- Title: Sinn Fein struggles deal blow to nationalists' united Ireland dream
- Date: 21st November 2024
- Summary: DUBLIN, IRELAND (NOVEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RIVER LIFFEY VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF SINN FEIN SHOP JUMPER IN SHOP WITH PRINT, READING (English): “ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A UNITED IRELAND” T-SHIRT WITH PRINT, READING (English): “PARTITION SUCKS” POSTER FOR SINN FEIN LEADER MARY LOU MCDONALD SINN FEIN LEADER, MARY LOU MCDONALD, WALKING OUT AT CAMPAIGN LAUNCH MCDONALD SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) SINN FEIN LEADER, MARY LOU MCDONALD, SAYING: “We have committed to put all-Ireland working and the reunification conversation and process at the very heart of government. That's what needs to happen. And by the way, this is the direction of travel, really, quite irrespective of who is in government. Obviously, Sinn Féin in government is committed to all of these things and will bring certainly a momentum and an energy to the question of referendums and reunification, but the truth is that this is a live issue and it's on the political agenda for every single party.” DUBLIN, IRELAND (NOVEMBER 14, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SINN FEIN CAMPAIGNERS CANVASSING IN DUBLIN BAY NORTH WINDOW WITH SIGN, READING (English): “I SUPPORT A UNITED IRELAND” DUBLIN, IRELAND (NOVEMBER 11, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TEACHER, DEIRDRE NI CHLOSCAI, 30, SAYING: “To be honest, I kind of feel like Sinn Fein have taken their foot off the gas more recently. I think they had such a great opportunity after last year, they were so close to getting in, and then it kind of felt like they fell apart a bit. And while I do think a united Ireland is something that we still talk about definitely, and discuss, I don't think with everything else that's going on right now, it's number one priority. I think the housing crisis, I think everything that's going on in Palestine would definitely be more of a priority at the moment. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MUSICIAN, JOHN HENSHAW, 63, SAYING: “I think we're well overdue Ireland back to the people it belongs to. Our country needs to be united again. And I think it'd be a great for the people in the north too. And I think in years to come, I think eventually we will prosper because of that. Less division, just more people coming together.” BUSES DRIVING ALONGSIDE AND OVER RIVER LIFFEY SEAGULLS, PEOPLE SITTING ON BRIDGE, TRAIN DRIVING BEHIND VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING ALONG STREET CARRICKCARNAN, IRELAND (NOVEMBER 13, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SIGN MARKING BORDER NEXT TO MOTORWAY, READING (English): “WELCOME TO NORTHERN IRELAND” VARIOUS OF MONEY EXCHANGE CENTRE WHERE THEY CONVERT BETWEEN EUROS AND BRITISH POUNDS BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM (NOVEMBER 13, 2024) (REUTERS) UNION JACK MURAL ON WALL MURAL, READING (English): “LOYALIST EAST BELFAST” MURAL WITH FLAGS OF UNITED KINGDOM, WALES, ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND NORTHERN IRELAND TRIBUTE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II IN WINDOW UNION JACK AND NORTHERN IRELAND FLAG IN WINDOW CURB AND STREET LIGHT POLE PAINTED COLOURS OF UNION JACK PEACE WALL THAT DIVIDES PARTS OF BELFAST NEIGHBOURHOODS MURAL, READING (English): “ENGLAND GET OUT OF IRELAND” MURAL OF HAND WITH UNION JACK SLEEVE LIFTING NORTHERN IRELAND FROM MAP OF IRELAND MURAL. READING (English): “NO SOVEREIGNTY = NO CONTROL” LAWYER AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, SARAH CREIGHTON, DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, SARAH CREIGHTON, SAYING: “Irish Unity - I would be a wee bit wary of, economic reasons. I don't think, you know, anybody has a real plan for Irish unity. I think it will be chaotic. Being from an Ulster protestant background, being a unionist, I'm not sure where I would fit in. So it's not something that I would, I would support. But obviously the Good Friday Agreement says it's up to the people of Northern Ireland to decide. And obviously if people think that's the best thing for them, well then, you know, that's it.” QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST / HUMAN RIGHTS PROFESSOR, COLIN HARVEY DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUMAN RIGHTS PROFESSOR AT QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST AND BOARD MEMBER OF IRELAND'S FUTURE, COLIN HARVEY, SAYING: “You know, looking at what's happening at the moment, it's clearly an early pre-referendum phase. I think people are getting ready. Civic groups are beginning to mobilise on all sides of the argument and I think that's great to see.” PEOPLE WALKING DOWN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (English) STUDENT, OISIN KERR, 18, SAYING: “I’d vote for a united Ireland, being an Irishman myself, always have. My dad grew during the Troubles in Ireland and knows what it's like. So I've always been for a united Ireland, so I’ll be voting Sinn Fein in the election coming up.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) LECTURER ORIGINALLY FROM DUBLIN WHO HAS LIVED IN BELFAST FOR SEVEN YEARS, WILL MEGARRY, 42, SAYING: “What I'd like to see is communities on both side of the border doing as best they can and I think if that involves a grown up conversation about unification, then let's have that conversation. But it needs to happen both sides of the border, because I'm not convinced that people down south really understand how Northern Ireland works in the same way as I don't think sometimes people up north understand how southern Ireland works.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOMESTIC ASSISTANT, MAUREEN SIMPSON, 54, SAYING: “I'm not for Irish unity because I think it's taking away all the unionist traditions, all our beliefs, our history. They're trying to do away with Protestant Unionist history, as such as the flying of our flags, our orange order, the the 12th of July, you know, things like that that mean quite a lot to me.” CRANE IN HARLAND AND WOLFF SHIPYARD, UNION JACK FLYING IRISH FLAG FLYING IN REPUBLICAN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BELFAST
- Embargoed: 5th December 2024 07:01
- Keywords: 2024 Irish general election Irish reunification Irish unity Northern Ireland Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald election preview
- Location: DUBLIN AND CARRICKCARNAN, IRELAND / BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: DUBLIN AND CARRICKCARNAN, IRELAND / BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: Ireland
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001116720112024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Sinn Fein's polling collapse from government-in-waiting to likely also-rans at Irish elections next week looks set to rob Irish nationalists of a potentially transformative moment in their pursuit of a united Ireland.
Earlier this year, the party appeared on the brink of power in Dublin for the first time and set to totally change the united Ireland dynamic, placing it in government on both sides of the Irish border and ramping up preparations as it sought to force London to hold a referendum within a decade.
But a fracturing of the party's electoral coalition - in large part due to anger among traditional nationalist voters at its relatively liberal attitude to immigration - appears to have closed the path to power at the Nov. 29 election.
That could shelve for the foreseeable future Sinn Fein plans for a government minister for reunification, unity planning by both a parliamentary committee and a citizens assembly and for a diplomatic offensive promoting the goal at the United Nations and across the EU.
An Irish government led by Sinn Fein would drastically change the dynamics around Irish unification, said Colin Harvey, a human rights law professor at Queen's University Belfast and board member of Ireland's Future, a group that promotes debate around unity.
But a push for unification requires more than one political party, Harvey added: “Looking at what's happening at the moment, it's clearly an early pre-referendum phase. I think people are getting ready. Civic groups are beginning to mobilise on all sides of the argument and I think that's great to see.”
In campaigning in Dublin, there were precious few signs of such a coalition being built south of the border.
On a two-hour Sinn Fein canvass in one of its working class Dublin strongholds of Donaghmede - part of a constituency where it scored the highest vote of any party nationwide in the 2020 election - Reuters did not hear unity raised on one doorstep.
Instead, unaffordable housing costs and under-resourced state services dominated discussions.
"I do think a united Ireland is something that we still talk about definitely, and discuss, I don't think with everything else that's going on right now, it's number one priority," said 30-year teacher Deirdre Ní Chloscaí, walking by Dublin's main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street.
Sinn Fein's main rivals in the Republic have left unity as little more than a footnote in their election manifestos.
Prime Minister Simon Harris' Fine Gael devoted less than a page to Northern Ireland in its 124-page plan and favours a continuation of the outgoing coalition's much more gradual path to unity - in part by investing some of Ireland's huge budget surplus in Northern Ireland, where finances are more strained.
Harris main coalition partner, Fianna Fail, has gone a touch further, pledging to engage with other parties on how potential proposals concerning unity could be developed and pledging to invest another 1 billion euros in cross-border projects.
An opinion poll on Sunday put Fine Gael and Fianna Fail on a combined 43%, suggesting they could again reach a majority with a third smaller party. Both have ruled out governing with the left-wing Sinn Fein, who were on 18%.
That is a sharp change from a year ago when Sinn Fein on course to be by far the largest party at 35%, and either bypass their centre-right rivals or leave little choice but for one of them to act as a junior partner
Sinn Fein insists that the only poll that matters is that on election day - and that irrespective of the result, broad trends are set to deliver a united Ireland.
"We have committed to putting the reunification question at the very heart of government," Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald told Reuters. "But this (unity) is the direction of travel quite irrespective of who is in government."
Despite the relative disinterest, a large majority of voters south of the border support the ending of British rule in Northern Ireland in polls.
While polls show a comfortable majority in Northern Ireland favour remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed slightly since Britain's departure from the EU put unity higher on the agenda in a region where a clear majority voted to remain in the EU with the Republic of Ireland.
Other trends have also steadily moved the dial in favour of unity from Sinn Fein becoming the first nationalist party to lead the regional power-sharing government, to 2021 census data showing Catholics - who are more likely to support unity - outnumbered Protestants for the first time.
That is very slowly increasing pressure on the British government, which is obliged call a referendum if it appears a majority would seek to form part of a united Ireland, under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
"The truth is that this is a live issue," McDonald said.
(Production: Padraic Halpin, Amanda Ferguson, Marissa Davison) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None