SINN FÉIN’S MASK SLIPS YET AGAIN

IF SINN FÉIN wants to be taken seriously as a potential party of government, it must start to take the electorate seriously, which is not how its Ard Fheis invitation to Valdrack Jaentschke, a senior member of Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime, comes across.

It cannot be surprised when reasonably minded people make judgements based on the company the party keeps.

Support for President Ortega’s brutal regime is not a matter of simple left or right-wing ideology. The Sandinistas have repeatedly proven themselves to be no friend of democracy.

As it savours the prospect of power, Sinn Féin should be more concerned with proving that the values of transparency and fairness lie at its core, rather than associating with a dictatorship guilty of human rights abuses. Voters will see this as nothing other than Sinn Féin’s mask slipping?