GE2024 Ireland

After #GE2024 even in the south Sinn Féin remains haunted by its own largely secret northern legacy

Mick Fealty on December 16, 2024, 4:47 pm

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I’ve put off writing an analysis of Sinn Féin’s fate in the southern general election on Feynman’s principle that “if you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it.” I’m still not sure I do, so only time will tell if what follows is right. The party made two seat gains, but largely because of the addition of 14 extra seats in the 34th Dáil. All three of the larger parties lost vote share but Sinn Féin lost …

Election 2024: Exit poll suggests we’ll all be doing this again in another five years…

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2024, 9:10 am

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Counting is under way, so all we have at the moment is the exit poll. There’s just 1.6% separating the three main parties. But if the actual result is close to these figures it means steady as she goes for the next five years for the FG/FF core coalition. As Olivia O’Leary notes in the IT this morning, the voters aren’t eejits… 14.28 Update: 80% of the country tallied: FF 20.8%, FG 20.0%, SF 18.2% Mick FealtyMick is founding editor …

Election 2024: Sinn Féin should take lessons from Fianna Fáil on what civic republicanism can do…

Mick Fealty on November 28, 2024, 3:49 pm

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If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor. James, Sit Down After years of enduring glad handed propaganda about how well the Republic is doing (and economically it is) the testimonials of real people during the last three weeks of the election campaign show the depth of misery that many are currently enduring. Housing was the key issue in the 2020 election and it remains a huge issue, but it’s clear from various polls and many …

Showtime or substance: Head to head with Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin’s promises on all island futures look weak

Mick Fealty on November 21, 2024, 2:54 pm

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a circular light fixture hanging from a ceiling

This week in the Irish Times Fintan O’Toole asks why is this election so dull? There are probably several answers to that question, the most obvious being that in calling the shortest possible campaign period the government parties likely wanted that way. The other is that because of multi member constituencies Irish elections are esoteric affairs making it impossible to guess at how each party is likely to fare. Opinion polls measure at most first and second preferences nationally, not …