BRIAN COWEN travelled to Crossmaglen last night to mark the opening of a Fianna Fáil office, in the process becoming the first Taoiseach to visit the republican heartland town.
He was greeted in the town square and said he was “very glad” to be in the south Armagh town.
He was welcomed by local Fianna Fáil members, including former IRA prisoner, Martin McAllister, now a senior Fianna Fáil member in the area.
“I believe I am the first Taoiseach to have visited Crossmaglen, much to my surprise,” he said. “I am very glad to be here to be meeting the many people who will be enjoying this social occasion.”
Mr McAllister, who in the early 1970s served a prison sentence for IRA activity, said he was delighted that Mr Cowen turned up for the opening of the office and the Crossmaglen Fianna Fáil dinner.“We wanted the Taoiseach up here because he is our Taoiseach too,” said Mr McAllister. He said there were some 70 members in the Crossmaglen office. “It is a growing membership all the time,” added Mr McAllister.
Mr Cowen joined some 150 people, including Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív, former Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O’Hanlon, and Cavan-Monaghan TD Margaret Conlon, for the dinner in the Cross Square Hotel.
Mr Cowen was reluctant to make any comment about Fianna Fáil possibly contesting elections in the North. “These are decision for the party for the future,” he said. But his visit to the staunchly republican town comes as Fianna Fáil is carefully and quietly building up party strength in Northern Ireland, with the ultimate ambition, according to senior party sources, of running in Assembly and other elections. Fianna Fáil already has quite successful cumainn in Queen’s University, Belfast and in the University of Ulster.
In the past two years it had established three “forums” in Northern Ireland, in counties Armagh, Fermanagh and Down.
It is planning further forums in the remaining three Northern Ireland counties, starting with Antrim and then setting up similar bases in Derry and Tyrone. Mr Ahern, Dr O’Hanlon and some other TDs based close to the Border have been centrally involved in this development. “This is about a bottom-up approach and there is no question of us contesting elections in the immediate future,” said a senior Fianna Fáil source yesterday.