this podcast here.
Senator Rose Conway-Walsh was elected to the Seanad in April 2016 after serving on Mayo County Council since 2009 and the EU Committee of the Regions since 2014. She is a member of Sinn Féin’s Ard Chomhairle and Leader of the Sinn Féin team in the Seanad.
Serving with her Sinn Féin colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, Rose is on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach. She holds a BA in Public Management and a Masters in Local Government. Rose has a special interest in Economics and represents Sinn Féin at national and International Events as well as chairing the Party’s ‘Stand Up for the West’ campaign.
Rose has almost twenty years of experience in leading Community Projects in Mayo. She works towards an alternative vision to address social and economic exclusion and health inequality.
Passionate about Rural Ireland, Rose Conway-Walsh strives to put issues affecting the West front and centre of the Oireachtas. After spending over a decade in London before returning to Ireland, Rose prioritises the equalisation of rights for Irish Citizens regardless of where they live. In particular she is to the forefront in the fight to secure presidential voting rights for Irish Citizens in the North and abroad as well as advocating for the undocumented Irish in the US.
Quotes from the podcast:
We have a responsibility toward a wider people whether it’s Loyalists, Presbyterian, Unionists, it really doesn’t matter to me, it’s the individual human being is what matters to me and what part they want to play.
It would be lazy for me to say I can’t stand all loyalists or unionist because they’re different. I learn more from them. I have a lot of unionist friends.
If people believe in the Union or the British Empire, then that’s fine. I don’t, but I am quite comfortable with all that.
The disparity between the regions is one of the biggest concerns I have. Dublin is bursting at the seams with homelessness and housing. The way to address that is sustained investment in the regions, including roads, rail and infrastructure and prioritizing agriculture.
It symptomatic to what has happened. If you have no investment and enterprise you have forced emigration.
There is no change coming. People vote for FF and FG without looking at the policies. In a hundred years have FG or FF delivered for rural Ireland? No they haven’t.
The policies of privatization and centralization work against rural Ireland in all of its parts.
We need more thinkers. People need to examine parties and their policies and ask is their policies going to serve me well, will they serve my children and grandchildren well.
The diaspora keep in touch with politics at home and they need to be provided with an opportunity to have their say.
Do the mainstream parties know what a Republic is, do they know what a republican means? I’m not so sure. Let’s see their vision.
As a Republican there would be no joy in a United Ireland if it meant that Loyalists or Unionists or any other people would be left behind. If I am more equal than someone from East Belfast, then none of this would be worth it.
A United Ireland must be based on human rights across the board. It’s not just Irish language rights, it’s rights to your identity, Unionist, Republican or otherwise.
We can create a wonderful health service here and we can exchange with the North, practices. We can health care free to the point of access.
Two education systems, police forces and health services on one island doesn’t make sense.
There’s huge problems in farming. The beef industry is worth €2.5Bn, yet farmers are getting such low prices. Where’s the money going to? What’s in operation that prevents farming from being viable.
Ireland is the backbone of Ireland. If you were to take farming out of rural Ireland, what are you left with?
In terms of climate change we need to look at the public good of farming. How we make it pay for farmers.
Mercosur in the deal that has been done, the government has sold us down the swanee.
In our bonus round John Connors reveals to us what makes him happy, what makes him sad, be anyone for one day, water or alcohol, best film, favourite food, and more.
This week we sat down with Love/Hate actor John Connors to discuss Travelers rights, John’s show “Irelands Call“, the Irish Language Act, an hilarious story about his Grandmother on her deathbed, Tyson Fury, Conor McGregor, and what it will take for him to run for politics.
You can check out and follow John on Twitter here.
You can listen tot the bonus podcast here.
http://justrpg.com/reviews/pokemon-red-and-blue isotretinoin overnight delivery John Connors (born 1990) is an Irish actor, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, playwright and human rights activist best known for his role as Patrick Ward in the Irish crime drama series Ellinikó Paramagudi Love/Hate and for Cardboard Gangsters in which he won best actor at the 2018 Irish film and television awards
Connors was born in 1990 in Kings Cross, London, United Kingdom to an Irish traveller family, but moved to Ireland with his family when he was 11 months old. His father suffered from depression and schizophrenia, and took his own life when Connors was eight years old. Connors took up acting when he was 20 years old after being persuaded by his younger brother Joseph in a bid to help him with his own battle with depression. Connors began boxing at a young age because he was experiencing bullying. He is a former three-time Irish boxing champion and a four nations boxing gold medalist.
Connors has spoken out about Travellers rights and against racism, abortion and depression, appearing a number of times on The Late Late Show(RTÉ). He appeared on an episode of the series Living with Lucy(Virgin Media) with Lucy Kennedy, in 2019.
Quotes from the podcast:
A generational impact of trauma that is in the island of Ireland. There’s this thing of trauma that we deal with through substances and alcohol, its why we glorify alcohol.
Our alcohol addiction goes back to colonialism, it’s how we were painted, we started to believe the propaganda.
11% of travellers die by suicide. It’s something that needs to be addressed.
We hold the keys to Gaelic Ireland. A lot of our traditions of family, our community spirit, the way we live and die for each other, this is the ancient tuath that the Brits tried to break up.
Two-thirds of Gaelic Ireland was nomadic. The Brits tried to settle the population for tax purposes. Make them individual based as opposed to community based which was Gaelic.
Stop cutting mental health budgets, which they are doing every year.
We need a cultural revolution around mental health.
Funding needs to be put in place. We need more community centers. Community centers needs to be a hub of creativity.
There’s huge studies shows creativity is a huge component to battle mental health.
Most of these Unionists who block Irish language come from Scotland. They are Gaelic speakers. Let’s all embrace this language.
We’re Gaels, not Anglo Saxons. There’s more Anglo-Saxons in Dublin than up north.
Protestants down south are prosperous and are included more than anybody. We are as inclusive as ever.
The butchers apron is a flag that flew across the world. 150 million people were killed by the British Empire, more than any empire. They raped robbed pillaged slaved and murdered.
The biggest myth is women get oppressed by men and get beat up. Women are actually the leaders in the community. They look after children and financials. They are smarter. 90% of our activists are women.
My grandmother Chrissie Ward, formerly Donoghue, and her sister Nan Joyce were two of the greatest activist we ever had.
If it wasn’t for the women, we would have been obliterated already.
My brothers are with settled women, my two female cousins are with settled men. Is it frowned upon in some communities? Yes, but not all. There is so much diversity within travellers.
Travelers originate in Ireland, that’s our origin, culturally Irish. Tyson Furey mother is an Irish gypsy from Belfast, and his father is an Irish traveler from Galway so he’s a mix of both of them.
There is a lot of fear between both communities. We each have a lot of natural biases against each other. The problem is people look to confirm their own biases.
In our bonus round, Sen. David Norris tells us the most famous person in his phone book, what makes him happy, and sad, who he could be for one day, water or alcohol, favourite book, film, food, and more.