SINN FEIN FIGHTS DEAL BLOW TO UNITED IRELAND DREAM – A Sinn Fein Government would change the dynamics around Irish unification

Sinn Fein’s polling collapse from government-in-waiting to likely also-rans at Irish elections next week looks set to disappoint Irish nationalists of a potentially transformative moment in their pursuit of a united Ireland. 

Earlier this year, the party appeared on the brink of power in Dublin for the first time and set to totally change the united Ireland dynamic, placing it in government on both sides of the Irish border and ramping up preparations as it sought to force London to hold a referendum within a decade. 

But a fracturing of the party’s electoral coalition – in large part due to anger among traditional nationalist voters at its relatively liberal attitude to immigration – appears to have closed the path to power at the Nov. 29 election.

That could shelve for the foreseeable future Sinn Fein plans for a government minister for reunification, unity planning by both a parliamentary committee and a citizens assembly and for a diplomatic offensive promoting the goal at the United Nations and across the EU.

An Irish government led by Sinn Fein would drastically change the dynamics around Irish unification, said Colin Harvey, a human rights law professor at Queen’s University Belfast.