Sinn Fein have now joined the LGBT-Multiculti Liberal Leftie brigade.

It is ironic that a so-called Catholic party is pro-Abortion, pro divorce, pro Gay.

Edited by PalazioVecchio (13 May 2020 7.29pm)

Sinn Fein have now joined the LGBT-Multiculti Liberal Leftie brigade.

It is ironic that a so-called Catholic party is pro-Abortion, pro divorce, pro Gay.

Maybe old-school conservative Catholic voters in West Belfast will need to vote DUP in order to get some old-school values.

And if you are a prod and a Leftie or Gay ? maybe you will cross the peace-line and vote Shinner ?

Sinn Fein nearly won the general election in the Republic. Without Gerry Adams they were far less caustic. So it looks like Gerry kept SF in the political wilderness in the Republic for at least a dozen years.

Gerry seems to be a political T-Rex. A violent obsolete dinosaur.

Edited by PalazioVecchio (13 May 2020 7.29pm)

Now that they have dropped violence politically they are similar to the SNP.

When there was the recent election result I found it odd that several of the major Irish parties refused to go into coalition with Sinn Fein citing their links with the IRA etc. It's odd because those same parties are fine with Sein Fein being in government in the north?

You left out kneecapping, indiscriminate bombing, and sectarian murder.

It's a complicated history that would probably require a lecture series on the history of Ireland in the 20th Century, but to cut a long story short:

The northern Sinn Fein party originates in the Civil Rights movement and then the troubles.

The southern Sinn Fein party can claim longer roots back to 1916 and then the War of Independence but, more importantly for politics today - and the relationship with the other Irish parties - is the Civil War where Sinn Fein in the Republic are mainly based on the anti-treaty side of the Civil War.

For Irish politics, that means that Fine Gael - who are the outgoing government have a deep-rooted animosity with Sinn Fein - as Fine Gael are essentially the pro-treaty, Free State government party originating after the War of Independence. They would have been responsible for the execution of (off the top of my head) 96 anti-treaty supporters - and the imprisonment of hundreds of others [a familiar story you might think]. The anti-treaty side also carried out assassinations of leading Cumman na Gael politicians (Cumman na Gael is the original name of Fine Gael).

The relationship between Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail is mired in a split within it's own party - with some Fianna Fail remaining staunchly anti-treaty and Republican, whilst De Valera and other leaders who followed, gradually removed that element of the party. At the time of negotiations for NI - Fianna Fail dropped the Republican claim to the North - further dividing them from Sinn Fein.

It is further complicated by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael being basically the same in policy - excluding any of Sinn Fein's social and political ideas and also originating in a split in a belief over the treaty - ostensibly over 'The Oath' (allegiance to the King/Queen and Commonwealth) . [to oversimplify it dramatically].

Sinn Fein has become a Left Wing, nationalist party in the North and in the Republic now - making the two parts of the party similar today but with different roots.

Some interesting points on current Sinn Fein are - they are essentially anti-EU but cannot comment too much on that. Whilst Brexit was going on they enjoyed berating that but paradoxically they would do the same; if they thought it possible. I'm not sure how pragmatic they are, as everything in their manifesto sounded too good to be true.

A summary would be: more social houses to tackle homelessness. No individual tax rises but companies and the rich were going to contribute more (not sure how that would work). The Health Service was to be sorted out somehow. God knows how - broken for a long time. Waiting list was over 600,000 before the Pandemic - there is no point in looking at it now, I would suggest.

I guess the main point for Irish politics is that people voted for Sinn Fein in order to get rid of the other two: FF and FG - who have imposed austerity through mismanagement and have handled the homeless crisis, in particular, with complete indifference, and before that the banking crisis. Then FG and FF have the balls to form a government between them - when they supposedly have opposing views - but obviously don't. I would think this will be the final straw for FG and FF and Sinn Fein have their destiny in their own hands for the next election.

Coming back to Gerry Adams - no-one really cares anymore - he's a side show now. It is a new, shiny, normal down-to-earth woman in Mary Lou McDonald that matters now - and she is very resonant with large parts of the voting public. I used to dislike Sinn Fein with Gerry Adams, so did many others, but it's quite easy to like Mary Lou - she seems tougher and less slimy [by a long way] than our other alternatives - including very much the incumbent.

If you can be bothered to read this feel free to lambast me on where you disagree. You will essentially be replicating the last hundred years of Irish political thought by arguing these points. Each party has it's own nuanced lines for this and most people strongly identify with one version of events, demonstrating their political bias.

I'll do a Zoom tutorial for you all later so take notes.

Thanks. Funny you should say that- I saw the same thing.

It reminds me of when Dessie O'Hare (The Border Fox) was hiding out, from the other Republicans due to an internal divide, down the road from me and he is on the other side of the political divide. I say reminds me of because so many used to get the two names mixed up.

The kids over here are emulating the South London gangs now - but I guess that's another thread. Fine examples to follow. Have you seen the latest? - point system for where you stab people - with accompanying Rap explaining the rules. But I'm off on a tangent.