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.

There's no point discussing anything with someone who doesn't know the basic facts.

His mother is from Dungarvan. Go off and do a bit of googling.

FFS there’s no arguing with stupid, but here goes: www.thesun.ie/news/4265492/leo-varadkar-grandmother-funeral-waterford/

By the way I think your intentions on this thread are dubious Nothing.

www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/meet-the-varadkars-handsome-beautiful-38-year-old-doctor-becomes-pm-of-ireland-1.3114419

What is heartening is that we are calling this bs out.

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out Nothing!

"Then I'll ask you whether a child with a single Irish parent is less Irish?

Catch yourself on!"

^^ This exactly.

Leo having one Irish and one non-Irish parent is irrelevant.

He is middle class and out of touch with working class or poor people (not all middle class people are out of touch but he seems to be).

The RIC debacle was embarrassing and has lost them votes but I don't think it was the main reason people voted for SF.

He is middle class and out of touch with working class or poor people (not all middle class people are out of touch but he seems to be).

Actually he’s very privileged upper middle class and he’s out of touch with most regular middle class people too.

Exactly playdead! I'll also add badly advised too.

Nothing, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe because you don't live here you are very out of touch

The Black and Tans issue was a sideshow and absolutely not why SF are doing so well. Anyone who lives here would see that

Agreed @chartreuse

Genuinely cannot believe that Gemma O'Doherty has found her way to MN, is this where she goes when they ban her on twitter??? 🤣🤣🤣

This is why SF are doing so well according to their candidate who is topping the poll in Dublin West.

Have I understood correctly that someone who doesn't live in Ireland is telling us which issues were foremost in voters' minds? And that it was really all about the fucking RIC commemoration? And that the polls asking about primary issues which named health and housing were just a nonsense even though every person in the country - regardless of voting intentions - understands the day to day lived impact of those two issues?

@Amara123 I read that article you linked with LV's parents and at the end his father says the only thing he wants his son to do is to make sure he takes care of the most vulnerable. I wonder how he feels about that statement 2 years down the line. Perhaps Leo needs to start heeding his father's advice.

Noel Grealish (aptly autocorrected to Freakish) , the independent TD in Galway West has been doing really well despite his claims that immigrants are spongers and crooks and was involved in the objections to Oughterards Direct Provision Centre (because of these "spongers" and crooks rather than the impracticality of Direct Provision. He did particularly well in Oughterard.

I find this surprising and upsetting. I would have thought Galway is a tolerant town (he also did well in the city) having lived there for a few years very happily among people of all nationalities. Is this an upsurge of nationalism?

@NoGravyForYou Yes his dad was a Labour voters in the UK. I believe after this interview he was not allowed to do any more!

chartreuse " We were just talking about the fact that SF didn't talk about a United Ireland at all."

I've just watched Gerry Adams give his first interview on RTE tv and the first thing he said ( or I heard) was that ".... we will be planning for a united Ireland........"

I think it's too soon.

Very sad day when people are voting for a terrorist party in such droves.

FF & FG should take the clear message from this that neither of their leaders are wanted by the public.

Bean, I said before that I think they've been brilliant at distancing themselves from their past. But I wonder if all those who voted for them may be surprised at what they are actually getting.

I just saw Gerry Adams on RTÉ too. The SF media people need to keep him, Gerry Kelly, Dessie Ellis (who has topped his poll) well away from the cameras.

Personally I think it's dreadful but I'm of a generation who remembers the trouble vividly.

Seeing the results coming through i think it would be strategically better for FG or FG to form a coalition with SF. History has shown that the smaller leftier parties get annihilated in follow on elections because they can't deliver on their agenda. If they don't then it is more likely that in the next election, which is not going to be in too far future, they will run more candidates and form a majority government with the left.

FF & FG should take the clear message from this that neither of their leaders are wanted by the public.

I don't mind the leaders, it's the lack of housing policies I've got a problem with.

Aside from everything else, doesn't PR and the STV make it all so much more interesting? I loves the quotas and the eliminations and the craic (transfer analysis).

Does anyone know the figure for turnout?

Re Noel Grealish in Galway - that's Michael D's old constituency and I think they'll also return Ind Catherine Connelly who is ex labour (Labour wouldn't let her run with Michael D so she went indy) so they're not all bad. It's some mix all right.

They're calling out cork south central. SF topped the poll surplus of 2000. Jesus.

Lovely scenes with the waving of the tricolours and a rousing 'We're on the one Road'.