MORE POWER TO SHINNERS? RTE bloom in new show

Party is only real alternative ..but are they ready to lead?

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THE need for an alternative government has rarely been more apparent.

For a huge chunk of the population, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are relics of the 21st century — as meaningless as Rubik Cubes and fish on Fridays.

How many under the age of 40 will vote for either of the traditional big two at the next election?

The younger generation are looking at the prospect of never being able to buy a house. What shovels salt into the open wound is the fact that renting is beyond many of them too.

So they’re looking at a future of sleeping in their childhood bedrooms in their parents’ house heading into middle age.

Many of them weren’t — or aren’t — able to pursue their dreams, because the college courses they want to do are in Dublin or Cork where accommodation prices are beyond the pale.

Those who do get work are often on minimum wage, zero hour contracts with no security.

Landlords

They want a government who listens to them. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil — with so many wealthy landlords in their ranks — are never going to do so.

They are crying out for an alternative, and that’s why so many have turned towards Sinn Féin.

That doesn’t sit well with many who remember the Troubles vividly.

But the Troubles are meaningless to most of those under 40. Their concerns are concerns that were familiar to their parents. A roof over their heads, a job with some prospect of decent pay and maybe even a future promotion.

They want a different government in charge, and the only real alternative is

APPEAL: McDonald; (inset) house prices

on one led by Sinn Féin. T There are plenty — of a dif different vintage — who are th thinking long and hard about Sin Sinn Féin and how they feel f lb about tth them.

Can they move on from questions about Claudy, paedophile cover-ups, the Northern Bank or so many others that pockmarked the last 50 years?

And what will Sinn Féin actually do in government? In the North, they often have been quite conservative — taking a quite different stance on abortion rights to the party’s stance in the south, for example.

Sinn Féin expanded so rapidly that some of those elected last time out are pretty unimpressive.

They do have outstanding politicians like Mary Lou McDonald, Pearse Doherty and Eoin Ó Broin, but they need more of that calibre.

That the next election will be fought on issues first brought up by the Land League nearly 150 years ago is scary.

They are the issues that will likely put Sinn Féin in power. Then we’ll see if they can walk the walk.

WONDER: Liam O Maonlai and (inset) Brendan Courtney on new show Keys To My Life THE best ideas are often the most seemingly simple ones. And RTE have a gem in Keys to My Life, the series presented by Brendan Courtney. The premise involves Courtney taking a well known person back to places they’ve lived in over their years. It can be very revealing. On Sunday, it was the turn of Hothouse Flower, Liam Ó Maonlaí. At one stage, Ó Maonlaí mused on the amount of people who’d made a lot of money out of his band. But, at 56, he still rents. Says a lot about Ireland — and the industry.