Sinn Fein gains popularity in Ireland through a desire for change

By Douglas Dalby

New York Times

DUBLIN >> Sean Crowe, a member of the Irish Parliament, has been around long enough to remember just how tough it was to attract votes when his party, Sinn Fein, was known only as the political arm of the Irish Republican Army as it waged a guerrilla campaign against Britain in Northern Ireland, only an hour’s drive from his Dublin constituency.

But after decades in which Sinn Fein was defined almost exclusively by its place in the often-violent conflict over reuniting Ireland, it appears to be on the cusp of rebranding itself as a more mainstream party in Ireland — and even to emerge as one of the primary voices of the left-leaning opposition.

Sinn Fein continues to be led by Gerry Adams, 67, who has been the party’s president since 1983 and has always been closely linked to the IRA even though he has denied being a member. Adams, who won a seat in the Irish Parliament in 2011, has sought to recast the party as one opposed to the austerity policies that have dominated Irish life since the financial crisis of 2009, and as a populist alternative to the dominant parties of the center right and center left.

Polls suggest that Sinn Fein has a chance of increasing the number of seats it holds in Parliament enough to become one of the country’s three biggest parties, along with Fine Gael, the center-right party that leads the current coalition government, and Fianna Fail, another center-right party. Crowe and Sinn Fein’s other candidates say the shift in public perceptions of the party in the last few years has been substantial.

“During the conflict there was a lot of negativity and abuse when I used to knock on doors, but now we are regarded as a serious alternative to the right-wing establishment parties who have governed this state over the years,” Crowe said. “People no longer see us as being at the extremes of the debate; they take us seriously on issues such as health care, housing, education and taxation.”

The IRA’s armed campaign in Northern Ireland and Britain long held back political support for Sinn Fein in Ireland. Against a backdrop of bombs, assassinations and riots, in 1987 Sinn Fein attracted less than 2 percent of the vote in Irish elections.

But by late last year, polls showed Sinn Fein running neck-and-neck with the largest of the governing parties, and although the latest polling suggests that it is heading into the election with somewhat lower levels of popular support, it remains strong enough that analysts give it a good chance of boosting the number of seats it holds in the 158-member Parliament into the mid-20s from 14.

The election on Friday is taking place ahead of the state centenary commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising, which is widely regarded as the beginning of the end for British rule over what is now the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Fein, however, is not relying on its nationalist credentials for an electoral boost but is campaigning on more contemporary concerns such as hospital waiting lists, rising homelessness and the introduction of water charges, which has become a rallying cry against austerity measures.

Three weeks ago, when the date for the election was announced, the smart money was on the departing, center-right Fine Gael-led government coalition returning to power on the back of economic recovery, falling unemployment and the lack of a credible alternative.

But polls have consistently showed voters willing to back left-leaning parties and independent candidates. Sinn Fein is again among those poised to take full advantage even though on some issues, such as law and order, it can be increasingly hard to distinguish its positions from more right-leaning opponents.

Sinn Fein’s opportunity comes at a time when populist, left-leaning parties are getting new looks from voters in many European nations where post-crisis austerity policies have left people hungry for change. Yet David Farrell, a professor of politics at University College Dublin, said it would be a mistake to lump Sinn Fein in with newer left-leaning, anti-austerity movements such as Podemos in Spain or Syriza in Greece.

“They may be cut from the same cloth politically, but Sinn Fein is not some new political force, rather it is a long-established party with all of the baggage that goes with it,” he said.

Like many political observers, Farrell said he believed that Sinn Fein was playing the long game, content to develop a power base over decades if necessary rather than enter a coalition government as a junior partner forced to compromise for the sake of power. He also believes that maturation may dull its radical edge.

“This time around, I believe they have far too high a hill to climb but they are still going to have a great election,” he said. “But it wouldn’t surprise me that by the time they are ready for government, Sinn Fein will have morphed into a more centrist party.”

The ending of the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland has certainly given the party a more mainstream appeal. Many of the party’s senior personnel are bright, articulate and youthful enough to allow voters to forget events before the 1998 Belfast Agreement that heralded peace in Northern Ireland.

Political analysts have long contended that the party will need to push these new faces forward and present accents from Cork and Dublin in Ireland rather than Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland if it wants to expand its voter base in the republic.

There has been little sign of this in the present campaign, which has been dominated yet again by Adams.

Adams, who swapped his West Belfast political stronghold to win a seat south of the border in County Louth in the last election in 2011, has again been the lightning rod for political opponents and sections of the media. He has never seemed comfortable arguing his party’s case on economic grounds, and time and again during debates his opponents concentrated on his association with events in Northern Ireland during the conflict rather than his role in ending it.

This extended to other senior members of his party who are also being dragged back to the past during debates about the present.

In a confrontation typical of the debate, the departing minister for health, Leo Varadkar, asked Sinn Fein’s deputy leader, Mary-Lou McDonald, on NewsTalk, a national radio station, on Wednesday, “Where’s my party’s legacy of people who were murdered or people who lost their mother, or bodies buried in bogs — or people who are still living today who are maimed, who still carry the scars and burns?”

“To hear Sinn Fein claiming credit for peace because they stopped killing people it is just unbelievable,” he said.