Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

Wrong try again.

You're shadow boxing here pal... same with the other guys.

My only point is FFG have declined over the longer period of time from making up the vast bulk of the electorate and Dail seats every election to less than half now. And it's telling that even when they join forces and transfer to each other, they don't even get a mandate of a majority of the countries votes or seats. That isn't sustainable for them long term and eventually will lead to an alternative government or at best ff hopping into bed with sf or another left party when the time is right to stay in power.

It's happening slowly but it's happening.

You are assuming that all the seats they lose will go to the left. For example they may have only gotten 4 seats but Independent Ireland were last one out in several constituency, so if FF or FG lost a seat there it's unlikely to go to a left wing candidate. I cannot see a government without FF or FG anytime soon. SF in government with FF is possible but otherwise SF will remain in opposition for decades.

It’s usually easy for a party that permanently sits on the opposition benches to grow since they never have to make awkward decisions. That hasn’t happened for SF but did for all the other opposition parties (in % of the vote terms).

And, this election result might well show that SF have hit a plateau. Their party faithful love them to bits but apart from maybe PBP no one else is a rush to embrace them.

Plus a lot of SF’s claims in recent years were that there is an “unstoppable momentum”towards them being in power in both the North and the Republic/a border poll/united Ireland. And, the problem with that is what happens if their “unstoppable momentum” train goes off the rails? Will the party faithful continue to hold faith if that “unstoppable momentum” stalls or goes into reverse?

I haven't said necessarily it will go to the left. It could go to the far right in the not to distant future but there is a vacuum being created. But more likely it will go to the left.

Look back at vote and seat share of elections gone by. Ff and fg have gone from 70% to just over 50 to the last two elections at 40%, in the minority. The left parties combined have gone from high teens to high 20s to over 40% in 2020 and the high 30s this time around. Its not certain, history has shown the future is unpredictable. But the slow decline in ffg has created a vacuum that the left parties have slowly filled. And to a lesser degree others

Thats possibly all true but I think we need to see over a longer period. And if they do stall or peak then hopefully they bleed into other left parties. It goes hand in hand with what I've been saying but not so long ago as 2002 or 2007, the total of all other parties other than ff and fg share of seats was pretty equal to what Sf along have won in each of the last two elections. And that's not too mention all the other parties on the left who've won't seats this time too. Also worth mentioning that sf were stuck on approx 5 seats around this time, mostly on border areas. This shows the scale of their growth but also the scale of the decline of FFG. So perspective is needed.

Having said all this I reckon they need to adapt and change tact and they need to work with the other left parties and vice versa. Their go it alone strategy has cost them

I never mentioned aontu or independent ireland or that they were far right but yeah I agree.

Yeah that is true in the sense that fianna fail have made quite a remarkable recovery after being decimated following the crash. If they continue to grow upwards then maybe they will reverse the decline of the ffg on their own.

You spent the last six months telling everyone here that the only correct comparison was general election to general election.

And where have I changed that opinion?

Your theory has been utterly blown out of the water. You were told that you had a prime example that LE's were different to GE's if you only looked at 2019/20 but no, you insisted SF's performance in the recent LE's was a marker for how they would do in the GE. You had others agreeing with you and predicting 11/12%. Embarrassing really.

Uncontained bias makes an unreliable analyst.

For goodness sake, you argued trenchantly that LE's could be compared to GE's.

As you have seen AGAIN, that is foolish and unreliable. Anyone could see via GE opinion polls that SF might lose support.

Forgot to mention your now poignant hopes for the Greens when the GE opinion polling was telling a different story too. Decimated as you were told multiple time they would be.

Shorthall and Murphy created the SD as a breakaway faction from Lab because they didn't want to compromise when in government.

Another version of that would be they left due to the treachery of the Labour leadership.

The electorate concurred and gave Labour the same medicine the Greens got this time. Have Labour learned the lesson? Remains to be seen - O'Riordan and Sherlock seem to have.

It would be moronic for lab or soc dems to go into govt again with ffg. The lessons are there to be learned from PDs, labour!! And Greens in previous coalitions. There to make up the numbers and be a mudguard for the gruesome twosome whilst they continue destorying the country. And their voters won't thank them for it next election.

More rubbish. Same sex marriage? Setting the agenda for the 8th amendment referendum? Do you think any of these would have happened without Lab ministers in government between 2011 and 2016? Their leadership knew what they were at, compromise and get some of their policies into action. New Lab leader seems happy to sit on the sidelines for the next 5 years. Shorthall and Murphy always were happy to do so, seems like Cairns is following suit. SD and Lab can't even compromise with each other.

Diluting your left agenda into the vast sea of FFG agenda just to throw away all your gains next election is a short term bone headed strategy and the worst of both worlds. Play the long game, have the left wing parties build their gains together over multiple elections and go in together as a coalition.