Political World
Sinn Fein’s rising tide lifts all Euro boats
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
Anybody who is surprised at the strong showing of Sinn Féin in the initial polls last weekend has either been living abroad or was a guest in a Trappist monastery for the past twelve months.
On the evidence of what we have seen, the strong support for its three candidates will translate – at this stage of the game anyway – into three seats.
That’s an extraordinary achievement, given that one – Matt Carthy – is relatively unknown, and the other two Lynn Boylan and Liadh Ní Riada had no profile at all until a few weeks ago.
Neither has been a public representative and I know nothing about Lynn Boylan other that what she looks like – Sinn Féin has carpeted her poster all over Dublin.
I know she has done a few public appearances but I have yet to hear her speak.
She stood twice for the party before when she was living in Kerry but was unsuccessful on both occasions at a local level. I’m sure she’s faithfully on-message – like all dutiful Sinn Féiners – and is able to express herself.
I know who Ní Riada is. She was on RTE’s the Week in Politics a few weekends ago and acquitted herself well, more than holding her own.
But the point is that neither has any track record as public representatives. It doesn’t matter.
The Sinn Féin brand is strong.
I’m sure Sean O’Rourke bristled a little when a radio reviewer said you could put a monkey into Pat Kenny’s old slot on Radio 1 and it would get high ratings.
It’s not exactly as simple as that but it was always going to be easier for O’Rourke than it was for Kenny in a Newstalk slot that struggled for listeners.
Likewise, the Sinn Féin corporate brand is strong at present and the party knew that people will vote for it irrespective of who is the candidate. And in any instance you can bet your bottom dollar that its biggest current star will be wheeled out so often in Dublin that she will become in effect a proxy.
That said, it was still a bit of a risk for Sinn Féin to put up three people with low public profiles (Pearse Doherty and Padraig Mac Loclainn were the last two candidates in North West). But it looks like the strategy will pay off handsomely for the party.
It is early days yet, and as we have seen with such beauty contests – and they are superficial – the dynamics can change very quickly.
In the so-called Malin M50 constituency the main turn-up for the books is the strong showing of Thomas Byrne and the poor showing of the two Fine Gael candidates.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.