General Election 2024

[03,05,08]

Why do certain people in the south hate SF? They've never been in government to even justify the level of vitriol of some people. Is it the media bias? Or is it the fact they are connected to the north?

[Rossfan]

Nobody hates them, unless you're from the Hand, Clerkin, Stack, Kelly, Sheehan, Ryan, McCabe, Oliver families among others.

As for me I don't like their
holier than thou preaching of schoolmistress McDonald,
Unashamed populism,
Cut taxes and increase spending
Economic illiteracy
Their unashamed grab for fascist transfers in their manifesto
And while Clare Kerrane seems a fine person there are some total scumbags among their numbers

[Snapchap]

Who is suggesting SF won the election, Rossfan? Must have missed that post?

[Pub Bore]

Nobody hates them, unless you're from the Hand, Clerkin, Stack, Kelly, Sheehan, Ryan, McCabe, Oliver families among others.

As for me I don't like their
holier than thou preaching of schoolmistress McDonald,
Unashamed populism,
Cut taxes and increase spending
Economic illiteracy
Their unashamed grab for fascist transfers in their manifesto
And while Clare Kerrane seems a fine person there are some total scumbags among their numbers

Remiss of you not to name check the McConvilles for the full Southern bingo card of Troubles victims.

[Look-Up!]

For me this election was a decent one for SF. Ultimately they will have wanted power yes but it was still a strong one for them.

I say none of this as a pro SF person 

It depends on what your point of reference is. If looking at polls in the months before the election, then yes, they've done excellently and have recovered a lot of lost ground. They've also picked up two more seats than last time, but given the increase in the size of the Dail, that shouldn't be overstated.

If your point of reference is the previous election, then it would be reasonable to consider that there might be disappointment, or a sense of underperformance. Their first preference share dropped significantly, and they've failed to make inroads against the incumbent, inept, incompetent administration.

Can spin it either way. The reality of it is somewhere in the middle.

Didn't do the Greens much good. FFG are terrible coalition partners for any minority partner. Their part will always only ever be that of useful idiots, then thrown under the bus when it suits.

[naka]

Nobody hates them, unless you're from the Hand, Clerkin, Stack, Kelly, Sheehan, Ryan, McCabe, Oliver families among others.

As for me I don't like their
holier than thou preaching of schoolmistress McDonald,
Unashamed populism,
Cut taxes and increase spending
Economic illiteracy
Their unashamed grab for fascist transfers in their manifesto
And while Clare Kerrane seems a fine person there are some total scumbags among their numbers

Rossfan
Have no love for sf on their policies but jeez..
Would have loved you about after the civil war or during the war years .

[Pub Bore]

This might be worth a look

https://northernirelandscreen.co.uk/news/pogrom-bheal-feiriste-new-tg4-documentary/

"A new documentary from Clean Slate Television tells the story of a book written in 1922 that was deemed too dangerous to publish.

After violence broke out in Belfast in 1920 a Catholic priest, Fr John Hassan, who was based in St Mary's in Chapel Lane, began to collect accounts of what he witnessed and was reported to him.

By 1922, the Southern Government was planning to publish Father Hassan's report in a book, Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom 1920-1922, under the pen name G. B. Kenna. Yet not long before it was published, the Civil War broke out, and the Free State Government adopted a peace policy towards the Northern Government. The book was ordered to be pulped. Only 18 copies of the book survived. It was almost lost forever until one of the surviving copies was found in the 1990s."

"Adopted a peace policy" doing a lot of heavy lifting here.  Good to see censorship and abandonment of the North started right away in the Free State

[03,05,08]

Nobody hates them, unless you're from the Hand, Clerkin, Stack, Kelly, Sheehan, Ryan, McCabe, Oliver families among others.

As for me I don't like their
holier than thou preaching of schoolmistress McDonald,
Unashamed populism,
Cut taxes and increase spending
Economic illiteracy
Their unashamed grab for fascist transfers in their manifesto
And while Clare Kerrane seems a fine person there are some total scumbags among their numbers

I Take it you don't vote FF or FG on account of their connections to deaths in the civil war? Or is that past the expiry date and then it's okay?

[Look-Up!]

This killing is best before 12/8/69

[Look-Up!]

Nobody hates them, unless you're from the Hand, Clerkin, Stack, Kelly, Sheehan, Ryan, McCabe, Oliver families among others.

As for me I don't like their
holier than thou preaching of schoolmistress McDonald,
Unashamed populism,
Cut taxes and increase spending
Economic illiteracy
Their unashamed grab for fascist transfers in their manifesto
And while Clare Kerrane seems a fine person there are some total scumbags among their numbers

Doesn't stop the fascist loving blue shirts or gun running failers doing it.

[From the Bunker]

Why do certain people in the south hate SF? They've never been in government to even justify the level of vitriol of some people. Is it the media bias? Or is it the fact they are connected to the north?

Had great admiration for them a decade or so ago. The last 5 years they joined the mainstream, ran with the herd. They provided no opposition and look now to be a worse option to FFG. And that's bad. The United Ireland they want is not the United Ireland I'd want.

[Look-Up!]

Why do certain people in the south hate SF? They've never been in government to even justify the level of vitriol of some people. Is it the media bias? Or is it the fact they are connected to the north?

Had great admiration for them a decade or so ago. The last 5 years they joined the mainstream, ran with the herd. They provided no opposition and look now to be a worse option to FFG. And that's bad. The United Ireland they want is not the United Ireland I'd want.

Not saying I disagree with you but times change and so too everyone with it or get left behind. The Ireland we grew up in has changed immeasurably and if there is to be a united Ireland, expect it to be very different to what you might have envisioned. It will be shaped by our grandchildren and the grandchildren of unionists. And it might be no harm their views be very different to ours.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah I wouldn't be a fan at all tbh. I think a party like SF who have a clear goal of uniting Ireland need someone passionate about that cause rather than someone who is in reality a careerist.

I think they have done well enough that a leadership change is unlikely.

As leader Mary Lou has taken them as far as she can and secured the same amount of seats in the last two Elections. For the  2028 election they'll probably need a leader with a bit more charisma, Pearse Doherty next in line to take over if Mary Lou steps down?  don't think he has the necessary charisma either.

[gerrykeegan]

I can't take to Pearse. No matter what is put in front of him, it's wrong, should have done more, should have done less, shouts shouts and then shouts so more. I honestly thought he was better at the start. Maybe it's my old age.

[From the Bunker]

Why do certain people in the south hate SF? They've never been in government to even justify the level of vitriol of some people. Is it the media bias? Or is it the fact they are connected to the north?

Had great admiration for them a decade or so ago. The last 5 years they joined the mainstream, ran with the herd. They provided no opposition and look now to be a worse option to FFG. And that's bad. The United Ireland they want is not the United Ireland I'd want.

Not saying I disagree with you but times change and so too everyone with it or get left behind. The Ireland we grew up in has changed immeasurably and if there is to be a united Ireland, expect it to be very different to what you might have envisioned. It will be shaped by our grandchildren and the grandchildren of unionists. And it might be no harm their views be very different to ours.

Mary Lou got 11,223 first preference in 2020. She got 6,389 in 2024.

That's a loss of 5k votes! She got 57% of the vote of her previous run out.

Last time around she had nearly two quotas.

She has lost her mojo in her electoral area.

She does not represent a vast majority of them anymore.