It is a strange situation. American citizens residing in Ireland are able to vote in next week's US Presidential election, but Irish citizens living in America, and indeed anywhere else abroad, cannot vote for an Irish Government or for an Irish President in the upcoming elections.
Ireland is an outlier in this regard. 141 nations around the world provide voting access for their citizens living abroad. Successive Irish governments have been wary of the votes of the people their policies force to leave. Yet every year on St. Patrick's Day, they trawl the globe to pay homage to our diaspora.
Visiting Philadelphia on St. Patrick’s Day 2018, the then Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael Enda Kenny committed to recognising the rights of all citizens, adding, “Today's announcement is a profound recognition of the importance that Ireland attaches to all of our citizens, wherever they may be. It is an opportunity for us to make our country stronger by allowing all of our citizens resident outside the State, including our emigrants, to vote in future presidential elections.”
That commitment was dropped by subsequent Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil governments. It would seem that successive Irish Governments pay lip service to our nation abroad, with promises swapped for duty-free at the departure gate.
For our part, Sinn Féin have ongoing, year-round contact with supporters in the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia, and across the EU.
This month, Friends of Sinn Féin USA launched hearings on the Commission on the Future of Ireland in Cleveland and Columbus. Their ambition is to have similar events across the states. Canada is also planning hearings.
The Irish abroad will be central to securing and winning unity referendums, just as they have been in securing and safeguarding the Good Friday Agreement.
The Commission will report to Sinn Féin on your hopes and vision for a United Ireland.
The coming Dáil elections are an opportunity for Irish citizens abroad and our wider diaspora to call on the Irish government to listen and to act.
In government, Sinn Féin will plan and prepare for Irish Unity, make good the commitment on voting rights, deal with the barriers to returning home to Ireland, and lay out a vision of a new and united Ireland.
The diaspora can be part of setting the agenda for an incoming Irish Government, an agenda that is more than leveraging the goodwill of our “exiled Children” and platitudes on St. Patrick’s Day. A call for an Irish Government to build a new and united Ireland at which Irish will have a seat at the table is
*Ciarán Quinn is Sinn Féin Liaison to Irish America
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