The current numbers for Sinn Féin are pretty poor in the Republic of Ireland (Northern Ireland is another story), so there's really no place to go but up, IMO. In the lower house they're in 5th place behind the Greens, in the upper house they don't have any members. So I wouldn't view them as much of a threat. It's like how the UK Independence Party focuses on anti-EU agenda constantly, and Sinn Féin focuses all their energy on an Irish Independence agenda. But since southern Ireland is already independent, why would anyone be motivated to vote for them? If Irish voters want looney socialists, they have a variety of other parties to pick from besides Sinn Féin.
I have some Irish ancestry on both sides of my family, but today's Ireland is so far removed from the potato famine days that I doubt there would be much connection to the island with today's Irish-Americans. Funny, since Cook County has such a heavy Irish-american population that irish names on the ballot always win.
The weird co-alition between the Conservative Party and the Irish unionists seems a little bit like we have here in the USA with the Puetro Rican statehood party (PNP) aligning themselves with Republicans nationally, even though in the mainland, you'd probably far more Democrat voters than Republican voters would support statehood for the island. Rather ironic.
” I wonder why the party names are in gaelic when most Irish doesn’t even use the language? Must be a national pride thing.”
Yeah, FF is all about national pride. FG is less concerned with that but their party name dates back to their civil war era founding. Their translated names would be stupid in English. They sound like militia groups rather than political parties.
They call their Parliament and Prime Minister by their Irish names as well.
I have some Irish blood too, (Grandma’s maiden name, Flynn).
Thing about the UUP is that while it’s officially center-right it must attract the support of left of center Unionists. They surely wouldn’t support the more conservative DUP. There is a “Progressive Unionist Party” but they are a tiny non-factor.
The UUP and Tories were joined together in the past as well, (the Tories themselves haven’t run alone in NI since the 1880s it looks like, Labour and the Liberals/Lib Dems possibly have never run there). The Tories have always been stridently unionist (but they are said to not understand NI politics, Cameron once wore his favorite green tie to a unionist event). In Scotland they are called the Conservative and Unionist Party.
With the rise of the SNP this position might actually hurt the Tories in Scotland with some voters. The SNP is lunatic socialist but a good # of their voters are right of center and voted Tory in the past. They are actually a merger between 2 parties, the “National Party of Scotland” (pinko) and “The Scottish Party” which was formed by Tories who supported having a Scottish Parliament (but not independence).
It’s way against the Tories interest to want to keep Scotland in the UK but Cameron does.