āOur transfersā love it . Take #8 ye rogue
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Sinn Fein as transfer repellent as ever makes it tough for Boylan in Dublin with Daly hovering up votes. Hard to see where Andrews picks up votes with Fine Gael still short of a quota. It may be transfers from White/Gannon that decide FF/SF scrap, particularly with Cuffe already elected. Iād take Boylan to shade it.
I guess if Iām cornered Iād say Sf probably the least distasteful of the non-enviro parties . However thatās just my view. Iād say āscattergunā would be a reasonable political analysis of our likely dispersion
Because they more than doubled their number of seats. Considering how low they fell that was a more than respectable result
You seem afraid to call out Mary Lou when she is a worse leader than Micheal Martin and for the party you used to support
I think Mary Lou is a shit leader.
I think Martin is a shitter leader.
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Strange that youāre so worried about the Fianna Fail leader when youāve literally stopped supporting Sinn Fein because of the leadership of the party
Iāll call it
Mary Lou has been very underwhelming
Michelle OāNeill has been more impressive as a media performer - sheās a more fluent speaker
I think Sinn Fein are suffering partly due to the upturn in white ethno-nationalism in Europe and the US, despite them not being a right-wing party themselves
But I think a lot of people have turned off nationalism as a concept
Brexit and the perceived risk of another outbreak of the Troubles and the lack of a government in the North are definitely damaging them
Yes. Iāve stopped supporting SF because I donāt like the direction they are taking, Iām not interested in a populist party, Iām interested in a party that share my core beliefs.
I have already said I think Mary Lou is a shit leader, I said before that I canāt support the direction they have taken in recent years.
Martin has been a terrible leader for FF now, 8 years and theyāre in reverse again despite the current government presiding over scandals in housing, health and policing, they are one of the two establishment parties and theyāre losing ground on a government that is failing in many remits.
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You have a point and in many ways you do t
Aonthu are the future
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But FFās ārecoveryā was a dead cat bounce. They face 3 massive challenges that they cannot possibly overcome
1-Their core support was loyalty to a party that was anti treaty. An issue which endured for generations religiously but is non existent today.
2-That loyalty passed through generation s but broke when they fucked up the entire economy of Ireland for the price of a few games of golf for the pisshead Brian Cowen. So their hard-core is greatly diminished.
3-people felt sorry and let them back cos Irish people are sound. And foolish. But their hard-core is still dying out fast. Literally every day.
4-They are so scared of alienating their ābaseā that they have nothing to offer the modern voter.
True. But fine gael wanted more deregulation at the time, they wouldnāt have done a thing differently id wager but have kept power because they were lucky enough to not be in the hotseat and there were no other options. Sinn Fein? Gombeen criminals. People now see through fine gaels greed and will turn green as unless aontu rise miraculously theres no alternative
The only thing that is in the future for them is to peter out like Renua and descend into the depths of right wing conspiracy fruitcakery
Renua are finished so youāll probably see some candidates jumping ship and that will not be a good thing for Aontu
There is no market for this sort of politics in Ireland now
I totally disagree. O neill has been appaling. There is a vacuum of leadership. She has offered/pushed/created/initiated/forced nothing as a leader. She is Arlenes bitch. Given how offside Arlene and the dup are this is pathetic.
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I agree with all of that. Thereās no easy way out for FF. I donāt think anyone would have done any better than Martin over the last ten years or so. Theyāll continue to get votes in rural areas but its impossible for them to get back to what they were. A charismatic Dub as leader is their only hope long term
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Martin had a choice in the last election, he chose to become FGās bottom bitch. He has set the party back about 20 years.
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Another election with the exact same result would have helped nobody and probably harmed FF if anything
What choice should Martin have made?
Itās possible that you are correct. Its also possible that he saved the party from oblivion, for whatever the fuck that is worth. In fairness to F2f they have emphasised new blood and particularly female. But I think they just do t understand what it takes to get elected without massive underfunding party support and a local machine behind you.
Mary Lou is the party leader
A lot of how people perceive things is not what people are saying but whoās saying it
Fact is the DUP are totally stonewalling and have been for two and a half years
Like or not thereās nothing OāNeill can do about that - she hasnāt had a chance to show what sheās about politically
Media wise thereās no comparison - OāNeill is fluent, Mary Lou is a hesitant speaker
Optics like that matter
Mary Lou wants to make Sinn Fein the new Fianna Fail but thatās not why people vote for Sinn Fein
Fair enough Sid. Thatās your opinion. But your first sentence evwn illustrates how far she and sf have fallen. She used to be a star performer on the PAC. Ripping fellas to task and exposing FG hypocrisy. Sheās the opposite now. A contrarian whose actual observations we ignore due to her utter stubbornness and intransigence.