Dublin Central And Galway West By-elections - 22/05/2026

Sinn Fein are not left wing, really?

Jesus how far to the left do you have to be to consider Sinn Fein as right wing

There is an interesting discussion around SF and where it goes from here. You cannot describe their bye-election performances as anything better than disappointing.

The question around left versus right is prompted by the outcome of these elections, and particularly, the transfers. When there was another left-wing choice other than SF for a left-wing voter to transfer to, they chose the other party, and not Sinn Fein. I haven't gone through every count, but it is true of all that I looked at. When the Greens were eliminated in Galway West, more of their votes went to FG and FF rather than SF. Extraordinary, after all the guff about vote left, transfer left.

Then SF got more from Hutch than anyone else. In Galway West, Noel Thomas got more SF votes than the Labour candidate.

What does this tell us? Left-wing voters see SF as not left-wing, so they don't transfer to them in numbers. In relation to the Greens, there are huge questions about SF's commitment to fighting climate change, made worse by their stance on the carbon tax. Also, extreme right-wing voters see SF as right-wing and transfer to them.

If you are looking to make gains in politics, you look to where voters have sympathies for you, where you are getting number 2s and 3s, and try to turn them into number 1s. This is where SF have a dilemma. They are getting 2s from the extreme right. Do they chase that vote and lose some soft-left votes? On the other hand, they may not get anywhere if they chase the left vote and lose all those number 2s which could be very important in some constituencies.

Very interesting.

Unless she thinks SF are left-wing, she'll be 70 herself before it happens.

With the right/left split, there are many left-wing voters who will transfer to FF/FG rather than to Aontu/SF/II, we saw that in the bye-elections. Similarly, supporters of II will transfer to FF/FG ahead of PBP/Greens/SD/Labour.

The only party that doesn't transfer to government is SF, but they are mired in some existential internal confusion about whether they should transfer left or right. The leadership says left, the voters transfer right.

I don't need someone else to tell me that a party that dogwhistles on immigration, supports fox hunting and opposes very minor changes to abortion waiting periods is not left wing. It seems you do, and you're ignoring it.

SF have never been a left wing party. The SF we have now came from a schism over left wing politics (amongst other things), and they were not on the left side of it.

They are a populist party, and for a period in the 2010s, that populism made them appear left.

SF have spent that decade+ of claiming to be the best left wingers out there; but as their populist positions shift, that is becoming absolutely implausible. There's a very strong chance that once McDonald is ousted, whoever the new leader is will pull them to appear centrist or even centre-right. Wouldn't take a lot of policy changes at this stage, as so much is already lined up.

And they govern as a centre-right party in Northern Ireland to begin with, particularly in relation to agri policies.

What left wing candidate was there to transfer to at that point, exactly?

SF have never been far left enough to even try force horseshoe theory stuff on them; so this just shows me that you have a poor understanding of general global politics as well as a poor understanding of Irish politics.

Pointing out critical errors in your claims is not "throwing insults".

And generalities fall apart when left with a choice such as the last two in Galway West.

If you make full use of a STV vote, you use your latter preferences to vote against people as much as you ever used them to vote for someone further up. Labour - and the thousands of Green, SD, etc transfers - voters in Galway did that to vote against Noel Thomas.

That has absolutely nothing to do with left to left transfers further back in the count, where SF voters transferred rather a lot to Noel Thomas.

FFs historic objections to STV were because they were often voted against in this manner. SF supporters after the 2020 GE banging on about people getting elected on lower counts also came from much the same base, and I've seen II supporters pushing for FPTP now too.

Lab were the last eliminated so only the transfers to Kyne and Thomas counted, which was less than half of Ogbu's total of nearly 13,000. Of those, 4300 went to FG and 1300 went to Thomas/II, indicating a clear intent to keep out a far-right candidate which would be understandable for Lab voters. Incidentally, over 7000 of that 13,000 had already come to Ogbu from other mainly left-of-centre candidates.

Why would people who vote for Helen Ogbu, who came here as an asylum seeker, want to transfer to Noel Thomas, who has been hostile towards asylum seekers?

I would guess that they were voted that Helen received from other parties, who were transferring all the way down the ballot against the Government. Thomas ended up with the last preference as they held their nose.

Ireland needs highly qualified migrants to work in tech, pharma and health care where we do not have enough locally qualified graduates. We also need migrants to work in meat factories and horticulture where Irish people refuse to work.

Agree, just take a look at the infrastructure forum thread on Galway bypass and how Left and Green posters there sneer at the plight of Galwegians wanting to strangle the city (while importing a Galway city sized population in 2025 alone into Ireland)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2055413202/m6-galway-city-ring-road-planning-approved#latest

It wasn’t FFG who constantly objected and derailed the project

Left wing (current president)

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/elections/how-catherine-connolly-objected-to-major-galway-projects-including-bypass-new-school-campus-private-hospital-and-new-gaa-ground/a/132588770.html

Left wing again (Greens senator)

https://www.thejournal.ie/galway-ring-road-planning-quashed-5893405-Oct2022/