{"id":502981,"date":"2026-05-26T06:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T06:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/502981\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T06:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T06:59:11","slug":"left-wing-parties-round-on-sinn-fein-over-policy-direction-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/502981\/","title":{"rendered":"Left-wing parties round on Sinn F\u00e9in over policy direction \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left-wing parties have rounded on Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> over its recent policy direction, raising doubts about the prospect of a future left alliance.<\/p>\n

Tensions between the largest party of the Opposition and others on the left, including the Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit, have grown in recent months, fracturing the tentative progressive alliance formed during Catherine Connolly<\/a>\u2019s presidential campaign. <\/p>\n

The results of the Dublin Central<\/a> and Galway West<\/a> byelections, won respectively by Daniel Ennis<\/a> of the Social Democrats<\/a> and Se\u00e1n Kyne<\/a> of Fine Gael<\/a>, showed many left-wing voters not giving preferences to Sinn F\u00e9in.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s recent stances it has adopted on the issues of migration and reproductive rights have drawn public criticism from senior figures in the other parties. <\/p>\n

Labour leader Ivana Bacik<\/a> said voters don\u2019t believe Sinn F\u00e9in is left wing, \u201cwhich is so evidently borne out by the transfer pattern in the byelections\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Leader of the left or left behind? Sinn F\u00e9in scepticism grows among progressive partiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Bacik said she wanted her party to form an alliance with the Green Party<\/a> and the Social Democrats, to negotiate equally with Sinn F\u00e9in, Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> and Fine Gael about a future coalition government after the next election. <\/p>\n

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy<\/a> said Sinn F\u00e9in has drifted to the right and needs to decide if it is going to commit to \u201cconsistently\u201d left-wing positions. Murphy said left-wing voters in Dublin Central were \u201cput off\u201d by Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s recent policy positions. <\/p>\n

Three Social Democrats TDs <\/b>said the party was taken aback by Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s recent decision to abstain on its abortion<\/a> reform Bill. \u201cI think it was a huge mistake, and we know it came up on the doors in Dublin Central from women voters in particular,\u201d one said. \u201cIt\u2019s an example of Sinn F\u00e9in not knowing who they are talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a growing concern within the Social Democrats about the hardening of Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s stance on migration<\/a>, including from Ukraine, its climate justice policies, proposals on taxation and position on animal welfare issues, including hare coursing and greyhound racing. <\/p>\n

Social Democrats politicians pointed to the transfer patterns in both Dublin Central and Galway West. <\/p>\n

In Dublin Central there were strong transfers from Labour to the Green Party, and from the Greens to the Social Democrats. More than half of the People Before Profit transfers went to the Social Democrats, with just under a quarter going to Sinn F\u00e9in candidate Janice Boylan<\/a>. Sinn F\u00e9in received significant transfers from veteran criminal Gerry Hutch. <\/p>\n

In Galway West, where there was a more formal vote-left pact, which included Sinn F\u00e9in, its candidate Mark Lohan was eliminated early before the votes of the Social Democrats and Labour candidate could be distributed. <\/p>\n

Within Sinn F\u00e9in, councillors and grassroots members have taken offence at comments about their party by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns<\/a>. Speaking at the weekend, Cairns said Sinn F\u00e9in \u201cmay be at a crossroads with a number of issues, that\u2019s a matter for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think they need to figure out where they\u2019re going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in caught between anti-establishment right and soft left in crucial transfers gameOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On Monday, Cairns further clarified her remarks and said one example was Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s recent abstention on a Social Democrats Bill seeking to expand access to abortion on medical grounds in Ireland. \u201cI think that\u2019s just an example of something where they don\u2019t seem to know what their position is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Those within Sinn F\u00e9in who spoke to The Irish Times have dismissed the criticisms, with a number of local representatives claiming the Social Democrats are either divorced from working-class communities or preparing to go into government with Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to take a lecture on left-wing politics from the Social Democrats, with all due respect,\u201d one Sinn F\u00e9in politician said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Left-wing parties have rounded on Sinn F\u00e9in over its recent policy direction, raising doubts about the prospect of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[28810,9,10,207345,1921,4767,211641,106968,18,13,14,4771,553,167920,92241,18577,6,47074,19,56,17,9170,166807,9171,11,12,15,16,16594,5,27172,27171,165094,47,18578,7,8],"class_list":["post-502981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-abortion","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-byelection","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-dail-eireann","tag-daniel-ennis","tag-dublin-central-constituency","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-galway-west-constituency","tag-gerry-hutch","tag-green-party","tag-headlines","tag-holly-cairns","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-ivana-bacik","tag-janice-boylan","tag-labour-party","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","tag-news","tag-paul-murphy","tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","tag-sean-kyne","tag-sinn-fein","tag-social-democrats","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}