Sinn Fein's Southern Discomfort
Apologies for not blogging in a few days, but I have been spending a lot of time on the road, sampling opinions on Sinn Fein south of the border, then struggling with a variety of computers in order to get the material I gathered into broadcastable form for this morning's Good Morning Ulster and tonight's ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline at 6.30pm.
I didn't manage to talk to Louise Minihan, whose defection to Eirigi was reported in Saturday's but found former Sinn Fein councillor John Dwyer more than happy to talk about the reasons for his disenchantment.
John lost his seat on Wexford County Council but still sits on New Ross town council. New Ross was a port of departure for people escaping the famine 150 years ago and the scene of a bloody battle between the United Irishmen and British forces 210 years ago. These days it looks stable and contented, but like the rest of the Republic it has been hit hard by the economic downturn.
Whilst his constituents were suffering under the credit crunch Cllr. Dwyer felt his naturally left wing style was being cramped by what he regarded as his party's unwillingness to take on Fianna Fail. He thinks the Sinn Fein leadership were so anxious to get into power on both sides of the border that they morphed into a Fianna Fail lite.
Although John is not joining Eirigi, he predicts that the republican group will do Sinn Fein damage in future council elections on both sides of the border.
Questioned about Eirigi's intention to contest the council elections, Gerry Adams says he would welcome such a move. The Sinn Fein President professes to be unconcerned about the challenge. Both he and his Justice Spokesman Aengus O'Snodaigh point out that whilst the party lost seats in Dublin it made up for those losses with gains elsewhere.
With an Ard Comhairle meeting due in Navan on August 10th, Mr Adams insists that the Sinn Fein project remains on track. Asked about his own leadership Gerry Adams sighs and tells me (as he has done in the past) that he still has work to do and not to believe what is written in the papers by "columnists who were writing the same thing ten years ago".
At the same time Sinn Fein do have a problem - Mary Lou McDonald was promoted as a face who might appeak to southern voters, but has now twice missed out on getting elected, first to the Dail, then to the European parliament. The Sunday Tribune's Conor McMorrow told me that one of his Sinn Fein sources had confessed that maybe there is an aura of failure around Mary Lou and the party might have to look elsewhere for a southern standard bearer.
Over on his blog, Sinn Fein councillor seems particularly upset about Cllr. Minihan's defection because she was his daughter's godmother. It makes a change from the days when the media was always talking about republican godfathers.
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