The accelerating fall in Sinn Féin support

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942510#Comment_121942510

that newspaper account isnt actually accurate but sure off ye's go with the gossip. Yes at the early stage they did vote yes on it, but that is because they had assumed their amendments would be discussed, which didnt happen. Also, great to see the lads again, telling us SF are going to lose votes. eggs and faces will probably the outcome again for those predictions (as usual).

"Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said they had not supported the Bill in the Seanad and had voted against it in the upper house last June.

"We had raised serious concerns with this legislation right through the process and had tabled a number of amendments," he said.

"The Government in its arrogance refused to listen, not only to Sinn Féin's amendment but also to the other amendments that were coming from the opposition."

My prediction is SF would do quite well in an election, now they've been deserted by the right winged 'ireland for the irish' crowd that came from ff/fg.

TheRepentent

only reason I'd vote for those populist w@nkers is I have never seen a magic money tree that sf surely have access to if they are gonna fix everything.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942510#Comment_121942510

They'll be canvasing in sandals they flip flop so much.

paddyisreal

Sinn Fein will get a boost in the polls because of their stance on this hate bill.i for one will vote for anyone against it. Fg, and ff not reading the room yet again.

seanin4711

Aontu getting my vote in future FFG/SF all the same!

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945227#Comment_121945227

Will they though? Will people who are so strongly against the bill that it will influence how they vote in a GE trust SF given their TDS voted in favour of it a year ago? Can such voters have any confidence SF would not turn again and come back with a similar bill if they are leading the next government?

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945131#Comment_121945131

The "right winged 'ireland for the irish'" is the SF base vote 😂

SF now trying to claim that was FF/FG voters coming over is hilarious

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945131#Comment_121945131

Easy for Pierce to say that now but they supported the Yes vote and Mary Lou shot her self in the foot by say she would run the referendum again when she got power, what ever backsliding she tries to do that is on record and a lot of people won’t forget that in a hurry. The party’s that in trouble are the greens and labour with such a poor leader who can’t speak without arguing and doesn’t do her self any favours, before the referendum The dail had forgotten about rural Ireland and didn’t think it mattered only woke Dublin was the be all and end all. They got their answer at the count.

seanin4711

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945309#Comment_121945309

you're the bull! you're the bull! you're the bull!

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945306#Comment_121945306

Considering SF are on the fringes of the loony left, I doubt they have many right wing supporters. I'm a right wing voter myself and wouldnt touch SF with a bargepole.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945337#Comment_121945337

Right wing, left wing, centre. Couldn't really care, it seems now everyone wants to know which "wing" you are in, only came about in last few years

But trying to claim that SF core voters are not the "Ireland for the Irish" is complete BS. They have always historically had that section of voters in Ireland.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945337#Comment_121945337

Their traditional base, i.e. the people who voted for SF before they attracted the left wing student types in the past few years would be quite conservative.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945131#Comment_121945131

Bigotry is part of SF DNA (see Conor Murphy as an example) . They chased the right wing vote with the likes of Paddy Holohan. That's the reason the right wing hate them all of a sudden. A lovers tiff so to speak.

rob316

SF are a party without a purpose. Mixed up in all these social issues that no one really cares about.

If they went hard on housing, crime and immigration they could sweep the next election but they have deserted their core base for going with the wind.

paddyisreal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945259#Comment_121945259

Which political party can you trust ? I will take my chances with any party who come out against this hate bill. In fairness also SF wanted amendments which the government decided to ignore.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945358#Comment_121945358

Left wing Ireland for the Irish would be a lot of SF core support both now and over the years. Not right wing.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945423#Comment_121945423

Yes, my uncle for example was a lifelong SF supporter, an ardent one. He died 20 years ago and would likely be shocked at what has become of "his" party now.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945500#Comment_121945500

SF wanted amendments which the government decided to ignore.

But doesn't this indicate they favour some sort of 'hate speech' legislation? If I was you I'd wait till SF rule out introducing any such legislation if they get into government before letting this latest move influence how you vote in the GE.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945777#Comment_121945777

By the amount of legal cases SF are bringing against the media they will probably try to make it illegal to be critical of SF

When you see how they use their online supporter to attack people online it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to me

padd b1975

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945581#Comment_121945581

So he was an ardent Marxist?

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945500#Comment_121945500

SF voted, to a man/woman, FOR this bill. https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/vote/dail/33/2023-04-26/51/

If they wanted amendments, that was the time to put the lámh in the air and say níl.

Why would you vote for something if you didn't want it in it's current form? No point voting for it and then trying to change it, they should have voted against it and said "we'll vote for it next time if you change X, Y and Z". The very definition of a populist party, caught with their pants around their ankles when their stance is going against the grain. They are backtracking and in damage control mode at the moment.

It is as clear as day that they DO want it, but all of the recent backlash means they're speaking out of both sides of their mouth (as usual), so that they can stop the hemorrhaging which is currently ongoing. I suspect that the recent referendum debacle means they want to distance themselves even further from the current Govt., but that's my own suspicions.

All the guff about amendments is just that, guff.

Augme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945227#Comment_121945227

You're one of the few though. The vast majority of people are far more concerned about the likes of housing, health, crime, immigration, education etc than some hate speech legilsation that won't impacts 99% of people.

Mick ah

That's the thing though. The hate speech bill will impact everyone (negatively).

Most people are just too ignorant to recognise that though.

iffandonlyif

It was often said that Ireland didn’t have a right wing because SF hoovered up the nativist, anti-establishment vote and channelled it towards an ostensibly left wing desire for a united Ireland. SF’s big success in the last ten years has been to preserve that base while attracting young, progressive voters (whose support was usually explained as being because of the housing crisis, but I think was at least in part because of a burgeoning Gaelic nationalism among the young -- e.g. the women’s football team singing Up the Ra, the trend on campuses of Gaelicising surnames, etc).

The seeming incompatibility between the two groups was said to be possible because the hardline nationalists were willing to overlook anything so long as they got their dream of unification. SF would also throw them a bone every now and then in commemorating Republican martyrs and kicking up a fuss over things like the since-cancelled RIC commemoration.

But now the party is stretched to breaking point by the immigration issue, on which one group is ultra conservative and the other ultra progressive. It seems SF have bled nativist votes to independents and Aontu. If the party chases them (or even just fails to advocate strongly for refugees), they will lose progressive voters to the Soc Dems and the Greens (or who will just not vote).

You’d love to be a fly on the wall at party strategy meetings.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945423#Comment_121945423

That traditional core gets them the ~5 seats they had in the 00s.

The original left wing of SF didn't go with the current SF in the 70s split; the majority of them ended up in Labour by the late 90s after the OSF->SFWP->WP->Split->DL->Merger setup.

Milominderbender

People have forgotten about the lead up to the last general election. Charlie Flanagan decided to have a commemoration for the RIC. Problem being the hated black and tan were also RIC members. The Wolfe Tones ended up topping the charts with a rerelease of their song "come out ye black and tans".

https://www.thejournal.ie/ric-cancelled-4956894-Jan2020/

Voters wanting to stick it to the west Brit establishment voted for Sinn Fein in droves. None were more shocked than Sinn Fein themselves. No hoper candidates ended up topping the poll ! One newly elected TD was even away on holiday.

All this was seven months after their disastrous European and local elections where they all but one of their MEP's and half their local councillors.

In 2020 they benefitted from their reputation as a nationalist party. Problem for them is that more and more voters are seeing that Sinn Fein would rather wave a Palestinian or rainbow flag than an Irish one.

ShagNastii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121946912#Comment_121946912

It'll be interesting to see how the Sinn Fein back benchers do in the next election. As you said there unbelievably are many that were geniunely caught completely off guard by being elected.

My own constituency had one elected. In terms of presence and impression within the electoral area it was been less than minimal. I haven't even seen nor heard the bloke that absolutely hockied Leo V to be first in the poll for West Dublin.

They have their Pierce Doherty's, Eoin O Broin's and Mary Lou can be very very impressive but compared to the other parties their experienced, well placed credible offerings aren't as deep at all.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945803#Comment_121945803

No. The very most of the support base, the very most of activists and most of those who were in the army were not Marxist.

Milominderbender

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947545#Comment_121947545

I wonder did Varadkar throw the election ? The black and Tan commemoration due to happen on the 17th of January was cancelled on the 7th. On the 14th a snap election was called for the 8th of February. Surely it would have been wise to wait until the controversy died down ? Varadkar's face was plastered all over the country despite he's unpopularity as a leader.

Dick phelan

SF want the hate speech bill. If they didn't they wouldn't have voted for it. But just like everything else SF will lie and just go with whatever is popular. They are the worst kind of politics, will sacrifice any principal they ever had for a chance at power. To quote Peter Hitchens about the Tories. These are my principals and if you don't like them I've got other ones. Sums up SF.