*Caitríona Ní Cathain. Photograph: John Mangan.
KILMALEY’s Caitríona Ní Catháin (SOC) says she is pitching herself as “the anti-war candidate” in Clare for the General Election.
Highlighting the war in Gaza is the primary aim of CaitrÍona’s entry into the field. “This is an issue, that it really, really I think it’s very, very relevant to Clare, but it’s also an issue of global solidarity. I’m an anti-war candidate and what that means is that I stand against oppression and economic inequality both in Ireland and abroad. The fact that Shannon is located in the constituency of Clare means that this is a highlight. This is an absolute priority, for my campaign, and it should be for anybody who is politically active at this moment in time”.
Now based in Limerick City for the past seven years where she works as a Spanish teacher, Caitríona herself is a former Coláiste Mhuire student. She is the eldest of nine children born to Maura and Conor.
Over the past four years, she has become “very politically active”. She stated, “For me, definitely, COVID, really radicalised me. At that time, I was a teacher as well, and I could see, I could like, schools, there was a lot of, you know, chaos in the schools. In spite of the lockdown measures, it was still not enough, and I could see that, the legacy of austerity on our schools made it even difficult to actually mitigate COVID in our schools, so there was a lot of fear. There was a lot of anger and I really felt that at the time, it really radicalised me, you know, and it made me see that, like, government policy really has an impact, you know, on workers, but also on our youth and on children as well. And on our mental health as well as on our on our physical health, you know”.
Contesting the General Election follows her unsuccessful bid to become the Directly Elected Mayor in Limerick, she received 886 first preference votes on that occasion. “I believe really strongly in grassroots organisations as a means to make change and this has been communicated in the previous campaign, and I’m hoping to communicate some of that energy in the current, campaign, although modest, with particularly focused around Palestinian solidarity and the use of Shannon Airport for transport munitions”.
Shannon Airport’s use over two decades by the US military demonstrates “the escalation of the genocide in Gaza,” she maintained. “I believe that, supporting any kind of, movements in Shannon, could actually be a beacon for other places as well. I’m quite active in my trade union and I believe that, a united workers movement, any kind of worker action in Shannon could actually have a ripple effect”.
She continued, “We talk a lot or we remember a lot about the Dunne’s, anti-apartheid strike back in the eighties, again, that had a ripple effect that brought down apartheid in South Africa, it only takes a few workers to actually take a stand and right now, we have thousands of people all over the country who’ve been protesting every week for a year”.
US military use of Shannon is “a completely intolerable situation in the current political climate, I think the vast majority of, Irish people actively want out of this. A vote for me is a vote for that,” Caitríona said. “I would give my full support to any kind of workers movement within the unions or outside of the unions, that was taking place in Shannon Airport. The workers in Shannon already know that they have the support of these, these, solidarity communities that that descend upon Shannon every month for the last two decades, there’s a growing awareness now, of what’s happening in Shannon”.
“It’s a pretty tragic situation in Ireland if our airport is relying on, the US military for jobs. Right now, what members of the public want is actually just more flights going from Shannon and every second person I talk to in Limerick would prefer to take a flight from Shannon Airport than Dublin Airport, so that is a matter for the Minister for Transport, and that is that is that is as well as a as a local issue. But I’m sure the demand there’s much more demand for, regular flights to Malaga than, you know US bases all over the world,” she told The Clare Echo.
An opportunity to advocate for the people of Clare is “very exciting,” she admitted. “It might not happen this time around, but, it might happen in the future and, if it does, it will be very much, around advocating for ordinary people, advocating for workers, advocating for families, parents, disabled children, children, renters as well and these are the kind of things that we don’t actually have enough of in the Dáil right now. We know that in spite of Michael O’Leary punching down on teachers and Fine Gaelers just guffawing, in reality one in every four TDs is a landlord, those kind of, TDs, unfortunately are a barrier to solving the housing crisis, so imagine if we had more ordinary workers in the Dáil advocating for ordinary people”.
Having roots in Clare persuaded her to run in her native county. “There are a lot of solidarity groups already in Clare. There are a lot of anti-racist groups and a lot of Palestinian solidarity groups. I think it’s really important in, in the kind of organising that I do that we actually link up these kind of struggles, especially now in the kind of political climate that we’re in. There’s a huge, growth in inequality. For example, in Ireland, the two wealthiest billionaires own more than half of the bottom half of the population, this is a situation that’s given away to the kind of racist scapegoating that we’re seeing, up and down the country. The kind of campaign that that I would have and other members of People For Profit and Solidarity will be against any form of inequality and scapegoating and specifically anti-racist and, specifically with a view to, with a view of solidarity”.
She has been very active in the Rosa Socialist Feminists Movement, there is currently no branch in Clare but there are members from the county.
Caitríona is completely honest when asked what is her track record on delivering for Clare, “In truth, very, very little. Absolutely nothing, to be to be clear, but, because I lived in Limerick all this time, but here again is kind of the opportunity to actually grow something. You might be familiar with the Mid-West Hospital campaign, that is a campaign that I have been active in, along with other members of the socialist party, that obviously relates to Clare, to Tipperary and Limerick, so we would have a lot of communication with, you know, with members of Mid-West Hospital campaign in Clare. Yeah. But other than that, I don’t have much experience organising in Clare”.
A “very minimal” presence of the Socialist Party exists in Clare, she said. “This could be the start of something exciting, for the socialist party. Our political program is quite, radical, but at the same time, it speaks to a lot of people right now. When you think about how, when you think about the disastrous housing policies of the current government and young people who are just leaving in their droves right now because they simply can’t afford to live and work in their hometowns or in their home cities. I think every day, there seems to be more of an interest in in, socialist policies, policies that actually cater to the many and not the few, pretty much”.
A low-key campaign has been followed by Ní Catháin who has been busy canvassing for Mick Barry (PBP/SOL) in Cork. Such an approach may not increase her awareness among Clare voters. “I’m not really too I’m not too concerned about that, to be honest. I think the main thing really is that I’m on the ballot. My political program is there, people can look up the socialist party if they like. I’m out at the protests regularly in Shannon, here in Ennis and also in Limerick. What I’m really more concerned about or what I care most about in this campaign, is putting forward an option for people. Do they want to go for this attractive program, that factors in housing, that factors in equality, that factors in genuine health care. And if they want to, they can do that. And one advantage with ranked choice voting is that people can put that as their number one. They can vote for what they really want and still vote for other candidates as well”.
Housing is “just the biggest issue,” she outlined. “We’ve got something like 4,000 children in emergency accommodation, and that doesn’t even actually cover the real state of the housing crisis or the real numbers of people in precarious housing. Buildings left vacant is an issue in Limerick and I think in Clare there’s twenty percent vacancy, this kind of vacancy and the housing crisis obviously come hand in hand. Given that, we know we are in an era of, you know, climate change, we should be thinking and we should be investing massively in the retrofitting of housing, we should be talking about, you know, CPDing of, vacant properties as an emergency measure right now, just given the current chaos of the of the private housing market, you know, since then”.
Caitríona herself in March of last year was served with a legal eviction notice. “I went to the RTB and I queried it and, the response of my landlord was to well, it was actually my rent was raised massively. I was paying a €1,000 for an annex, like, a tiny little annex onto another property that the landlord also, also, owned and, he wanted to raise it by €200, so, effectively €1,200 and I queried that with the RTB. The RTB contacted him, and before I knew it, I had an eviction notice, you know, coming through my door. Naturally I was furious and I was very lucky that the media picked up on my story but, you know, I definitely wasn’t the only person in that situation. Considering that at least, I had an okay job, I knew I was going to be fine. But I was still furious that I couldn’t just live near where I worked, you know, that should be a minimum for essential workers like teachers, health care workers. It shouldn’t be such a struggle to just find, you know, a very modest place to live”.
CaitrÍona Ní Catháin
Occupation – Secondary school teacher
DOB – 31/10/87
Party – Socialist Party (falls under voting block of People Before Profit/Solidarity
Top priority – Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.
