A Very Relevant Question Asked Of Sinn Féin

John Meehan ☭ writing in Tomás Ó Flatharta.

“Will Sinn Féin in 2024 still just be the “attack dog” of opposition, or will a vision of what it will look like in government be clearly articulated?” Una Mullally, Irish Times, asks a very relevant question.

In the early days of 2024 thoughts turn to the next general election in Ireland which will create the 34th Dáil Éireann no later than February 2025.

Before that, in May 2024, voters in the 26 county bit of Ireland elect local authority councillors and members of the European Parliament.

All reliable opinion surveys suggest Sinn Féin will be the biggest party after the next Dáil general election, and that the current FFFGGG (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Greens, Gombeens) coalition may stay in office.

The post here looks at relevant statistics :

Irish Elections Projections

Sinn Féin does not rule out coalition with the right-wing parties, and – once we ignore silly point-scoring – we can see that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens do not rule out coalition with Sinn Féin. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is explicit on this point :

Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin opens the door to coalition with Sinn Féin

The prospect of such a government should send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting supporter of the radical left in Ireland.

Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG), two tweedledum and tweedledee capitalist parties, have controlled every government running the southern 26 county bit of partitioned Ireland since a 1921 Treaty was signed with the former occupying power, Britain. A carnival of reaction followed on both sides of the Irish border.

Faced with a false choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the only rational policy for the left was and is: no coalition, on principle, with any right-wing party.

Colm Breathnach explores the issue very well :

Socialists and Coalition with Sinn Féin – Colm Breathnach, Independent Left

People Before Profit calls for a left Sinn Féin government excluding, on principle, any coalition with the right-wing.

But is this likely?

An increasing number of left-wing observers are noting a Sinn Féin move to the “centre” (I prefer the word “right”). The Irish Times columnist Una Mullally explores this issue (see the article below).

Mullally asks a very relevant question:

Will Sinn Féin in 2024 still just be the “attack dog” of opposition, or will a vision of what it will look like in government be clearly articulated? The spats and point-scoring episodes are boring people. Voters don’t like politics being played, they want to see its (positive) impact on their lives.

The writer then zones in on the November 23 2023 racist riots in Dublin:

An example of these pointless games was in the aftermath of the Dublin riots in November, when Mary Lou McDonald posted a photo on social media of a person drinking from a can on a doorstep near the school on Parnell Square where that awful attack occurred. This was ill-judged in many ways, not least because on this same square, Sinn Féin has had its head office for years. Was their leader not uniquely positioned to do something more seismic within that immediate community than merely tweet?

Many Irish elected representatives have added fuel to the racist fire by saying that communities have not been “consulted” over housing the homeless.

This “consultation” criticism of state agencies (some of which has come from left-wing sources) over housing people in Ireland who have no roof over their heads (no matter where they were born) needs to be dumped. It is NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) politics. In practice it means the far-right can organise protests at targeted buildings, normalises racist publicity, and makes it easier to burn homes for the homeless.

In this context the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald attacks the rights of Ukrainians in Ireland who have fled from a Russian genocidal attack on their country.

See Garrett Mullan’s response here :

The comments of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD on Ukrainian refugees in Ireland are a mistake

The depressing factor in all of this is that polling and electoral evidence continues to show that the racist far-right in Ireland is weak and very unpopular.

A number of mainstream politicians are aware of this factor, so contradictions are coming out into the open.

Councillors from the government parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are using the “consultation” excuse over the burning of housing for the homeless – but, to his credit, the minister for Higher Education Simon Harris is pouring scorn on these excuses for racist arson :

Fire broke out in the vacant Shipwright pub in Ringsend on New Year’s Eve, with gardaí confirming it was the work of arsonists. It had been intended to be used as accommodation for 14 homeless families.

The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) has defended the service after some local politicians said they were not told of the plans to create homeless accommodation at the centre. Fine Gael councillor Danny Byrne was among those to criticise the DRHE, suggesting the attack might not have happened if there had been “clear communication” about the building’s planned use.

His party colleague, Mr Harris, said communication with communities was “extraordinarily important”. However, he said: “I don’t believe that in and of itself would have made a blind bit of difference because the people who torched a building – not prejudicing the investigation – aren’t people who wanted better communication. They’re people who are spreading hatred. Irish Times, January 4 2024

“Whataboutery” and “attack dog” criticism of a government minister is not a useful response to Mr Harris. On this single important question his point is valid. And here is a follow-up point: Simon Harris knows that Garda boss Drew Harris favours a “hug-a-thug” policy towards the far-right – Drew Harris Hug-a-Thug Policing Policy. Yet Simon Harris, along with his FFFGGG colleagues, defeated a PBP and Sinn Féin no-confidence Dáil resolution which would have ended Drew Harris’s garda boss job.

It should be clear that the need for principled anti-racist policies is closely related to left wing activists and elected representatives ruling out governmental coalition with the right-wing capitalist parties.

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