The wondrous adventures of Sinn Fein (part 3) Mod Notes and Threadbanned List in OP

Ah in fairness, Blanch the, 'successive governments ignored it, at least this one is trying' spiel would be more convincing if the current government parties weren't the very same ones that you claim ignored it.

I won't get too deeply into the IDA topic because I'd be veering even more widely off topic, but I have substantial enough experience with several of their board members to be comfortable in my opinion (though not enough of an idiot to not also acknowledge the substantial positive impact they've had). I agree it would be easy to include sustainability in their pitches regarding data centres.....the question then becomes why are they not doing this already if it is so easy.

I'm unaware of that SF promise. If true I'd characterise it as idiotic, like I do most of their policies. Though obviously it is preferable to fossil fuel dependence, I'm not convinced that on-shore wind is the answer to our problems whether within 2km of housing or not.

Putting politics aside for a moment, this is a totally inappropriate question for any "journalist" to ask any politician. I've never heard any politician being asked this question in recent times.

I would imagine it was asked in relation to their catholic bias up north, or have SF abandoned that finally?

Unsurprising that you are the one in defending this Ryan lad and justifying his question, a most ridiculous question to ask of any politician, irrespective of their politics. She really should have asked him how often he practices journalism.

Abe Lincoln comes to mind again

Of course (although I'm unaware of what their Catholic policies are, can you list them please)

On a day that nationalists were making a big thing about a sectarian headcount change in the North, the question was quite appropriate, though very clumsy, in showing the difference between religious adherence and political allegiance.

I'm asking have SF moved on from Catholicism influencing the party and policies and are now reaching out to all faiths. Given their history of alignment with the Catholic church, this would be a fair question to ask and is a question that was often asked of previous SF leaders (Adams and McGuinness, MLM is still an avid church-goer).

Then the question is how have they shown this, are they reaching out to protestants and other faiths for votes, how are they doing so? In the North they are predominantly supported by Catholics partly or mainly due to oppressive policies by the British Government they hoped to overturn.

They have split with the Church on a number of policies (abortion being a significant one), is this them abandoning their Catholic principles entirely?

Is there a specific Catholic only policy in place, I don't think they would list it, do they appeal to those of other religions? Not really thus far, why not? It will be part of them growing up as a party to move on from sectarianism, I don't think they have done enough here and scratching at the surface and seeing the actions of their members and supporters would also indicate this (even if this thread is becoming more Marxist as time goes on, the PBP budget matched their wishes more than SF will).

Or people can dance on the head of a pin pretending it doesn't happen.

I presume you didn't understand the question

OK so the SF Catholic policies aren't written down, but I presume you know what they are as you brought them up, so fill us in, start with a few

So, the armed struggle is relevant to Sinn Fein of today?

SF at sixes and sevens in their response to the budget. Looked about both Prime Time and The Tonight Show, where Pascal and McGrath destroyed Pierce and Farrell.

Pierce looked like a lost little boy, compared to the measured and composed Pascal, and Farrell looked like an angry student compared to the competent McGrath.

the party of crime and the party of criminals,

just and other organized crime gang

Will be a quiet day for the SF bots on here 😂

Not easy to defend the indefensible!

rant ?

just pointing out the glaringly obvious connections between sf and criminal gangs

i mean its hardy new, sf have been robbing banks and shooting policemen among other things for years and trying to justify it.

Have Sinn Féin moved beyond sectarianism along religious lines in the North? It would be great if they have...

Are they kicking out members engaging in such activities or still engaging in a "lessons learned" manner for them?

Do SF primarily represent Catholics in the North? Why? What policies have they put in place that causes that community to support them to the neglect of other communities? If they do, then the "mass" question and variants will continually be added.

My own opinion is that they are still mired in past struggles and are openly aggressive to others (particularly protestants), this has been tempered somewhat with a shift in the party in the South but still present as seen in the behavior of various councillors, TD and volunteer for them but is a move in the right direction. Rightly or wrongly, they are still seeing Catholicism as being a big part of their identity that they daren't drop in the North. Supporters can dance around that (as they are trying), but it would be good to see them move beyond this finally, even if it meant a large drop in their support in Northern Ireland.

However, you could also sum up their policies as whatever the DUP are for, SF are against, Europe being the biggest case in point when Brexit came along.

They have had a great ability to hoover up support from the left as they make a relentless push towards the centre along with pretending the North doesn't exist when talking about southern policy, it is good politics but not a good sign for a potential future government.

Or are we, on the SF thread, going to flat out deny where their support comes from and why? (my feeling is more attempted "gotchas" like this rather than attempting to debate why they get asked sectarian questions).