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Mary Regan

👤 Speaker
343 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

have any concerns about their past.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

That sort of shine, our gloss has gone off Sinn Féin now.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

And it seems that, you know, questions are being asked as to whether Sinn Féin is really a party of the left.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

And meanwhile, you have Social Democrats...

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

very strong amongst younger generation of voters.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

I really was delighted to hear that.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

A lot can happen.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

I remember the last election, the SOC Dems and Labour stayed out of government, really.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Labour in particular would have been a preferred partner of Fianna Fáil to form a government.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

They stayed out because they were eyeing each other and they knew that whichever one of them went into government would more likely reduce their seat numbers over the longer term.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Whichever of them stayed out would grow their seat numbers.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Sock Dems are growing in opposition.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Labour potentially, Helen Ogbu performed very strongly in Galway West as well.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

So they both might grow in opposition but in order to get into government they need Sinn Féin to make up the numbers.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Yet none of them seem too sure about whether Sinn Féin is really a party of the left from an ideological point of view or not.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

So we're kind of back to this whole question.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

It was always the case that the left couldn't get their act together to coalesce, to form a government, that there was too much in fighting between them.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

Then it seemed they rallied around Catherine Connolly and they thought, OK, there's a future here for an alliance of the left, for a potential government of the left.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

And it didn't really last very long.

The Indo Daily
Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB Indo Politics: Sinn Féin’s identity crisis, the Soc Dem surge and the growing battle over OTB

And then you had the Galway West result, a victory for Sean Cain, Fine Gael candidate, drawing comparisons to Noel Tracy, who won a by-election for the government back in the early 80s.