The accelerating fall in Sinn Féin support

no great surprise the armchair uneducated SF supporters who 90% of the time knew not of what they were speaking about probably didn’t even bother to go and vote

wake up call from that mouthpiece Mary Lou and that horrible bully Pearse Doherty. Back in box

Possibly seeing his opportunity. Although I doubt he's popular with the inner council.

But Irish people don't want to vote for the far right - they want a legitimate Irish party to handle immigration properly.

Hence SF's failure to act as a safe vehicle for immigration/refugee restrictionism damns them with people who would welcome, as in Denmark, a left party that put the lid on mass inward migrations.

But if people who want radical change in immigration policy are just going to keep voting for the established parties regardless, then those parties are unlikely to institute that change…

Indeed not entirely free, much to the annoyance of some of the hard core lefties. Paying €25 a week rent for an A rated house which cost maybe 300k or 400K is definitely not free housing but its not far off. Add another €5000 exceptional needs grant to furnish it as well - yep, no such thing as free housing

SF housing proposals would be disastrous if implemented. Eoin OBroins 'expertise' is hyperinflated.

It's not a stable situation long-term but yes for now the established parties can defy the electorate on immigration on the basis that there is no viable party to replace them at present.

agree there is now a large floating vote which switches around, Labour picked it up under Eamonn Gilmore, Sinn Fein picked it up the last time, it may move again … Also agree re the hard right element, pleasing to see they didn’t make inroads, utterly negative, decisive and shallow narrative

Scum Féin is what they should be rebranded

You've been in Switzerland a long time is my understanding.

The refugee issue here is a real concern for people. It has nothing to do with blame and scapegoating - hence why people won't vote for the far right (including me).

People want an existing party, whether that is FG or SF, to handle the immigration and refugees issue properly.

It has nothing to do, from the general public's point of view, with the populist rabble-rousing of Trump, Brexit etc. You are the one who is confusing the situation.

Harris and FG have already started to recognise this in fact and pivoted their rhetoric and policy somewhat (though perhaps they are only feigning for votes?) but probably need to go further.

Only a complacent person would think that just the establishment parties not losing to the most outlier fringe-elements is a stamp of approval to just continue piling in masses of people with little care for the details.

O Broin is regarded as a classic useful idiot within the top echelons of SF. In truth, so is McDonald. These people are pushed forward to fulfil and electoral function in the South, i.e. soften the image of the party and make them more credible from a policy/ social perspective. That makes them 'the smartest people on the room' within SF circles, which in no way makes them the qualified for positions where being actually smart counts.

There have been numerous of this type tried by SF Young, idealistic, comic book republicans that are either very opportunistic or very naive. Forums like this are full of them and they dont even realise it. Tragic in a way.

The party would love to be in a position to run a 'real' republican like Padraig McLochlainn as nominal leader but are afraid ge won't wash in Dublin.

The softy SF types like OBroin will never wield any real power in the party however, because they have never got their hands dirty. You need the stripes, the years, the bodies. OBroin could have conceivably been seen as an heir to McDonald, but the big fact is that a catastrophic failure to covince people on housing will weaken his case. Either way, leader could change but leadership will stay the same.

Brian Gillen, Spike Murray, Martin Ferris, Eddie Copeland, Gerry Adams, Tom Murphy, Tom McMahon. It doesnt matter if its OBroin or MLMD on the poster, you are voting for these dudes anyway.

simple statement , no judgement here, but FF / FG supporters would be more likely to be older, therefore with perhaps a mortgage, better established in terms of their jobs, perhaps wealthier, in turn more likely to vote, thus parties such as Sinn Fein could conceivably see a lower turnout of its supporters. General elections have higher turnouts of voters over second order local / EU elections, thus it could be argued SF is likely to have a better turnout of some of,its support when that happens. Of course there are a bunch of other issues which are in play e.g. policy, candidates, strategy etc.