Another unsuccessful Sinn Féin candidate, Joanne Spain, disagrees with Eoin Ó Broin’s analysis of the party’s poor performance in the Irish General Election, as noted in the comments zone by Cruimh. As well as “the continued censorship of our biased media” – although the particular example chosen is somewhat contradicted by this online RTÉ report on the day of the press conference she hosted attended – the lack of success of “The Left” throughout Europe is mentioned as are other left independent candidates, Bríd Smith and Joan Collins – “If they are an example of the candidates that left voters turned to then I think we need to question our education of voters, not our policies”. And the main mistakes that are claimed to have occurred echo that dissatisfaction with the electorate
We had high expectations arising from our recent successes in the North. Perhaps we should have considered two things: first, that the North working out may have taken us off the agenda somewhat and second, that talking up the Assembly – a small parliament and something we consider not so important in the scale of our all-Ireland goal – may have been slightly naïve. Perhaps the main mistake we made in this election was that we expected society to move with us before it was ready to accept the progress that Sinn Féin has made and the new left alternative available.