Athlone Ard Fheis told now 'a moment of generational change'

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald told the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Athlone at the weekend that now is “a moment of generational change in Ireland”.

She said that Sinn Féin would get right the things that really matter to people in the here and now, and drive ambitious plans for the future to make change real in the lives of ordinary people.

She told the gathering at the TUS campus in Athlone that the party is ready to lead government, both north and south.

She also reiterated the right of the Palestinians to their homeland, human rights and their freedom, and once again called for a ceasefire, peace, and for Israel to be held to account in the International Criminal Court.

She said a new Ireland is possible, where Orange and Green reconciled and where there was “no place for racism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or sectarianism”..

The party president said housing was Sinn Féin’s number one priority.

She said the party would build genuinely affordable homes, “build enough of them, get the targets right, increase capital expenditure, cut rents, giving a month’s rent back to every renter, and ban rent increases for three years”

She vowed the party would deliver “the biggest housing programme in the history of the state”.

The Ard Fheis was opened on Friday evening by Longford/Westmeath TD Sorca Clarke who told the gathering that it was an honour for her to welcome the party to Athlone.

In her opening address, she told delegates that an appetite for change across Ireland is growing day by day.