How Sinn Féin rebranded to seize initiative
WHAT was unthinkable a decade ago has happened at the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections with Sinn Féin becoming the largest party at Stormont. How did this come about? There has been a transformation of Northern Ireland society since the 1990s and the Good Friday Agreement. The younger generation has no memory of terrorist violence.
There has been a process of social engineering with ‘progressive’ school curricula. Northern Ireland is no longer insulated from the outside world, partly due to global communications. Secularism is increasingly taking over from religion and Sinn Féin has adapted itself accordingly.
It conducted a slick election campaign, sweetening up republicanism, abandoning its origins as a proletarian party and reaching out across the socio-economic mix. This was reflected in the preponderance of middle-class, educated and professional candidates, which paid off electorally. The party embraced globalism twinned with political correctness, which is moving Northern Ireland away from tribalism with an affinity to youth voters who eschew the old guard, something that the DUP failed to address.
Unionism was outmanoeuvred by a rebranded political party that senses not all Protestants are opposed to a united Ireland.
It is not a question of if the United Kingdom, including Scotland, breaks up, but when.
Regardless of what you think of its agenda, Sinn Féin has seized the initiative.
DAVID FLEMING, by email.
SINN Féin’s dream of becoming the dominant party in Northern Ireland means they will now think they own the whole country.
There was a distinct lack of Irish tricolours being waved about at the count centres, did you notice? We are grateful for this at least, given that it is the flag of this republic and there is no right to exclusive ownership by Sinn Féin.
And to think they used to mock the SDLP because of its insistence that unity is not about silly things like the team colours being waved in everyone’s face.
It’s like a comedy up there, what with the rampant Shinners over the moon to be top of the heap in their British administration.
I’d love to see them taking up their seats in the Commons at Westminster, if for nothing more than to show the world they are British subjects in government over there, also. We can rest assured if Sinn Féin achieved the unthinkable overall majority vote here in the south and get into government at some stage, nobody with a properly functioning brain will take them seriously.
Perhaps Sinn Féin sees the days of armed madness as a ‘war of liberation’. It was not.
Many did their duty to this republic by pointing this out. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.
Truth of the war
OCCASIONALLY someone comes up with the real truth. Padraic Neary’s letter (Mail, Tuesday) sums up what could have been avoided if the US didn’t interfere.
The Ukraine president was prepared to talk with the Russians but the Americans encouraged him to fight with US weapons and money. Why? Because the Americans have a hatred for Russia and are delighted to see Putin get a bloody nose, but at what cost to the rest of the world?
The Americans did the same in Afghanistan when they backed the Taliban against the Russians. Later, when the US attacked the Taliban, the Taliban shot the Americans with US guns. There is full employment in US factories making weapons to kill Russians. The Americans are the cause of all the troubles in the world.
MYLES SULLIVAN, Wexford.
Mad money
ANDY Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait sold for $195million. On eBay you can buy a child’s paint set for about $10.
Which will do more for art: one painting, probably in a gallery, or about 20million children with a paint set each? The reality isn’t that simple, but it does suggest that the art market has lost the plot. DENNIS FITZGERALD, Melbourne, Australia.