DUP failure has lessons for Sinn Féin
FOR an accidental election, the northern bit of bother certainly provided us with a seismic result. And almost all of the smiles were of a Sinn Féin hue.
In one stroke, a four-centuriesold unionist hegemony was cast into the dustbin of history as the DUP prevailed over Sinn Féin by a single seat and just 1,200 votes.
So what are the lessons Sinn Féin could apply to the far tougher southern front?
The first is that the North is no longer quite so different a country as it once was. The result was a gentle revolt against tribalism and the old ways of doing things.
Ironically in that regard, the most useful lesson for SF was provided by their DUP enemies. It was not by accident that the current DUP leader Arlene Foster acquired the nickname of ‘Marlene’. Like the original in Only Fools And Horses, she was bossy, shrill, insecure and out of her depth wherever real sophistication was called for. But she was also utterly tribal and people did not like it. It is a lesson a SF party which is still too keen to work with a chip on both shoulders should learn. The result should act as a warning to SF to choose their next leader carefully and soon.
They may just have got away with Gerry Adams – and they won’t for much longer – but the next leader will have to be from the South.
There may be some within the upper echelons of Sinn Féin who prefer the slate-faced, lanternjawed Conor Murphy.
But if one of Mary Lou McDonald, Pearse Doherty or the rest of the southern charm brigade is not chosen, the ‘in power on both sides of the border’ plan will collapse.
Marlene (apologies, Arlene) may have provided Sinn Féin with another critical lesson courtesy of the support the DUP lost over their Brexit position.
In Ireland, the votes are huddled in the centre like sheep.
The southern electorate will always vote for the soft centre, rather than the hard left, and Sinn Féin will simply have to suck that up to thrive, rather than merely surviving.