Politics

Cullinane’s rise from modest roots and car dealership job to SF success

Party spokesman on his influences, why he didn’t consider joining IRA, and Patrick Kielty

Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane says he regrets his cry of ‘Up the Ra’. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

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Cormac McQuinn
Sat Jan 8 2022 - 06:00

Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane’s politics were, he says, shaped by two things The first were chats with his “staunchly Fianna Fáil and republican” maternal grandparents as a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but people who also had “a lot of admiration for Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams”.

The second was growing up in the working-class Ballybeg estate in Waterford, where poverty and inequality lived side by side with “a real sense of community”, he remembers. “I loved it. Even though we didn’t have a lot, we had everything, if that makes sense.

“Our parents made sure that we had everything. We had good Christmases, good birthdays, we always were able to go on holidays. But I was conscious of the poverty as well... of the perceptions that people had of the housing estate I lived in.”

With Sinn Féin’s rise in the polls continuing, it could well be in government after the next general election with Cullinane – the party’s heath spokesman and frequent critic of the Government on Covid-19 – installed as minister for health.

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Cullinane’s political career has gone from getting just under 3,000 votes in the 2002 general election to topping the poll with more than 20,000 first preferences in 2020, after which celebrations that included him exclaiming “Up the Ra” emerged.

Today, the Waterford TD says: “Obviously, if we’re in government, we will have a focus on a united Ireland. We’re United Irelanders.” But that focus could upset voters who, though they say they favour the idea, display little enthusiasm for it to happen quickly.

The latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll put SF at 35 per cent, which if replicated in an election would put it in a lead position to seek to form a coalition. However, the same poll showed that a majority are opposed to paying higher taxes or other sacrifices to bring a United Ireland about.

I don't see how a division of the country as small as Ireland is to anybody's benefit. I think partition has failed.

The results suggest a disconnect between Sinn Féin’s focus on achieving a united Ireland and the priorities of voters who turned to the party in their droves at the last election over issues such as the crises in housing and health.

Cullinan denies that the contradiction will cause difficulties for SF in power. A United Ireland “makes sense” and would improve public services on the island, not curb them: “I don’t see how a division of the country as small as Ireland is to anybody’s benefit. I think partition has failed.

“And I think it makes perfect sense socially, economically and politically, to have a united Ireland. People don’t see Sinn Féin preoccupied with a united Ireland. They see it as Sinn Féin wants to see a united Ireland.

“But they also see Sinn Féin very active on housing, on health, on the cost of living... and they know that if we’re in government, we certainly intend to deliver on all of those. So my job if I was the future health minister is to deliver better healthcare.

“If Eoin Ó Broin was the minister for housing, his job is to deliver housing for people. If Claire Kerrane was the minister for social protection, her job is to deliver fairness and deal with the cost-of-living issues.

“Obviously, if we’re in government, we will have a focus on a united Ireland. We’re United Irelanders. But equally we want to improve the quality of people’s lives. And I don’t see any conflict between the two.

“In fact, I don’t believe that we’ll ever have equality on the island unless we have a united Ireland.”

Growing up, Cullinane watched Questions and Answers on a Monday night hoping there would be a member of Sinn Féin on the panel.

Television screens at the time would also have been filled with news reports on the latest Provisional IRA atrocities, such as the Enniskillen and Warrington bombings.

What did he think of these when they happened?

“I would have always had a view that I understood why people were engaged in physical force but I wished it was different. I think if I was to sum it up, my thoughts at that time they were, why can’t we just sort this out? Why can’t there be a solution?

“And eventually we got one with the Good Friday Agreement.”

Did he ever consider joining the IRA in his youth?

“No.” He said that at the time he joined Sinn Féin – 1997 – “we were working towards a peace process. It just wasn’t an option and it’s not something that I ever sought out.

“I always had a view that I wanted to see a political solution.”

Cullinane got a job at a car dealership in Waterford and while he enjoyed the work, 'it was just a job'. Politics was where his interests lay.

The Belfast Agreement happened shortly after he joined Sinn Féin at a time when he was a student at Dublin Institute of Technology. He secured a certificate in business studies before leaving college for economic reasons.

Cullinane got a job at a car dealership in Waterford and while he enjoyed the work, “it was just a job”.

Politics was where his interests lay.

When he contested the 2002 election, then-leader Gerry Adams canvassed with him.

He put in a respectable showing for a first-time candidate and was elected as a councillor in 2004 and became a full-time politician.

He came in for much criticism for his “Up the Ra” cry after his 2020 victory.

Cullinane has said he had made a “mistake” and apologised.

Comedian Patrick Kielty recently delivered a well-received speech as part of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s Shared Island initiative where he spoke of reaching out to the loyalist community in the North.

He said: “It’s way easier to sing a rebel song about a united Ireland than decide not to sing it in order to maybe have one.”

Put to Cullinane that this could similarly apply to his “Up the Ra” cry, he says: “What we say is important. And I think we all need to be conscious of what we say, because we obviously have to deliver on our politics.”

He praises Kielty’s speech and says it “makes perfect sense”, adding: “If we want to build a united Ireland, we’re going to have to put ourselves in the shoes of people who don’t agree with us.”

He quotes the late Martin McGuinness and how he said: 'I don't want to see unionists treated in a united Ireland, the way nationalists were treated in a partitioned Ireland.'

He says he wants people who see themselves as British to “have all of their rights fully respected in a United Ireland”.

Cullinane quotes the late Martin McGuinness and how he said: “I don’t want to see unionists treated in a united Ireland, the way nationalists were treated in a partitioned Ireland.”

On health matters, what one thing would he have done differently if he were minister for health during the pandemic?

“There’s so many things, but the one thing I would have done differently is preparedness, planning.”

Cullinane says he sees lack of planning in areas such as the vaccine booster roll-out (which he says took too long to start), antigen tests and air filtration systems.

Greater all-island co-operation could do much for specialist services such as care for children, cancer care, and many other areas: “The conversation about all-island co-operation is happening .You see it in agriculture, you see it in business, if you look at the [Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol]... The essence of the protocol is to protect the all-island economy.”

On commentary criticising Sinn Féin’s push for a border poll he says: “The quicker I can see a united Ireland, the better, but I also realise that we have to build the foundations for a border poll.”

Relationships would have to be built with “people who don’t agree with us” and there would need to be conversations “about what that Ireland would look like”. He says the Shared Island initiative is “worthwhile” but doesn’t go far enough.