Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

I really am beginning to think SF won't be in the next goverment at all. Down South they really don't know how to work in a coalition in a cross collegiate way. They refused to get involved with Water charges, marriage equality and Repeal until the last minute. Their activists and reps often didn't really engage with cross party campaigns on marriage equality and Repeal. On councils Their council members are all whipped/instructed by HQ way more than any other party. In councils they rarely work together in cross collegiate ways. I just see them as being so obsessed with themselves in the 26 counties that they wouldn't have the first clue at all about how to be in a coalition government.

Yes, absolutely. They would have found a way - instead of relapsing into blaming others for their failures. It's the difference between professionals and amateurs.

If I can find another comparison; contrast the Nancy Pelosi speakership where she exerted iron control over a fractious caucus and got things done, versus the current Republican sh!tshow where they can't get anything done and keep trying to defenestrate their own Speaker! Professionals, Amateurs.

So the two main parties effectively lock them out, won't even enter negotiations and they are supposed to find 'a way'.

Waiting with bated breath to find out how they might have done that

Your job, as an allegedly serious party, is to find a way to get into government and enact your agenda. (if that's not the case, then what's the point?)

There was no real attempt to make this happen in 2020, despite being numerically the largest party. Maybe a little bit of self-awareness about this rather than seeking to reflexively blame other parties?

No one is "locking" anyone out of anything.

Not putting a tooth in it, but refusing to negotiate is effectively a lock out. Especially when someone is criticising them for 'not finding a way'. There was 'no way' when parties refused to talk.

At no point have I ever said they had a 'right' to govern either.

Mary Lou and Sinn Fein at work again, blocking apartments in the middle of a housing crisis

The party is a disgrace, how it is allowed for someone from Foxrock to bring the case with the help of Sinn Fein is beyond me

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/developer-loses-appeal-to-save-planning-permission-for-1593-dublin-rental-apartments-1612221.html

Wow, you think Sinn Fein are right to block houses 😂

Absolutely if it is bad planning.
Your Supreme Court agrees.

Don't bother quoting me, if I wanted to hear Sinn Fein propaganda I could find it myself

So just build anything you want where you want?

This objection was fully tested and rightly declined. Imagine the state of the country if you just allow a free for all. Ridiculous

Sending on Pearse with the faux outrage act to talk about immigration on the day Simon Harris took over was incredibly embarrassing.

What was the connection there?

Was there an embargo on talking about immigration because Simon was taking over?

Pearse Doherty is becoming a liability. Just the sort of bleak and unrelenting negativity that sums up SF these days. Shouting for 30 second TikTok videos. Found out the odd time he appears on tv or radio, especially with his very poor grasp of detail.
If I was Louise O’Reilly, Pa Daly, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire etc then I’d be thinking that it might be time for a new leadership. They don’t get to decide that obviously, but they surely realise the tide is going out with the current inner circle.

it was the voters who decided the make up of the current government.

Voters voted for 'parties'. They didn't decide diddly squat about the formation of the government because one of those parties was telling them they 'would never coalesce with FG' and the other was telling them that 'putting FF back in would be akin to putting Delaney back in charge of the FAI'. Seems to me that that has cost FF 5 percentage points or thereabouts and the 20% FG voters seem to be happy with the arrangement.

When SF was riding high in the polls at 34/35 percent then they were probably thinking about which constituencies they would run 2 or even 3 candidates in.

Funny, I thought they were thinking that when they achieved 24% in the GE not when they hit the highs of 34/35%. Was that not the big talking point - that they should have run more candidates.

Party president Mary Lou McDonald acknowledged that Sinn Fein might have done things differently with hindsight.

“I am advised I should have had a running mate in my own constituency, that’s for sure,” she joked, after topping the poll with lots to spare in Dublin Central.

“We certainly could have fielded another candidate, but hindsight is a great thing. I’m just delighted that the candidates that we did run have performed so astonishingly well and have come back so strongly.”

Sinn Fein’s Donnchadh O Laoghaire, who topped the poll in Cork South Central ahead of Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, was taken aback by the results.

“Yes I was surprised, that is the truthful answer, we weren’t expecting a vote like this,” he said.

Didn’t catch that. I tend not to listen to him these days. It’s not like he has anything new or relevant to say. Same when you see clips from the Dáil. There will be Pearse, ashen-faced, doing his shouting, pointing his finger, waving sheets of paper thing. It will be boring, abrasive and contain nothing new.