Small gains, big questions

A score of additional local councillors and the return of a European parliament seat for Dublin have offered comfort to Sinn Féin after a bruising election which has forced it to rethink its approach to the next 26 County general election.

Despite registering well over 30% support in some opinion polls last year, Sinn Féin emerged from the elections south of the border with between 11% and 12% of the first preference vote share.

From early tallies it was clear that some voters had been attracted away by a plethora of right-wing flag-waving independents, while the main coalition parties largely avoided a similar fate.

A sizeable number of transfers from running mate Daithi Doolan saw the party celebrate the return to Brussels of Lynn Boylan at the RDS (pictured, left).

But a decline of 12.6% in the party support since the last general election closely matched the increase in vote for independents and others.

Among the casualties were Sinn Féin’s sitting MEP Chris MacManus in Midlands-North-West, while prominent anti-imperialist campaigner Clare Daly also failed to secure re-election in Dublin

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she was disappointed with the party’s performance in the local and European elections, saying “it hasn’t been our day”.

Ms McDonald said she would review the results and that “everything is on the table”, but she confirmed her intention to lead the party into the next general election.

“We have made some gains. They are modest, but they’re there. It hasn’t been our day. Clearly frustrations and indeed anger with Government policy, on this occasion, has translated into votes for Independents and others,” she said.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin needed to reflect on the result and learn from it. “We will regroup. I am sorry we didn’t do better, I know that we can do better and I am determined that we will do better.”

With reports that the coalition government are planning to bring forward a general election to take advantage of the unexpected boost, the first task for Sinn Féin will be to win back those floating voters who backed them four years ago.

The results revived questions over the party’s organisation, personnel and decision-making, while several perceived missteps in the months before the election have also raised fresh questions around policy, strategy, and messaging.

“I will lead this reflection, and this process,” Ms McDonald said. “When the going gets tough that’s the point at which leaders step forward, they don’t step down. We don’t always get it right. We clearly have lessons to learn.”

Asked what those lessons might be, she said Sinn Féin needed to “sharpen our offering and our message” on key issues like housing, the cost of living and health.

“What we will and must do better is to give real clarity to the solutions and the plans that Sinn Féin has for all of those issues, not merely diagnosing what is wrong but very, very clearly and very energetically setting out our stall.”

She insisted Sinn Féin’s poor showing in elections south of the border will not dent the momentum of its Westminster campaign in the north of Ireland.

She said the party was “nailed on” for gains north of the border when the Westminster General Election takes place on July 4.

“I think the momentum that we have developed across the country is very strong,” she replied.

“And I believe that we’re going to perform really well in the Westminster elections. I think we’re nailed on for some gains.”

A move away from Hibernianism and republicanism towards a liberal, progressive and feminist agenda is yielding diminishing returns for a leadership now being attacked by its own supporters as ‘out of touch’.

The party was also seen to have alienated a large section of its own support by backing controversial constitutional referendums and maintaining a pro-immigration stance at a time when public opinion had turned sharply against.

Whispered criticism of incompetency and sabotage at a high level within Sinn Féin’s leadership have become louder.

Party councillor John Hearne, whose local popularity helped the party buck the national trend in Waterford, went public when asked what went wrong this week.

“Armchair generals don’t win elections; soldiers do, not some guy in a back room. We need to get out of these back rooms, with officers’ boards meeting behind closed doors. We need to get back to hard work. We were trying to be all things to all people. People thought we were spoofing,” he said

He said the party was “trying to be new Fianna Fáil” and was drifting away from its core values.

“People nearly thought we were in government and perception is everything in politics,” Mr Hearne said. “We need to get back to basics. We need to get back to our republican ethos.”

Mr Hearne said that in the last few years, some senior party members appeared to be “doing a lap on the pitch” as if Sinn Féin had succeeded in entering government.

But celebrations for the election of Lynn Boylan, who regained the seat she lost in 2019, were all the more energetic by the contrast.

Ms Boylan admitted that she was “exhausted” but added that she was “absolutely overwhelmed” by the support she received. She said she was looking forward to returning to Brussels and her work on the politics of climate change.

She was insistent that the party had a positive result. “How is it a bad election when we’re the party that increased its vote? Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael decreased their vote. They decreased their number of councillors. We’ve increased our vote, we’ve increased our number of councillors.”

In contrast, a dismayed Clare Daly criticised the mainstream media as she left the RDS following her defeat (pictured, right).

When asked by a reporter from RTÉ on camera if she would speak to them, Ms Daly said: “You’ve no interest in talking to me for five years, so I’ve no interest in talking to you.”

But she thanked her campaigners and supporters: “I have been honoured to have been able to use this platform as a powerful voice for peace, antimilitarism and neutrality,” Ms Daly posted on X. “This result is not a rejection of those ideas. It is testament to the success and reach of the work we’ve done that the establishment came out in such force to harm my chances of re-election.”

With counting ongoing outside Dublin, Lynn Boylan may soon be joined by Kilkenny-based Kathleen Funchion, who has gained from strong transfers to keep her in the top five in Ireland South, where Ms Daly’s colleague Mick Wallace is also in contention.

But only a miracle transfer can help either Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew or Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín take a seat in Midlands-North-West, where ‘Independent Ireland’ candidate and former broadcaster Ciaran Mulloooly looks set to take the last seat in a breakthrough election for the new centre-right party.

Elsewhere, there was good news for Aontú, which almost tripled its number of council seats and increased their vote share by a third. In the European election, it got its highest ever national level vote share in the 26 Counties at 4%, ahead of Social Democrats, People Before Profit and Labour.

Speaking on Newstalk, Deputy Tóibín said voters have appreciated the “common sense” approach of his party.

“One of the issues was the immigration issue,” he said. “We very clearly focused on the chaos of the government approach, but we didn’t push towards the extreme in any way.

“People have the right to live in this country with decency and respect. [We are] trying to reform the government’s positions but also making sure that we had equality at the centre of our politics.”

Other sitting republican candidates, Tomas Ó Curraoin of Republican Sinn Féin and independents Seamus Morris in Tipperary and Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig in Donegal were also comfortably returned in their respective areas.

Paddy Holohan, the poll-topping former Sinn Féin councillor and MMA fighter, now an independent campaigner, won seats in both Tallaght Central and Tallaght South. Holohan will now choose which seat he takes and nominate somebody to be co-opted into the other.

In the battle to be the first directly elected mayor of Limerick, Maurice Quinlivan of Sinn Féin polled a disappointing 10.5% and was eliminated in the ninth count. The contest was won by independent candidate, John Moran, a former Wall Street lawyer and investment banker.

EUROPEAN ELECTION RESULT (counting underway)

Fine Gael: 20.8% (-8.8%)
Fianna Fáil: 20.4% (+3.8%)
Sinn Féin: 11.1% (-0.6%)
Independent Ireland: 6.2% (+6.2%)
Green Party: 5.4% (-6.0%)
Aontú: 3.8% (+3.8%)
Labour: 3.4% (+0.3%)
Social Democrats: 3.0% (+1.8%)
People Before Profit: 1.8% (-0.5%)

LOCAL ELECTION RESULT (counting complete)

Fianna Fáil: 22.9% (-4.0%), 248 seats (-28)
Fine Gael: 23.0% (-2.3%), 245 seats (-90)
Sinn Féin: 11.1% (+2.3%), 102 seats (+21)
Labour: 5.3% (-0.4%), 56 seats (-1)
Social Democrats: 3.4% (+1.1%), 35 seats (+13)
Green Party: 3.6% (-2.1%), 23 seats (-22)
Independent Ireland: 2.8% (+2.8%), 23 seats (+10)
People Before Profit: 1.2% (-0.1%), 10 seats (+4)
Aontú: 2.1% (+0.7%), 8 seats (+5)

Of the 949 successful candidates in the local elections, the following are the successful Sinn Féin and republican candidates:

Carlow County Council

Andy Gladney (Sinn Féin)
Jim Deane (Sinn Féin)

Cavan County Council

Sarah O’Reilly (Aontú)
Stiofán Connaty (Sinn Féin)
Noel Connell (Sinn Féin)
Damien Brady (Sinn Féin)

Clare County Council

Tommy Guilfoyle (Sinn Féin)
Donna McGettigan (Sinn Féin)

Cork City Council

Kenneth Collins (Sinn Féin)
Michelle Gould (Sinn Féin)
Fiona Kerins (Sinn Féin)
Joe Lynch (Sinn Féin)
Ted Tynan (Worker’s Party)

Cork County Council

Eoghan Fahy (Sinn Féin)

Donegal County Council

Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig (Independent)
Jack Murray (Sinn Féin)
Terry Crossan (Sinn Féin)
Albert Doherty (Sinn Féin)
Michael McMahon (Sinn Féin)
Noel Jordan (Sinn Féin)
Brian Carr (Sinn Féin)
John Shéamais Ó Fearraigh (Sinn Féin)
Gerry McMonagle (Sinn Féin)
Gary Doherty (Sinn Féin)
Dakota Nic Mheanman (Sinn Féin)

Dublin City Council

Edel Moran (Sinn Féin)
Daithí Doolan (Sinn Féin)
Anthony Connaghan (Sinn Féin)
Leslie Kane (Sinn Féin)
Séamus McGrattan (Sinn Féin)
Mícheál MacDonncha (Sinn Féin)
Janice Boylan (Sinn Féin)
Máire Devine (Sinn Féin)
Kourtney Kenny (Sinn Féin)

Fingal County Council

Ellen Troy (Aontú)
Gerard Sheehan (Aontú)
Malachy Quinn (Sinn Féin)
Breda Hanaphey (Sinn Féin)
Angela Donnelly (Sinn Féin)
Marian Buckley (Sinn Féin)

Galway City Council

Aisling Burke (Sinn Féin)

Galway County Council

Tomas Ó Curraoín (Republican Sinn Féin)
Louis O’Hara (Sinn Féin)
Dermot Connolly (Sinn Féin)

Kerry County Council

Robert Brosnan (Sinn Féin)
Tom Barry (Sinn Féin)
Deirdre Ferris (Sinn Féin)
Paul Daly (Sinn Féin)

Kildare County Council

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Sinn Féin)

Kilkenny County Council

Stephanie Doheny (Sinn Féin)

Laois County Council

Aidan Mullins (Sinn Féin)
Caroline Dwane Stanley (Sinn Féin)

Leitrim County Council

Brendan Barry (Sinn Féin)
Róisin Kenny (Sinn Féin)
Cormac Flynn (Sinn Féin)
Padraig Fallon (Sinn Féin)

Limerick City and County Council

Sarah Beasley (Aontú)
P.J. Carey (Sinn Féin)
Sharon Benson (Sinn Féín)
Ursula Gavin (Sinn Féin)

Louth County Council

Pearse McGeough (Sinn Féin)
Joanna Byrne (Sinn Féin)
Eric Donovan (Sinn Féin)
Antóin Watters (Sinn Féin)
Fiona Mhic Conchoille (Sinn Féin)
Kevin Meenan (Sinn Féin)
Sionainn McCann (Sinn Féin)

Mayo County Council

Paul Lawless (Aontú)
Gerry Murray (Sinn Féin)

Meath County Council

Emer Tóibín (Aontú)
Dave Boyne (Aontú)
Helen Meyer (Sinn Féin)
Peter Caffrey (Sinn Féin)
Michael Gallagher (Sinn Féin)
Maria White (Sinn Féin)
Eddie Fennessy (Sinn Féin)
Fionnan Blake (Sinn Féin)

Monaghan County Council

Sinéad Flynn (Sinn Féin)
Pat Treanor (Sinn Féin)
Colm Carthy (Sinn Féin)
Noel Keelan (Sinn Féin)
Paul Gibbons (Sinn Féin)
Cathy Bennett (Sinn Féin)
Seán Conlon (Sinn Féin)
Bronagh McAree (Sinn Féin)

Offaly County Council

Sean Maher (Sinn Féin)
Claire Murray (Sinn Féin)
Aoife Masterson (Sinn Féin)

Roscommon County Council

Leah Cull (Sinn Féin)

Sligo County Council

Thomas Healy (Sinn Féin)
Arthur Gibbons (Sinn Féin)

South Dublin County Council

Patrick Pearse Holohan (Independent)
William Carey (Sinn Féin)
Róisín Mannion (Sinn Féin)
Niamh Fennel (Sinn Féin)
Louise Dunne (Sinn Féin)
Niamh Whelan (Sinn Féin)

Tipperary County Council

Seamus Morris (Independent)
David Dunne (Sinn Féin)
Annemarie Ryan (Shiner) (Sinn Féin)

Waterford City and County Council

Conor D McGuinness (Sinn Féin)
Donnchadh Mulcahy (Sinn Féin)
Catherine Burke (Sinn Féin)
Jim Griffin (Sinn Féin)
Pat Fitzgerald (Sinn Féin)
John Hearne (Sinn Féin)
Joeanne Bailey (Sinn Féin)

Westmeath County Council

David Jones (Sinn Féin)
Julie McCourt (Sinn Féin)

Wexford County Council

Jim Codd (Aontú)
Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Sinn Féin)
Aoife Rose O’Brien (Sinn Féin)
Tom Forde (Sinn Féin)

Wicklow County Council

Warren O’Toole (Sinn Féin)
Dermot ‘Daisy’ O’Brien (Sinn Féin)

Urgent Appeal