SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
SocDems see red over Sinn Féin’s use of purple
DON’T burgle our purple!
That’s the message from the Social Democrats, who have accused Sinn Féin of stealing their distinctive colour and using it on posters instead of SF’s traditional deep green.
‘They have used it as a backdrop on their posters in the last year – and last week I saw a Sinn Féin public meeting notice on a purple background,’ Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy told the Irish Daily Mail.
The TD added: ‘None of us own a colour, but parties use them to create a visual difference for the voters. Last year Sinn Féin began using purple as well as green, and I thought it might have something to do with the centenary of the Suffragettes winning the women’s right to vote.
‘The Suffragette colours were amethyst and emerald, and led up to women’s suffrage in 1918 [which was also Sinn Féin’s breakthrough election as a political party].
‘But here we are in a new year now, and I notice Sinn Féin still using purple, often on its own, which has been the colour of the Social Democrats since our foundation.’
She added: ‘I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, although I am surprised since Sinn Féin’s colour is green, as we all know.’
Ms Murphy said she had a long association with the colour purple, even before the founding of the Social Democrats.
‘I started using purple for posters when I stood as a Independent candidate in the Kildare byelection when Charlie McCreevy went off to become a European commissioner. That was in 2005.
‘It was a friend of mine who said you should use purple as a strong female colour. I passed the idea on to Róisín Shortall after she left Labour, and then it became the colours of the Social Democrats.’
‘And it is a strong female colour – people remember that Mary Robinson wore purple when she was inaugurated as the President of Ireland in 1990.’
As Sinn Féin continues to soften its hardcore republican image, purple is increasingly taking the place of Easter Lily green.
Purple featured on all Sinn Féin advertising for presidential hopeful Liadh Ní Riada last October – a candidate from the softer end of the republican spectrum.
No press spokesperson was available to comment from Sinn Féin yesterday, but Ms Murphy herself freely admitted: ‘People can use whatever colour they like. It’s a free country.’
Amid calls to limit the use of election posters, many parties came to the defence of the Social Democrats yesterday.
Solidarity TD Mick Barry said election posters are important and are ‘the poor man’s advertising’, adding: ‘We wouldn’t put them up if they didn’t work.’
Fianna Fáil TD Stephen Donnelly, a former Social Democrats member, defended his old party on RTÉ’s The Week In Politics – but noted: ‘It’s a shock seeing your big stupid head on the lampposts. It’s something you never get over.’
Independent TD and junior minister Seán Canney said: ‘Smaller groups would be disenfranchised if they lost the posters.
‘Some Tidy Towns groups ask that they not be put up, and that is happening in Tuam, for instance, for the locals [local elections next month]. It’s a talking point on the doorsteps as to whether you are looking older or younger than your posters. It lets people know you are running. It also gets children and young people asking questions about politics and democracy, and that’s no bad thing either.’
Meanwhile, the Social Democrats selected Gary Gannon at the weekend to be the party’s candidate in the Dublin constituency for the European elections.
‘It is a strong female colour’