Irish parliament set to meet on Thursday despite no party having a majority
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s taoiseach, has said he is prepared to lead his ruling Fine Gael party into opposition and to let Sinn Féin and other parties try to form a government.
Varadkar emerged from a six-hour meeting with Fine Gael’s parliamentary party on Monday night saying he “relishes” the chance to rebuild it from the opposition benches.
Continue reading...Sinn Féin president’s statement comes after senior party figures were threatened
Violent dissident republicans should disband, the leader of Sinn Féin has said. Anti-peace process renegades threatened the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, and veteran policing spokesman Gerry Kelly after they supported a recent recruitment campaign for new Catholic officers.
The party’s president, Mary-Lou McDonald, said they would not be deterred or intimidated by the gunmen. She added: “These people have no politics, no strategy and nothing to offer. They are at war with their community and are now threatening political representatives who serve the people.”
Continue reading...Decision leaves Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with choice of a deal or risking fresh election
Ireland’s largest party, Fianna Fáil, has said it will not consider going into government with Sinn Féin, a decision likely to prevent the leftwing nationalists from entering power for the first time.
It effectively leaves Ireland’s two dominant centre-right parties – Fianna Fáil and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael - with a choice of joining forces or risking a fresh election that could further boost Sinn Féin.
Continue reading...Mary Lou McDonald will talk to Greens and others but pact with Fianna Fáil is also possible
Sinn Féin has started reaching out to leftwing parties to try to form a ruling coalition but potential allies have said there are insufficient parliamentary numbers to produce Ireland’s first government of the left.
Ireland’s traditional ruling parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, signalled on Tuesday that they would give Sinn Féin’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald, time to try to forge a rainbow alliance in recognition of her party’s stunning general election results.
Continue reading...For almost a century, political power in Ireland has been held by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The two centrist parties have ruled in some form or another, be it through coalitions or confidence-and-supply arrangements with other smaller parties. Saturday’s general election has upended this political duopoly.
Sinn Féin topped the poll in first-preference votes for the first time, with a share of 24.5%. Fianna Fáil received 22.2%, while Fine Gael, in government since 2011, came third with 20.9%. Under Ireland’s proportional representation voting system, it will take several days for the calculations to be made to establish exactly how many seats each party will win. Once that’s clear, negotiations will begin to see who can somehow form a government.
Continue reading...A Sinn Féin coalition will rattle unionists, who consider Boris Johnson’s EU deal a betrayal
Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes in Saturday’s Irish general election, delivering a shock to the country’s political landscape after decades of domination by the centrist rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
However, the fragmented results will produce a hung parliament with no party close to 80 seats, meaning there could be weeks – possibly months – of negotiations between party leaders before a government is formed.
Continue reading...Party leader Mary Lou McDonald calls for talks with main rivals to form coalition
Sinn Féin has declared victory in Ireland’s general election and called for talks with other main parties to form a coalition government.
Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, urged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to start negotiations with the republican party as the scale of its breakthrough confirmed a realignment of Irish politics.
Continue reading...Weeks – possibly months – of negotiations are likely to follow Sinn Féin’s strong showing
Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes – 24.5% – making it the most popular party and a strong contender to be included in the next government. Leo Varadkar’s ruling Fine Gael party slid to 20.8%, coming third, and Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, also slipped, falling to 22.1% in second place. The rest of the vote was split between the Greens, on 7.1%, and small leftwing parties and independent candidates.
Continue reading...Party disrupts Ireland’s centrist tradition by taking almost a quarter of votes
Sinn Féin will try to form a government in Ireland after apparently winning more votes than any other party in Saturday’s general election – a historic result that upended the political system.
The party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, told cheering supporters on Sunday that a “revolution” had occurred and she would try to form a ruling coalition with other parties. “This is no longer a two-party system,” she said.
Continue reading...Issues such as high rents and homelessness fuelled party’s 22.3% exit poll result
Sinn Féin’s breakthrough in Ireland’s general election was decades in the making, but not even Sinn Féin saw it coming.
Once a revolutionary party associated with guns and balaclavas, a toxic brand, it slowly edged from the fringe into the mainstream, inch by inch, and then on Saturday made a giant leap.
Continue reading...Republican party is hoping poll surge will translate into a parliamentary breakthrough
Voters are going to the polls in Ireland after a tumultuous general election campaign during which Sinn Féin has surged into contention as a potential party of government.
The republican party hopes a rise in popularity among young and urban voters will translate into enough parliamentary gains to make it a kingmaker or participant in Ireland’s next coalition government.
Continue reading...Party leader says voters want change as poll puts it in top position for general election
Sinn Féin has stepped up its criticism of Ireland’s political establishment as polls show the party poised for a historic breakthrough in Saturday’s general election.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader, said on Tuesday that Irish people wanted a change from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, centrist rivals that have dominated Irish politics for a century.
Continue reading...Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill stress need for unity as they take up senior roles
The Northern Ireland assembly has reopened for business three years almost to the day after it and the power-sharing executive in the region collapsed.
At an unprecedented Saturday sitting of the regional parliament, assembly members elected Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey as the chamber’s speaker, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, Arlene Foster, as first minister and Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, as deputy first minister.
Continue reading...Many stumbling blocks lie in path of government, including referendum on Irish unity
The agreement hinged on the issues of language and culture. Sinn Féin insists on an Irish language act that would put Irish on an equal par with English in Northern Ireland, not unlike the situation with Welsh in Wales. Unionists oppose this but the two governments appear to have hit upon a compromise whereby the rights of Irish speakers are balanced with rights for the Ulster Scots/loyalist tradition.
Continue reading...Stormont to elect new speaker and nominate ministers as part of power-sharing deal
Northern Ireland’s assembly will reopen on Saturday after a three-year suspension following a historic deal that has resurrected power-sharing government in the region. The Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, said history had been made at the climax of the post-Christmas political negotiations at Stormont.
The parliament will elect a speaker and nominate ministers to a devolved administration around Saturday lunchtime.
Continue reading...Political figures say they want to get back around the table in the wake of the election
Political leaders in Northern Ireland have signalled that they want to revive the Stormont assembly and executive in the wake of the general election and talks to break the deadlock of nearly three years look likely to begin on Monday.
Northern Ireland secretary of state Julian Smith said he spoke with the heads of all the unionist and nationalist parties, including Sinn Féin and the DUP, on Sunday morning and later tweeted: “Good calls with all five party leaders this morning. Look forward to starting positive process tomorrow to get Stormont back up and running.”
Continue reading...Belfast prosecutors considering action against ‘Stakeknife’ and his British army handlers
A police inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in the history of British intelligence has recommended that more than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members be considered for prosecution, the Guardian has learned.
Operation Kenova, the multimillion-pound investigation into “Stakeknife” – the army agent at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles – has now sent files identifying military commanders and at least one IRA veteran with a so-called “get-out-of-jail” card to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast.
Continue reading...Moves follows speculation Northern Irish party leader could stand in snap election
Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, has ruled out standing as an MP if a general election is called.
She is currently an MLA – member of the legislative assembly – at Stormont but the seat of Northern Ireland’s devolved government has been suspended since 2017 after the collapse of a power-sharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
Continue reading...PM set out to prove his pledge to the ‘awesome foursome’ but not everything went to plan
Boris Johnson pledged his commitment to the “awesome foursome” of the UK when he was elected Conservative leader, and has since embarked on a whistlestop tour taking in the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But how successful were the trips? Visits that involved keeping the prime minister away from booing protesters and, in some cases, journalists? Have they allayed fears that Johnson’s hardline Brexit strategy and the continuation of the union could be mutually exclusive?
Continue reading...Results reveal slight loosening of traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold
Centrist parties have thrived and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has consolidated its support, results of Northern Ireland’s local elections show.
With all first preference votes now counted, the Alliance and Green parties, as well as other small parties and independents, made gains, revealing a slight loosening of the traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold. The DUP won 24.1% of first preferences, a modest increase from the 2014 local election, and Sinn Fein won 23.3%, a slight drop, confirming both parties still dominate the political landscape.
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