Tommy McKearney feels Sinn Fein were the big losers in the recent presidential election.

Sinn Fein is the big loser from the Irish presidential election. Presented with a golden opportunity to set itself out as the principal alternative to a Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour triumvirate, Mary Lou McDonald’s party offered the Republic’s electorate a package so bland that it blended in with the wallpaper.

Surely someone in Sinn Fein must now be asking how the Movement has strayed so far from its core base. Did they really think that they could succeed by wooing the middle-class, a strategy that failed miserably in the past for both Labour and the Workers Party?

The choice of Liadh Ní Riada was not the cause of their problem. It was the thinking that led them to choose Ms Ní Riada that lies at the heart of her and the party’s rejection. Misreading the political situation and believing that rebranding as a middle-of-the-road, conviction-less, liberal, soft on business but above all no-longer-Provo organisation would seal the deal was a major blunder.

Moreover, this misconception did not start with the presidential election. The party that was caught flat-footed at the beginning of the anti water tax campaign, has changed direction on the EU, with all that implies for its economic outlook. In a two-tier economy there is no middle ground.

Unable to decide which side of the fence to stand on has opened the door to the type of Trump-like populism that took Peter Casey from obscurity to winning 23% of votes cast in the recent election.

The need to continue constructing a dynamic socialist republican mass movement remains an imperative.


Tommy McKearney is a trade union activist and  author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection To Parliament.

Follow Tommy McKearney on Twitter @Tommymckearney   



Sinn Fein The Losers Party

Tommy McKearney feels Sinn Fein were the big losers in the recent presidential election.

Sinn Fein is the big loser from the Irish presidential election. Presented with a golden opportunity to set itself out as the principal alternative to a Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour triumvirate, Mary Lou McDonald’s party offered the Republic’s electorate a package so bland that it blended in with the wallpaper.

Surely someone in Sinn Fein must now be asking how the Movement has strayed so far from its core base. Did they really think that they could succeed by wooing the middle-class, a strategy that failed miserably in the past for both Labour and the Workers Party?

The choice of Liadh Ní Riada was not the cause of their problem. It was the thinking that led them to choose Ms Ní Riada that lies at the heart of her and the party’s rejection. Misreading the political situation and believing that rebranding as a middle-of-the-road, conviction-less, liberal, soft on business but above all no-longer-Provo organisation would seal the deal was a major blunder.

Moreover, this misconception did not start with the presidential election. The party that was caught flat-footed at the beginning of the anti water tax campaign, has changed direction on the EU, with all that implies for its economic outlook. In a two-tier economy there is no middle ground.

Unable to decide which side of the fence to stand on has opened the door to the type of Trump-like populism that took Peter Casey from obscurity to winning 23% of votes cast in the recent election.

The need to continue constructing a dynamic socialist republican mass movement remains an imperative.


Tommy McKearney is a trade union activist and  author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection To Parliament.

Follow Tommy McKearney on Twitter @Tommymckearney   



9 comments:

  1. Tommy your infatuation with quisling $inn £anny is concerning , you comment on their machinations like someone looking from the outside but really wishing you were in there , I mean why would any republican give two flying fucks other than be pleased to see those quisling get egg on their face,to analyse and dissect their performance in elections and proffer an opinion on the way forward leaves me confused ,they will go the way the sticks went eventually ie, implode ego,s and greed trumps all when it comes to carpetbaggers ,use your organisational skills and history into educating and building an alternative to the party that has fucked its core support , universal credit pips RHI sfi name it they have played their part, as the quisling were so fond of saying Tommy ,"move on" there is nothing worth lingering there for .

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  2. Marty - there are very few who have spent more time trying to chart an alternative to SF than Tommy and long before the rest.

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  3. I agree Anthony that's why I find it illogical why Tommy should do what extremely well paid quisling,s within that party are as said paid to do ie, analyse ,dissect and direct the leadership, the only advice I,d give those quislings is to fuck off ,the damage that they have done is beyond repair ,and that is what Kitson wanted from them ,Tommy has more important issues to deal with ,

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  4. The reason Sinn Feins relevance to Irish politics remains is because the country needs fresh political direction. Arriving in 2018 in the shape they are in is so bitterly disapointing given their once revolutionary origin. Sinn fein reserve the audacity to claim all the symbolics of a Republican organisation but in reality their reformist strategy is in opposition now to real Republican ideology.When you look at Irish politics on a whole has true Republicanism ever really been representative of the majority of the people or is a party which claims Republican lineage but actually being a centre or right wing organisation been what we really get. FF for example. SF really are just a new FF. Once power is in sight they will move mountains to get there. SF should have stayed out of the presidency race and backed Gemma O Doherty, she'd have caused havoc to their free state rivals and not a speck of dirt on SF. The lure of power caught them out again.

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  5. Marty - the extremely well paid functionaries in the party are paid to write and say great things about strategy and leadership, not to subject it to critical scrutiny as Tommy has above. This piece cuts to the chase.

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  6. Paddy - the last sentence of your comment captures it succinctly.

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  7. I think the title of this post sums the quisling party up perfectly, the Losers party in mocking both their performance and their lackless leader , I kind of get the feeling the bearded one would have raised a wry smirk at that result, but hopefully the core support will now start melting away like snow of a ditch , the poppy party might have hopefully shot themselves in the foot ,..

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  8. For Sinn Fein ever to get into power in the Republic of Ireland they will have to follow the lead of Workers Party/Democratic Left in 1992, Clann na Poblachta in the late 1940s and Fianna Fail in the 1920s and dissolve the IRA Army Council. For there can no place in the government of any liberal democracy for Ministers for State with links to private armies; with associated criminality. Simple really.

    I am all for transformative politics in democracies but from the grassroots upwards from social movements like feminism which seek to change the conversation; not secretive, unaccountable IRB type cabals.

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  9. I would also point out that SF didn't see the 2007/8 financial bank rip off coming either. That gave them an injection of relevance but their goose is getting cooked big time now with embarassing stunts after embarassing stunts.

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