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The Guardian 📰 Written by Rory Carroll. Recommended by Louth For Ever.

Party insider reveals how election campaign was blindsided by rise of anti-immigrant feeling in new book


For Siobhán Fenton, the dream of Sinn Féin winning power and leading a progressive leftwing government evaporated the day she was canvassing in Dublin and felt a cold, sharp sting on her neck.

She was in the passageway of a block of flats in the inner city, knocking on doors, and looked around for the source. Fenton, a media adviser to the party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, felt another sting on her shoulder, then another on her forearm.

They were coins, thrown from a balcony above, where a man’s voice was shouting. “Sinn Féin traitors!” he roared. “Mary Lou Mohammad! Ireland is full!”

It was May 2024, and instead of steaming towards victory in local and European elections – widely deemed a foregone conclusion, to be followed by a historic triumph in a general election – the party was experiencing a backlash fuelled by anti-immigrant sentiment in what was usually a bastion of working-class support.

The coins left Fenton with gashes and bruises that augured an electoral hammering.

Continue @ The Guardian.

‘Sinn Féin Traitors!’ 🪶 How Far-Right Rhetoric Derailed Party’s Path To Power In Ireland

The Guardian 📰 Written by Rory Carroll. Recommended by Louth For Ever.

Party insider reveals how election campaign was blindsided by rise of anti-immigrant feeling in new book


For Siobhán Fenton, the dream of Sinn Féin winning power and leading a progressive leftwing government evaporated the day she was canvassing in Dublin and felt a cold, sharp sting on her neck.

She was in the passageway of a block of flats in the inner city, knocking on doors, and looked around for the source. Fenton, a media adviser to the party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, felt another sting on her shoulder, then another on her forearm.

They were coins, thrown from a balcony above, where a man’s voice was shouting. “Sinn Féin traitors!” he roared. “Mary Lou Mohammad! Ireland is full!”

It was May 2024, and instead of steaming towards victory in local and European elections – widely deemed a foregone conclusion, to be followed by a historic triumph in a general election – the party was experiencing a backlash fuelled by anti-immigrant sentiment in what was usually a bastion of working-class support.

The coins left Fenton with gashes and bruises that augured an electoral hammering.

Continue @ The Guardian.
A Reader's Recommendation Books Sinn Fein And Immigration The Guardian

2 comments:

  1. Barry Gilheany12:18 PM, September 13, 2026

    Behind pay wall, Anthony

    ReplyDelete
  2. AM2:06 PM, September 13, 2026

    Barry - The Guardian is not behind a paywall . . . or is it?

    I'll email you a copy

    ReplyDelete

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