'Ourselves Alone - Sinn Fein Behind Closed Doors'
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What sparked the discussion about Sinn Féin’s rise after the 2020 election?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Thank you very much, Eamon. Now, if you remember back to the time after the general election in 2020, Sinn Féin was riding high. It's only mistaken that election was not running enough candidates to capitalise on its popularity. So what happened between then and the next general election in 2024 when it came third behind Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael? Well, my next guest was working for Sinn Féin during those years and she has written about it in her new book, Ourselves Alone, Sinn Féin Behind Closed Doors. Siobhan Fenton, you're very welcome
to the
programme. Thank you for being here. Maybe if we find out a little bit about you and about your background, because you didn't come from a Sinn Féin supporting family, isn't that right?
Yes, that's right. So I would have grown up in Belfast and my background mainly would have been in journalism, mainly the British media. So I'd worked in London at the UK, independent as social affairs correspondent there. And then worked in Belfast for the BBC and for freelance for different media outlets, mainly British media, explaining some Irish politics, but primarily sort of Stormont politics and lots about Brexit at that time. So it would have been a different sort of background in terms of then coming to work for Belfast. For Sinn Féin, because as you say, it was that particular moment in time in 2020 where the party had just won such a huge proportion of the first preference votes, but hadn't run enough candidates and was seen as really being that government in waiting if they could just sort of hold tight for another four or five years until the next general election.
So it was an
exciting time for Sinn Féin when you came along.
Very much so. I think there was a huge sense of almost kind of giddy shock at what had happened because it had felt so unexpected within the party that the party, obviously for many decades, would have been a much smaller opposition party, seen as very controversial, but by some people a judicial in feigns. and historic past. And then all of a sudden there was this huge turn in support, partly because of the housing crisis and other issues, whereby it seemed that out of nowhere, over the course of a matter of months, Sinn Féin went from being quite an obscure opposition party to then being seen as the government in waiting. And that for the very first time, there was the prospect of Merrilee MacDonald as Sinn Féin president becoming the Taoiseach.
So at that time, it was a real sense of hope and excitement. But at the same time, people were you know, weren't taking anything for granted at all. It was very much the case that there was another four or five years to get free until the next election. The plan was run enough candidates and then finally have Marilee become the Taoiseach.
And how did you feel about Sinn Féin at that time? I mean, did you have any reservations about working for the party?
I did have some because I think, as you say, I don't come from a Republican background at all. My family wouldn't be particularly party political, but be very much kind of moderate nationalists who would have supported, you know, peaceful democratic engagement in the civil rights during the conflict period. And for me, I suppose, particularly as a journalist, everybody knows that Sinn Féin, there's a different kind of culture. Perhaps insular might be one term for it, particularly at that time. Although I do think that's been changing rapidly over the last few years, whereby people just don't know to what extent it's like internally within Sinn Féin compared to Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, where there's almost constant... Well, critics say it's not a
normal party and it's run by shadowy figures north of the border. Was that your experience?
That wasn't my experience at all. I think when I joined in 2020, there was a huge number of staff who were brought on and many of them would have come from backgrounds like myself, not particularly party political or not coming from Republican families, but people who were very much attracted by that idea of that progressive left agenda, being able to solve the housing crisis.
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