BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
Fermanagh Erne West Sinn Féin Councillor, Bernice Swift, who is currently suspended from the Party for publicly repudiating the Party's policy on policing, has resigned from Sinn Féin. She will now sit as an Independent member in the Townhall, alongside her former Party colleague, Gerry McHugh, MLA. He also stood down from membership of Sinn Féin, but continued to hold on to his seat, as an Independent.
Ms Swift becomes the third Fermanagh Sinn Féin Councillor to resign their seats on the present Fermanagh District Council in just over a year.
Poílin Uí Catháin (Erne West) moved first shortly after the special Sinn Féin Ard Fhéis early last year.
She resigned from the Council over Sinn Féin's changed attitude to policing, her seat being filled by Sinn Féin's Domhnaill Ó Cobhtháigh, Belcoo on co-option. She confirmed to the 'Herald' this week she had not been a member of Sinn Féin since she resigned.
Both Ms Swift and Poilin Uí Cathain were elected in May 2005 for the Erne West electoral area of Fermanagh Council which includes Belcoo, Garrison, Boho, Cleenish and Letterbreen, Derrygonnelly, Derrylin, Florencecourt and Kinawley.
Ms Swift has been working for Sinn Féin since 1981, helping out at the famous Bobby Sands election in Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
Until the recent changeover of committee chairmen, she chaired the Council's Planning Committee. In a statement this week, she said: "It is with disappointment that I believe I have no alternative but to resign from Sinn Féin".
The complaint filed against her by Sinn Féin's Cuige Uladh (Provincial Council) is that in the 3rd October, 2007 edition of the 'Fermanagh Herald', she had publicly repudiated Sinn Féin policy on policing, and the associated membership of District Policing Partnerships.
The complaint claimed that she had full knowledge that to do so was in direct contravention of established Sinn Féin policy and media protocols.
The Cuige further complained that, even after the intervention of Cuige officers on a number of occasions to point out the breach of Party policy and related media protocols, she had continued to repeat these public repudiations through the media.
Councillor Swift said her decision to resign came after the best efforts of both herself and her lawyer, Pat Fahy, to try and resolve her suspension from Sinn Féin by seeking an open, honest and transparent inquiry.
"These efforts have been constantly frustrated by elements within Sinn Féin pursuing an alternative agenda".
Countering the complaint against her, she confirmed that her suspension arose from her critical opinion given on District Policing Partnerships as expressed in the local media in October last year.
But, she submitted, that should have come as no surprise to anyone: "My opinions on DPP's and the present policing structures and Sinn Féin's involvement with them are well documented as I have publicly argued and voted in opposition to this move.
"I considered my position within Sinn Féin at the time", she went on, " but, in light of the appeal by Gerry Adams and others for unity and for those who were opposed to involvement with British policing to remain within the Party, I believed there was still a place for divergent opinion.
"I argued rationally on a point of principle with the aim of representing fully the sentiments of my electorate in delivering on a shared Republican vision.
She went on: "Unfair as my suspension has been, the ensuing disciplinary processes to which I was subjected breached natural justice and Sinn Féin's own rules and procedures.
"When considering the detail of the complaint made against me, there is an interesting contrast with the five male Sinn Féin Councillors in Strabane who publicly refused to sit on the DPP.
"My five colleagues went unsanctioned by the Party and were quickly welcomed back into Sinn Féin structures".
Ms Swift is Project manager of Fírinne which is now based at Market Street, Enniskillen. It works on behalf of victims of State violence, seeking clarification and redress. In that regard, she said she drew a certain irony from Sinn Féin's stance towards her.
"I challenge injustice and inequality on a daily basis. I will therefore, not accept the abuse of my own rights or those of the electorate by elements within Sinn Féin who profess to support equality and rights for all.
"I would like to assure all the people of Fermanagh that I will continue to work diligently on their behalf as an Independent Councillor. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many Party colleagues who have supported me throughout my suspension".
Councillor Swift is a native of Sandhill, Derrygonnelly. Apart from her electioneering work in 1981, it was her contribution on behalf of the victims of State violence in her role as Project Manager of Fírinne ('truth') that brought her to the fore, and selection as a Sinn Féin candidate in the 2005 local government elections.
Her primary interests as a local elected representative lie in planning and development for the economic good of Fermanagh, and the West generally.
She is a member of the working group of ICBAN, the Irish central Border Area Network and the group, West which comprises Councils west of the Bann.
