A new Ireland?

Suddenly, the Sinn Féin ends up with more votes than any other party in the Republic. What happened? They voted for Sinn Féin because they were fed up with high rents, housing shortages, and long hospital waiting lists. Their only alternative was to vote for the same two old parties that have been passing power back and forth for a hundred years, so they ignored Sinn Féin’s IRA links and voted for it anyway.

Mary Lou McDonald, left, and MLA Michelle O'Neill, pictured on Jan. 12, 2018, put it plainly last week after the results of the Irish election—'We are going to have a unity referendum.' Photograph courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

February 17, 2020

LONDON, U.K.—Bertie Ahern, who was the Taoiseach (prime minister) of the Irish Republic from 1997 to 2008, was a brilliant machine politician, not a nationalist or an ideologist. In fact, if you said the word ‘principle’ in his presence, he might have to look up the meaning. But here’s what ...

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