9am , Saturday 13th November 2010 - the Ard Fheis begins.
Although we had a two-day 'Visitors Pass' , we could only stay at the Ard Fheis for the Saturday morning session , as we had volunteered to assist in the collection of 650 raffle tickets from various locations around Dublin , and to attend the raffle itself , which was to be held in a different hotel to the Ard Fheis venue , on that Sunday afternoon. More on that raffle later.
Some of the Republican items for sale at the in-house Ard Fheis Shop......
....and more of the Republican items for sale. Such was the level of sales and orders placed that the two-day Shop practically paid for the hire of the Ard Fheis venue!
An assembly of seven 'Special Branch' operatives were kept busy at the entrance to the hotel and, as usual , they didn't distinguish between the hundreds of Republicans that attended the Ard Fheis and the hotel guests , and were observed 'talking to' the UTV camera crew that covered part of the proceedings today , Sunday 14th.
Messages of support for the Republican Sinn Féin organisation and for Des Daltons leadership of same were read out from the speakers lectern by representatives from CABHAIR , Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann , and similar messages were either delivered in person or read out on behalf of affialiated support groups and organisations in England , Scotland , Canada and America , to loud applause from the assembled Republicans.
Seán Sabhat bodhron.....
....and the 2011 Republican calendar , over a thousand of which were sold during the two days , with more than twice that amount being ordered. The RSF Ard Chomhairle announced that new RSF/Saoirse websites will be launched in the next few days , which should be better able to deal with the volumes of traffic being received -
'Web Development' talk.....
...and 'PowerPoint'......
...presentation!And the reason we had to leave early-
The raffle drum used in the Monthly Raffle, which was held today , Sunday 14th November , in a different venue to the Ard Fheis.A fund-raising raffle like the one held today has been held every month , by the same Raffle Crew , since the mid-1970's. As is usually the case , the full compliment of tickets (650) was sold. Please note that this was not the 'RSF National Draw' , for which thousands of tickets were sold , which was also held today , but in the Ard Fheis venue. For the record , here are some of the details of the eight winners of the monthly draw : 1st - Winnie , ticket No. 374 / 2nd Cathy , 10 / 3rd Anthony 144 / 4th Paul 123 / 5th Joe 473 Joe / 6th James 15 / 7th Sharon 410 and 8th Alana 445.
We'll finish this post by congratulating Republican Sinn Féin Poblachtach on a successful Ard Fheis, and by stating our belief that the 'Raffle Crew' we worked with today at the monthly raffle are a sincere and dedicated group of Irish Republicans ,as are those that were at the Ard Fheis , the RSF leadership and the many people that work 'behind the scenes' in ensuring that the whole operation works. They are a credit to themselves and to Republicanism !
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
