Sinn Fein a ‘cult’ and ‘lining their pockets’ in power quest
DUBLIN councillor Mannix Flynn has described Sinn Fein as a “cult”, and alleges they’re “lining their own pockets” as they strive to become the most powerful party in the country.
An outspoken survivor of industrial school abuse, he says members of the party are not “political individuals” committed to liberating the downtrodden.
“They’re committed to making themselves the most powerful party in the country — once they do then they’ll forget about everybody — and that’s the way they are.
“They haven’t radicalised or changed any of the working class areas, neither have the Labour party.
“They started lining their own pockets entirely, we’ve all that evidence. I have no time for these people.
“These people have hijacked our communities and they need to be thrown out of our communities, and the lawful authorities of Dublin City Council should manage their estates properly.”
He blames a “dysfunctional system” for allowing Sinn Fein to gain a stronghold in working class areas.
He added: “The Sinn Fein promise of liberation is nuts. It’s a cult.
“You simply can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. They’re a highly disciplined organisation. They’re run along a military cult line.”
The seventh child in a family of 15 children, Flynn was born into abject poverty, and lived in a two-bedroom tenement flat on Dublin’s York Street.
“My mother sold fruit on the street all her life; my father worked for Dublin City Council as a road sweeper.
“We were hemmed in and pinned down. We were reefed off to school, surrounded by the guards, surrounded by the authorities, surrounded by the Church. We were hostages. We didn’t have that many choices in our life. We didn’t have economic choice, we were stuck in these situations.
“There was no contraception; it was child after child after child after child.”
Despite his humble upbringing, he insists the family never knew they were poor “until somebody told us and somebody stigmatised us”.
And it wasn’t long before he came to the attention of “the authorities”.
“They became part of our lives. As a result of not going to school, I became criminalised.”
Mr Flynn told the Paul Williams Podcast how he was sent to a number of industrial schools.
Shocking details of what went on in the institutions, including widespread abuse, have emerged in recent years.
Aged five, he spent time in Goldenbridge industrial school in Inchicore, run by the Sisters of Mercy, where children were “savagely abused”.
“My earliest memory of Goldenbridge was of absolute mayhem, horror and violence.
“This place was hell. All around me were children in dreadful states of distress.
“All around me, constantly, were children being beaten; children not being minded.
“It was absolute chaos. It was horrifying because I was separated from my sisters, brothers and my family.
“The Church went out there, and basically captured children, for their work forces.
“That’s the way it was,” he added.