Cowen: “They might be ready for an election, but they are not ready for government”

One of the biggest questions being asked by the twitizens of the Irish Twitterverse on the day of the Donegal South West bye election was ‘how could 21% of the population vote for Fianna Fail?’… Well, if you have 45 minutes to spare, it’s worth it to watch the Taoiseach in action at Castlefin pumping up the troops… It’s extraordinary to watch a man who is usually so buttoned up and carapaced when dealing with the press lamming into all and sundry …

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Donegal South West: Emergence of Sinn Fein Nua?

Now whilst Donegal is not Ireland, for Sinn Fein this byelection victory has the potential to become a game-changing moment. They now have one of those two predicted Donegal seats.  In fact, Aidan Kavanagh’s Red C extrapolations underestimated Sinn Fein’s appeal to the Donegal South West electorate and exaggerated the strength of the mainstream parties. Pearse Doherty grabbed 40% of all first preferences, and 60% of all first and second preferences, something that’s previously been unheard of in the politics of the …

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SF win at a canter: Senator Pearse Doherty now Pearse Doherty TD

The Liveblog is still running but Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty has now been declared TD for Donegal South West. In a stunning performance he was elected slightly under quota as the two remaining candidates were unable to catch him. Perhaps the most encouraging factor for SF is Doherty was collecting transfers at high levels throughout all counts? Interestingly his final tally of 16,897, on a reduced turnout, isn’t far off the 20K that would have seen two TDs elected in …

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As Donegal South West goes to the polls….

Pretty much all of the Donegal world agus a bhean chéile thinks Pearse Doherty is going to top the poll with ease this time out. Since they managed only to scrape 8k last time out, that’s likely to be a game changing moment for the party. On the ground, Sinn Fein have run a pretty canny campaign. In contrast with the 2007 general election, there is little evidence of Gerry Adams on any of their posters. In fact they’ve put out …

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Red C: Doherty to take Donegal South West at a canter

A Red C poll to be published tomorrow will show Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty sitting on 40%  of the 1st preference votes in the Donegal South West constituency, some 21% ahead of the second placed Fianna Fail candidate. Perhaps just as interestingly, the Sinn Fein candidate would appear to be strongly positioned to pick up second preference votes, with some 19% of those polled stating they’d transfer directly to him following their first choice candidates. Whilst this is just an …

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The one thing worse than being talked about?

Interesting to see the responses to Gerry Adams’ hypothetical candidacy in Louth during the next, as yet uncalled, General Election. While all politics may be local, and the Donegal SW by-election will ultimately be decided by various local issues, Gerry Adams’ announcement managed to catapult Sinn Féin onto the front pages in the penultimate weekend of the campaign. Whether long-planned choreography, beginning with Arthur Morgan’s resignation, was unpacked by Pearse Doherty’s successful High Court action, is not likely to be admitted in the short term. In reality, …

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Swotting the SF challenge in Donegal SW and beyond

Firstly the threats and weaknesses. Obviously, Sinn Féin are, and are maybe always going to be, dogged by the legacy of the IRA’s role in the conflict. That’s not going to go away. At the same time the historical impact of Section 31 is probably still the mitigating factor when it comes to attracting transfers and Sinn Féin’s difficulty in converting first preferences into seats. It is often forgotten that Sinn Féin members were banned from the media under Section 31 of …

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