SDLP starts hunt for new MPs

The SDLP has written to all party members asking anyone interested in being considered for a nomination to contest the next Westminster election to apply now.

This is the first time to my knowledge that the an open application system has been used by a major Northern party and is taking place under the stewardship of the party’s CEO, Michael Savage.

To date candidates were picked following a nomination process within constituencies with all nominees going forward to convention. The new process which has two new stages, written application and interview, will lead to a short list on which members can vote at convention.

Similar systems have been used by parties in GB for many years and have been credited for the renewal that took place in the British Labour Party in the 90’s and is currently taking place in the Conservative Party.

The feedback I have received from inside the party has been positive. Many members welcome the creation of an open application system.

The process is being conducted by constituency. The applications for Foyle and South Belfast close on September 7th whilst members considering a run in  North Down or East Belfast have until October 26th.

Interviews will be complete for all eighteen constituencies by November 9th allowing selection conventions to take place in the run up to Christmas and early next year.

Who do I think I am?

We all wonder about our ancestors. Did they really live where family myth has them?

My family roots are in Belfast and Galway. That I am a Dubliner is an accident of partition. Both histories are interesting, one urban and political the other rural and romantic.

The national archives in Dublin have just put the 1911 census online. I guess this must have been the last full census before partition and so the final opportunity to see every person on this island on the one record. 

I thought I’d test it out with a quick search for the Belfast McDevitt’s or more specifically my great grandparents Daniel and Emily as well as Brendan my own grandfather. There they are living at 455 Falls Road. An address which is at the heart of many a family tale. The roof that kept the rain of James Connolly’s head when he first came to Belfast and home to a family born out of the union of a Unitarian from the Shankill and a Catholic from the falls.

Daniel (Danny) McDevitt was quite the character. A Tailor, his shop on Rosemary Street in Belfast was known as the Bounders College and became a gathering place for radicals and progressives at the city at the turn of the 20th century. He was interned at Ballykinlar after the rising and left the North for the newly established Free State in 1922 where he continued making suits for the rest of his life. Brendan became a civil servant and fathered seven children, Una, Don, Maeve, Colm, Rory (my dad), Cahir and Bairbre.

I don’t know if the original names have been digitally read but my great uncle Turlough has become Dorlac online. There is also a name I don’t recognise also, a Sarah McNamara, aged 82 – listed as a widow.  

God only knows who I really am!

Ted Kennedy RIP

That night the torch was passed on

They came in there thousands yesterday. Black, white, republican, democrat, american and alien to pay tribute to the liberal lion. I managed to sign the book of condolences too. Brought the kids and let Oisin (9) and Clara (5) put thier names on the paper. It seemed right that a generation who never knew war and never knew Kennedy should be allowed to say thank you for a future they can now live in peace, hope and opportunity.

Kevin Roland who is acting Consul General in Belfast reminded me how close President Obama is to Kennedy. Last year’s endorsement by the Kennedy clan was a game changer in the election for Obama. Today the world press reports that Barack Obama will be the only non family member to speak at the funeral service in Boston. Proper order. For he is now the carrier of the progressive flame. The man who must look to the interests of the many and not just the privileged few.  The debate about healthcare reform will start again on Monday. But it’s a “Kennedy Bill” now and I hope Obama is able to recruit the millions who know this is the right thing for America. Healthcare was after all in Teddy’s own words “the cause of my life”.

[Extract from UTV Live Tonight - Professor Paul Arthurs and myself debate Kennedy's legacy]

David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s senior adviser, refuted some republican suggestions that he would use today’s speech to push the Healthcare Bill. He told reporters yesterday the eulogy “will be much more about Ted Kennedy the man, and the warm and loving human being … The president was so fond of him as a person”. The fact is Obama will never need to say this bill was Kennedy’s dream. The world and America already knows that.

John Hume and Mark Durkan will be in Boston today to remember a friend and fellow architect of peace. Martin McGuinness and the Taoiseach will be there to acknowledge a life dedicated to a better Ireland and a better world. Outside the millions who now have some healthcare, who live in peace, whose children have had the opportunity to excel because they were given a good education will remember him too.

I’ll take a stroll up the hill at Arlington next time I am in Washington DC. If you have never been, go. Its a special place, the Kennedy plot, born out of such tragedy and unfulfilled promise. That is until today. For now people can go there to pay tribute to the power of a great legislator as well as the shot down dreams of premature loss.

Ted Kennedy RIP.

Car Free Summer

Its day 89 of my car free summer.

I have done a couple of thousand miles by train - bus and about 600 on the bike since the beginning of June.  Ive probably walked an extra 60 miles also.

Am I missing the privacy pod? No!

Has it been good for me? Well I’ve lost about 5lb and am eating like a king!

They say the car give s you freedom. I have found the opposite. Not having the car has meant I can only do so much in the day. There are some extra thinking minutes which have been wonderful and the opportunity to feel the breeze in my face. That is surely liberating in itself.

So is there a new car on order? Not yet.

I’m going to hold off for another month or so. I may not feel this way when the winter closes in. Lets face it, the gale in the face may not turn out to be refreshing at all.

The bike? Its a specialized Sirrus (A road hybrid) which I got through the ride to work scheme - love it!

The old car? It was an Alfa GT – don’t get me started.

Speaking notes

I’m in Dublin today giving at talk about the social and digital media revolution. Here is the gist of what I will be talking to the summer camp which Lauren Fisher at www.simplyzesty.com has assembled.

Public Relations and Public Affairs in Ireland are evolving. Weber Shandwick has led the way in the development of new communications techniques for its many clients globally. Now as one of the few major companies with strong offices in Dublin and Belfast, Northern Ireland MD, Conall McDevitt, offers an insight into the future of Public Relations and Public Affairs in Ireland.
It’s a story as old as innovation itself: Change is evolutionary, not revolutionary at first.

The first cars went where horses did, only quicker. The first word processors did what typewriters did, only easier. And the first wave of digital communications technology did what print and broadcast media had already done – share information – only faster and farther.

At first, in other words, new technologies usually enhance the performance of existing tasks  no small feat, but not a revolutionary one, either. The real revolution comes when people use the new technologies, not to improve existing tasks, but to create new possibilities.

Public relations caught the first wave, the adoption of new technology to spread information. We showed how it no longer makes sense to send a message to the many to persuade the few. But that first wave, sharing information with more segmented audiences, is cresting. A new one, a fundamental transformation of communication from information to advocacy, is rising.

For the first time, individuals looking for news, information and cues are relying less on institutions and more on each other. The technology may accelerate, but the human scale transforms. And personal interaction is a place where values and responsibility matter more. Three drivers show why:

First, the news media aren’t dictating the “news” anymore. Instead of merely accepting what’s presented on traditional media from conventional sources, people increasingly are turning to each other for information and validation. Top US market researchers used a simple Google search on the world’s 20 largest brands to prove the point: Less than 20 percent of search results were linked to the companies themselves. About half were related to experts, the media and other sources. The remaining and growing 26 percent came from consumer generated sources such as blogs and product reviews, which are playing an increasing role in what the public learns and thinks about current affairs.

As individuals take control, they’re demanding more, which brings us to the second driver: “Pull” now trumps “push.” Amid information overload, pushing messages is not enough. We need to pull people toward the ideas we want to convey in a true exchange. What’s required is engagement. Individuals the world over are increasingly striving to fulfill higher needs, if not more actively shape their own futures. As consumers, they’re looking for deeper total experiences delivered by companies that share their values. And values are something only personal engagement can convey.

The need for personal engagement helps explain our third driver: the law of the few. Initial forecasts said the new media would produce isolation, not interaction. As it turns out, people may not have as many close acquaintances, but they have multiple “core ties” to others they turn to and confide in. In this networked society, individuals don’t take their cues from centralised, institutionalised experts. They come from influencers, connectors, bloggers, activists and simply anyone willing to stand on top of a soapbox to voice their opinion, virtually or otherwise, anywhere in the world.

As the game changes, the public relations profession on this island must too. Rather than pushing information for our clients, we need to engage individuals as advocates. In its strongest form, advocacy forges emotional bonds and higher levels of involvement — active, vocal, proud, informed, experiential.

Public relations’ new mission must be to move people faster to this highest form of loyalty advocacy and at Weber Shandwick, we’ve adopted this goal as our own. We are researching how best to mobilise advocates early on in the decision process. We are investing in new ways to sustain and build advocates as the core foundation of any client’s ongoing marketing communications programme.

The world’s strongest brands already have grasped this potential. The opportunity now exists for companies on this island to do so too. The first technological wave, the acceleration of information, has crested. The second, the use of information to transform individuals into advocates, is rising. Our choice and that for any company or organisation selling a product or service in Ireland is simple: We can catch it, or it can crash over us. That is, of course, no choice at all. It’s a necessity and, more important, an opportunity to lead. That’s why advocacy must start here.

Ted Kennedy RIP

The last lion of Camelot is dead but his legacy will live on.

His legislative record is second to none. His liberal credentials beyond challenge. He stood up to the IRA at every turn and ultimately stood by the McCartney sisters bringing the Republican movement into policing. But then violence was an anathema to him. No matter where it came from or for what reason it was being perpetuated.

He was John Hume and the SDLP’s  friend and the times I met him was with our own Nobel laureate.  There was an aura about him. A charismatic quality which transcended his bloated, aging physique.

When he supported Obama and backed the change he symbolised, but more then backing the politician he was backing the people his election could liberate. Just as he had done since the mid seventies here, speaking for the silent majority on this island who rejected violence and wanted peace.

Ted Kennedy was a true New Irelander. May he rest in peace.

Lance Armstrong rides in Dublin

Lance Armstrong Tweeted the following this morning:

Good morning Dublin. Who wants to ride this afternoon? I do. 5:30 pm @ the roundabout of Fountain Rd and Chesterfield Ave. See you there.

At 5.30pm there were over 3000 cyclists waiting for the legend to arrive. The reports are he has brought the Park to a standstill. That’s the power of social media and proof that Lance Armstrong can ignite online debate. He is what we call in the business a ‘Mega Hub’.

I just wish I could have been there. But I was on my own bike at 5.45pm navigating the streets of the Northern Capital instead. Ride on!

Seize the regional opportunity to build a new North

The past year may well turn out to be cathartic not just in global terms but also right here in Ireland, North and South.

Popular focus has shifted onto the issues that really matter like the economy and the role government has to play in protecting jobs whilst supporting those who have become, through no fault of the own, causalities of this crisis. The shock waves from Wall Street have changed life here as they have around the world.

I thought it might worth looking at the opportunities this creates for new political leadership here in the North and across the island.

Despite all the progress since the Good Friday Agreement, the challenges this island will face over the next three decades are more complex than ever. On the one hand there is a need to deepen and strengthen regional government in Northern Ireland whilst advocating change across this island – change which must be capable of uniting the people of Ireland. This demands a strong voice in favour of a better North capable of representing the social and economic needs of northerners as well as leading the debate for a new and agreed Ireland.

There are significant policy areas in which parties could seek to establish a leadership position.

The first is tackling sectarianism, the second is the economy, the third is education, the fourth is health and the fifth is the environment.

In community / good relations terms it means having the courage to acknowledge and tackle the cancer of sectarianism in the North and the reality of prejudice across the Island, by making it the central plank of government policy.

It means having the vision to demand fiscal discretion for Northern Ireland so we can attract more investment whilst nurturing our own entrepreneurs and levelling the very uneven playing field for those in commerce on the island of Ireland. It could mean a single innovation and higher education strategy across the island and absolutely would mean the removal of trade barriers such as currency, tax or banking systems. For ordinary consumers this would mean a single telecommunications market capable of deliver lower cost telecommunications and no more roaming charges. People will argue there is nothing that a regional government can do to tackle the banking crisis as these matters are not devolved. Maybe so, but what the Northern Ireland Executive could do is express a clear view as to what sort of financial system would be in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland. One can’t help but noting that had the major building societies not converted to banks in the past decade the problems in the UK and Irish credit markets would not be as acute. A regional government can encourage mutual societies and look at promoting these as the preferred model to deliver finance for the many.

In health this means protecting what is good about the NHS whist seeking to modernise it for the 21st century. It means rejecting the privatisation of healthcare as is happening south of the border and putting care in the community and public health first.

In education it means transforming our schools into inclusive spaces where faith is protected and difference in accepted. Where excellence is experienced by the many, and is not a preserve of the few. That is good for the economy and good society.

Finally there is an urgent need to acknowledge the importance of environmental governance to our future and to put sustainability at the heart of everything we do. Being strong on sustainability is good for the island of Ireland. Promoting common regulation, an Island of Ireland carbon strategy and common energy policy building on single electricity market would make common sense. Again this is an issue which impacts on the economy as much as it does on the planet.

Of course none of the above can be achieved without a strong regional government in Northern Ireland which acts in the interests of the many and which is committed to a shared future. Surely this presents an opportunity for progressive politics.

Region, Nation and Us

The North is a region, Ireland is a nation and we are people.

Some of us are nationalist, some unionist, all of us Northerners. That is a simple fact of life not a big political statement. It didn’t take partition to bring this distinction about. It has been so for a long time. Ask any historian and s/he will tell you there has been a North – South divide on this island since time in memoriam.

Of course since partition this divide has had a jurisdictional, political, economic and military dimension. The tragic political history of the Northern Ireland state is also the social, economic and cultural history of a de-facto region.

Well before the troubles erupted this reality was recognised by progressive writers like John Hewitt who argued that people had the capacity to owe allegiance to a smaller unit then the nation without prejudicing their national identity. In a letter to his friend John Montague in 1964 he wrote:

By trying to waken folk to the concept of the Region, it seemed to me the necessary step to prize Ulster loose from the British anchorage: then and only then, when free in ideology, the unity with the other part of our island could be realised and established. The North cannot be invaded, and taken by force in the Republic: if simply outvoted by a nationalist majority resentment would remain, but, realising themselves for what they are for the first time, not Britain’s pensioners or stranded Englishmen and Scots, being instead a group living long enough in Ireland to have the air in their blood, the landscape in their bones, and the history in their hearts, and so, a special kind of Irish themselves, they could with grace make the transition to federal unity.

I always maintained that our loyalties had an order to Ulster, to Ireland, to the British Archipelago, to Europe; and that anyone who skipped a step or missed a link falsified the total. The Unionists missed out Ireland: the Northern Nationalists (The Green Tories) couldn’t see the Ulster under their feet; the Republicans missed out both Ulster and the Archipelago; and none gave any heed to Europe at all. Now, perhaps, willy nilly bundled in the European rump of the Common Market, clearer ideas of our regional and national allegiances and responsibilities may emerge, or our whole sad stubborn conglomeration of nations may founder and disappear for ever.

Since 1998 the North has new meaning and can rightly define itself as a region of Ireland, and region of the UK and a region of Europe.

The Good Friday Agreement gives Hewitt’s vision its structural, economic and constitutional opportunity built as it is on the three sets of relationships which must work if the North is to work.

Whilst the SDLP are great advocates of Northern regionalism and have committed to maintaining the region in a United Ireland, it must also be true that too many in politics still ignore, as Hewitt suggested, the bits of Northern identity they don’t like.

The question must be is this selective denial of regional reality damaging our ability to govern ourselves and transform our communities.

Lame Duck Government

This is getting messy.

Today’s Irish Times screams TROUBLE with news that the Green’s want to delay a final vote on Nama until after the second Lisbon referendum in October. Yesterday Bertie Ahern said he would stand again if there was a snap poll and elsewhere Fianna Fail backbenchers appear to be throwing in the towel before the second round of the Euro bout is underway.

Just when the South needs a strong government it appears it to have a  lame duck one. If FF and the Greens survive  Lisbon II, Nama and this year’s budget expect eighteen months of treading water. A sure bet race to the bottom in political terms if ever there was going to be one. Bad for the country and bad for politics.

An election would be the obvious way out. New broom and all that. Of course Cowen could always turn to the opposition and look to form a national government. But then Fianna Fail don’t do national governments.