{"id":510129,"date":"2026-05-30T09:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/510129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T09:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:34:16","slug":"sinn-fein-were-never-left-inside-the-political-splits-that-threaten-the-catherine-connolly-coalition-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/510129\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sinn F\u00e9in were never left\u2019: Inside the political splits that threaten the Catherine Connolly coalition \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the five beaming politicians arrived at Dublin Castle the day after the 2025 presidential election it looked like they could have been attending a wedding.<\/p>\n

Each of the leaders of the five left-wing parties were there to bask in the reflected glory of the election of Catherine Connolly<\/a>, their victorious unity candidate. <\/p>\n

Politically, the most important union being celebrated that day was a pre-arranged one: their decision to back a single candidate to defeat the two main Government parties.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> president Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> proclaimed it \u201ca victory for the combined opposition over the jaded, worn-out politics of Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael\u201d.<\/p>\n

For voters, this could be seen as beta testing for a future left-wing government, the first to feature neither of the two main political parties. The signal from the parties to voters was clear: if they could unite for Connolly, they could unite for a coalition government. <\/p>\n

Seven months on, the honeymoon of that October union is over. <\/p>\n

The May 22nd byelections, in Dublin Central and Galway West, to fill the seat vacated by Connolly\u2019s election, exposed fractures in that tentative coalition of the left. <\/p>\n

Long-standing concerns of both Labour<\/a> and the Green Party<\/a> \u2013 and more recent misgivings within People Before Profit<\/a> and the Social Democrats<\/a> \u2013 about Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s policies came into sharp relief in the aftermath of the byelections.<\/p>\n

These public criticisms potentially present insurmountable problems in the formation of any programme for government that might unite the parties of the left in coalition. <\/p>\n

\"IvanaIvana Bacik, Roderic O’Gorman, Holly Cairns, Mary Lou McDonald and Catherine Connolly at campaign rally at the Galway Bay Hotel on October 23rd, 2025. Photograph: David Young\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

While the biggest Government party, Fianna F\u00e1il, recorded an abysmal performance in the two byelections \u2013 failing to secure double-digit first preference vote percentages in either race \u2013 it was the internecine tensions on the left in the wake of the vote that has dominated political debate in the days since the results. <\/p>\n

The recriminations stretched back to last autumn\u2019s presidential campaign. <\/p>\n

Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who said her party has \u201cnever accepted\u201d that Sinn F\u00e9in is a left-wing party, this week hinted that she did not want McDonald\u2019s party to be part of the Connolly campaign. <\/p>\n

Asked if it was a mistake to allow a party that she didn\u2019t believe was left wing into the alliance, Bacik said: \u201cIt was the Social Democrats who brought in Sinn F\u00e9in at that point.\u201d <\/p>\n

She noted that it took Sinn F\u00e9in \u201csome months \u2013 it was the end of the summer\u201d before they finally came out to endorse Connolly, an Independent, in her bid for the presidency. <\/p>\n

This dynamic continued this week, when Labour invited only the Social Democrats and the Greens to agree a left-wing candidate for the upcoming Seanad byelection to fill the seat left vacant by Fine Gael\u2019s Se\u00e1n Kyne after his victory in the Galway West byelection. But the Social Democrats extended the invitation to Sinn F\u00e9in and People Before Profit. <\/p>\n

\"SeánSe\u00e1n Kyne, new Galway West Fine Gael TD, at Leinster House, Dublin, on May 26th. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

While Independent Ireland<\/a> was separately trying to blame Labour for electing Kyne on transfers in Galway West, Bacik took issue with Sinn F\u00e9in voters who transferred to Independent Ireland in the same constituency. <\/p>\n

When Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Mark Lohan was eliminated, more than 23 per cent of his available transfers went to Independent Ireland\u2019s Noel Thomas. Bacik said she was \u201cconcerned, frankly, about the Sinn F\u00e9in transfers\u201d that did not benefit Labour\u2019s Helen Ogbu.<\/p>\n

She noted there were more transfers to Thomas than to Ogbu, \u201cthe leading candidate on the left, and indeed the only black candidate, and we are concerned to see those transfers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if she was suggesting that there was an anti-migrant sentiment among Sinn F\u00e9in voters, Bacik said: \u201cI would never say that. What I would say is that Sinn F\u00e9in had clearly pivoted to the right on migration … clearly, their policies have pivoted right-wards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the debate this week about Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s left-wing credentials has focused on what some argue are more newly conservative positions on issues such as migration and abortion. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in this month was critical of a proposal by the Social Democrats to decriminalise abortion and liberalise access to terminations for medical reasons, despite having supported a more liberal People Before Profit bill on the same issue last December.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What byelection results say about the rise of right-wing parties and candidatesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But within both Labour and the Social Democrats, party sources said they were far more concerned about the parties\u2019 differences in economic policy with Sinn F\u00e9in. <\/p>\n

Sources in both parties cited Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s opposition to the universal social charge (USC), local property tax and the carbon tax. <\/p>\n

The parties also differ from McDonald\u2019s party on the VAT cut for hospitality and the nitrates derogation for farmers. <\/p>\n

Three Social Democrats TDs who spoke to The Irish Times shared anxieties about Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s ability to manage expectations of voters with the party\u2019s promise to increase public services while reducing taxes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really dangerous,\u201d one of the party\u2019s TDs said. \u201cPeople are really sick of voting for one thing and getting something else.\u201d <\/p>\n

Within Sinn F\u00e9in, some party figures are mystified about the fresh interrogation of their left-wing credentials. <\/p>\n

Asked on Virgin Media this week if her party was left wing, Roscommon-Galway TD Claire Kerrane said she had never been asked that question before. <\/p>\n

\"SinnSinn F\u00e9in TD Claire Kerrane. Photograph: Dara MacD\u00f3naill\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

During the Dublin Central campaign, Sinn F\u00e9in distributed leaflets which promised the party would \u201cmanage migration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some in the party are exasperated by what they see as soft-left parties, which are viewed as being inherently middle class, lecturing Sinn F\u00e9in about progressive politics. <\/p>\n

Pat Fitzgerald, a Sinn F\u00e9in councillor based in Waterford, said the soft-left parties can be guilty of a kind of \u201cchampagne socialism\u201d and that parties such as Labour and the Greens are \u201cmore prone to be lured into Government\u201d by Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael. \u201cWe should keep on track as best we can and keep going doing our own thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Within the parliamentary party, Sinn F\u00e9in believes that as a working-class party it has a duty to respond to the genuine concerns of working-class people, including concerns about immigration. McDonald previously told The Irish Times that she believed it was a \u201cclassic left-wing position\u201d to subscribe to a rule-based immigration system because a \u201cresponsible party of the left\u201d listens to working-class concerns.<\/p>\n

Daniel Ennis, the newly elected Social Democrats TD in Dublin Central, rejected the premise of this argument. <\/p>\n

\"SocialSocial Democrats TD Daniel Ennis at Leinster House with party leader Holly Cairns TD and Gary Gannon TD. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Ennis, who entered politics in opposition to a rise in anti-immigration sentiment in Dublin\u2019s inner city, said that it was \u201cabsolutely not\u201d the duty of a party to adopt a harsher position on migration in response to working-class concerns about immigration. <\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of my entry [into politics] was listening to our community, putting the helmet on, going into certain conversations wasn\u2019t the easiest. I\u2019ve been doing that, walking into family members\u2019 sittingrooms and kitchens, and speaking about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our job to educate and raise awareness around the lies that we\u2019re seeing online about migration.\u201d <\/p>\n

The challenge for Sinn F\u00e9in, which argues that its position on migration is informed by working-class voters, is that it just lost an election in Dublin Central, a constituency with significant concentrations of working-class communities and the Sinn F\u00e9in leader\u2019s own constituency. <\/p>\n

One contributing factor to Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s loss was not just a decline in its vote share but also its inability to pick up significant transfers from other left-wing parties.<\/p>\n

Green Party leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman said it was \u201cobvious that people who voted Green number one in this election looked at the other parties and they didn\u2019t see a home for themselves in Sinn F\u00e9in early in their ballot\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Murphy wants parties to agree certain policy positions. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

According to People Before Profit, the party saw a decrease in transfers from its party to Sinn F\u00e9in in Dublin Central compared to previous elections. <\/p>\n

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said he would like to see parties agree to certain policy positions before a left alliance agrees a transfer pact in advance of the next general election. <\/p>\n

Murphy said this would include \u201cnot to engage in scapegoating of asylum seekers, not to backtrack on women\u2019s rights\u201d and to agree not to join a coalition with Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael. McDonald has previously declined to rule out a coalition with Fianna F\u00e1il. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there needs to be give and take in terms of what those principles are, but there are bottom line points for us,\u201d Murphy said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there was a relatively high transfer rate between what people would generally see as parties who were saying \u2018vote left, transfer left\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think that can go even higher if you have a common pact, a common projection, and if you polarise the election to a choice: Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael, or the chance to get rid of them and have a left-wing government.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the five beaming politicians arrived at Dublin Castle the day after the 2025 presidential election it looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,211641,18,13,14,4771,553,18577,6,19,17,9170,9171,11,12,15,16,16594,5,27172,27171,34887,165094,47,18578,7,8],"class_list":["post-510129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-daniel-ennis","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-green-party","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ivana-bacik","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-roderic-o-gorman","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\/510129","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=510129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}