Sinn Féin in the lead! FF & FG surprised?! What do you think? Exciting or scary times?!

[Housiemousie]

I have always been a Fine Gael voter. I'm from a long line of FG voters, many active in the party, who would be horrified by how much I want Mary Lou to succeed.

I really want to like Leo. He looks the part but he's not speaking to me. I am self employed in rural Ireland and neither FF or FG have sounded like they know I or any of my family or friends exist in the 20 years I have lived here (having worked abroad for a decade post uni). I even have a soft spot for Micheál Martin (who can resist a Cork accent) But I am not a farmer so he's not representing me either.

So why is Mary Lou so appealing? I couldn't even listen to Gerry Adams. Is it the fact that because she's not northern I'm not thinking IRA? Or because we really have moved past that , or is it that we are so, so sick of the entrenched fat cats of FF and FG that anything (well, almost, you can keep Aontu) will be better?

I'd love to hear I'm not alone in finding this upcoming election more exciting than previous ones.

@mathanxiety SF terrorist history is much more recent.

Do you see all the comments on Facebook etc, all the name calling from the SF supporters, homophobic comments as well about Leo. I saw an interview with Leo's partner and it was in Irish and I'd say 95% of the comments are saying he is drunk or on drugs. Their supporters are showing a scary future for Ireland

SF terrorist history is much more recent.

And indeed, not history but current affairs.

People will not tolerate being poor any more. Things need to be levelled out more. Like in iceland i think it was, the higghest salary 4 times the lowest. But we are going the other way in ireland.

"She’s not a bullshitter and I truly believe she’ll do her best."

What about when she said she has spoken to Conor Murphy and he'd told her he hadn't made comments that Paul Quinn was involved in criminality.

Then when the quotes were put to her she claimed she didn't recall them being so direct.

Why would she need Conor Murphy to tell her about the quotes if she recalled them.

A party of available absolute scum bags

Apileofballyhoo, I agree with your comment about SF's left credentials. I don't doubt their commitment to working class politics, but that kind of position is often socially/culturally conservative, esp re gender and race. The sectarian, rabid nationalist, anti-choice side we've seen in a few of their candidates/high profile supporters is not far from the Marxist surface, in my experience. I grew up in a VERY working class area, with a lot of SF support, and it was always like that - manly men talking to other manly men about manly men problems.

I think this swing to the left (though with the above proviso) is great in theory, but I wonder when the full results are in will it be as dramatic as it seems, or will SF have hoovered up seats that would already have been filled by left or left-leaning candidates (like left independents, or SD, PBP etc). We'll see. I'm not a SF voter, but I did vote left and transfer left, as directed :)

Well we are where we are. FG got slated for the Keep the Recovery Going slogan the last time out and they should have learned from that. I know people that are comfortably off, SAHM, the DH in secure, well paid, pensionable job, own decent size house, run a nice car and couple of holidays a year, private healthcare etc who voted SF last time round because of the homeless and the health service. Possibly former FF voters, I don't know.

Labour are a pile of arseholes. Mary Lou and the rest of SF have been all over media shouting about inequality for a long time now. People aren't happy about people dying on the streets. And people aren't happy paying huge rents.

It's been drummed into us that the crash was caused by greed at the top. But the cycle is starting all over again and there has been nothing done to stop it. No focus on housing and how to stop bubbles developing or at least controlling them some way. Emigrants can't afford to move home because of rent prices.

It's been traditional for FF to spend and FG to come in and fix it, to be thrown out when there's an upturn in the economy and FF to be in again. But people haven't forgiven FF this time and I'm glad. There was so much money and there's feck all to show for it.

If FG and FF go in together they would both be annihilated. Which would be no harm I suppose.

Did anybody hear about the industrial shredders?

What bothers me apart from the links to terrorism is a party that is used to breaking the law/making their own laws/links to non terrorism criminality. And no experience of running a country. That last one also applies to the rest of the left.

I thought we were finally moving away from the crookedness - I don't know what SF will be like. I hope to God they are not FF Mark 2.

could it be any worse?

It could if violence is triggered in the north on foot of a border poll.

It could if the tax revenue sources are depleted as business go under/leave or if high earning individuals leave.

It could if the country is bankrupted - again - since SF policies don't seem to understand the basic concept of a balance sheet.

Indeed, 3times.

I love the STV so much.

Mary Lou McDonald. She was on Pat Kenny this morning and she couldn't even remember Colin Party's name, she was so eager to boast about their close and meaningful meeting but she kept calling him 'Tim'.

Gives a whole new meaning to the expression "deadnaming".

I didn't vote Sinn fein but I can understand why others did. On paper Ireland is supposed to be doing great but the majority of people are not feeling it. People are desperate, living in hotel rooms, waiting years for a hospital appointments, cuts to disability... As a country we were willing to suffer during the crisis but now we are told everything is doing great but people are still suffering. Unfortunately Leo came across like Marie Antoinette with his let them eat cake attitude, also people don't trust them because they didn't deliver on what the promised in the 2016 election. Micheal Murphy is still head of the party who brought the country to its knees and people haven't forgotten. I just can't fathom how Sinn fein can deliver what they have promised. People have put their faith in them so I hope they deliver.

That'd be Micheal Martin who is head of FF ;-)

With a fada (but I've no idea how to type those!)

If you're on a phone if you hold down the key options should come up. If you're on a keyboard it's usually alt and the letter.

Let them off!
We can’t hold the majority of the population to ransom with terrible public services and a warped distribution of wealth because we’re afraid a handful of rich people will leave.

How will SF be responsible for violence around a border poll?

I’m sick of this kind of scare mongering- the status quo was unfair and not working for many people in our communities. We need change.
This video with Lynn Ruane sums up really well the issues around this election.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Ly-lE8xO4

Oh Jesus, I can't even blame auto correct. I knew it looked wrong, complete brain fog. 😲

I'm in Leo's constituency. The numbers that voted for the SF candidate are staggering and FF and FG got it terribly wrong but I'm genuinely uneasy about a SF government. Mary Lou is ex-FF and jumped ship, I have no faith in SF's economic policies at all. Yes, we need change, but I don't think SF can deliver the change that we need.

Proper big snorty laughs at the pearl clutching going on here. Do any of you know any Irish history at all? You do understand how FF and FG were birthed? You understand how ROI came in to being? It wasn't rainbows and unicorn farts but armed uprisings, bloody bombs and death.
For those sitting in judgement that SF's terrorism is more recent, answer me how long does it take for terrorism to morph into fighting for independence? Square that circle for me.
Dislike SF for their policies but spare me the faux outrage please.

Hear hear Steelasprey and BadEyeBri

I also live in Leo's constituency and the SF candidate, who has been a local councillor for some time, is extremely hard working and has built up a lot of support. Leo is not popular outside of Castleknock and Roselawn. Younger people in particular see him as being out of touch and not giving a toss about the issues affecting their lives. So I'm not that surprised by the result (though the extent of SF's win was more than expected).

I always thought ML was ex FG. FF makes more sense I suppose.

Is ML Michael Lowry ?

• if so, he was indeed ex Fine Gael.

As I said I'm heartened by a move to the left - it's SF's links with criminality more than terrorism that worry me tbh. Yesterday's terrorist is today's freedom fighter is tomorrow's politician srl.

I've seen a long history of FF having an utter disregard for the law. Not saying FG members and politicians are white as snow e.g. Michael Lowry. I just want to move on from that kind of culture. I really hope SF are too. I do hear that in NI if you go to your SF representative with problems you're told to go to the PSNI so there's hope.

How is Mary Lou's Irish? Always gave me great pleasure to hear Enda K and Gerry A speaking in the Dáil. Irish doesn't get much support from FG ever. One of the few countries in the world where it's difficult to do business in your native tongue.

Ml=Mary Lou

No I meant ML as in Mary Lou.

My problem with SF is that there are 2 iterations of the party.

The socialist party who wants to increase public services, provide housing etc as represented by Eoin OBroin, Pearse Doherty etc. I have no problem with them at all

The second is the 'Brits Out' old guard like Dessie Ellis who is a convicted terrorist and whose election led to a 'rebel singsong' in the RDS yesterday. I do not want those people in my government. That's not pearl clutching, that's expecting basic standards for public representatives.