Letter: ​Sinn Fein made the crucial mistake of forgetting about their supporters ahead of council elections

A letter from Michael Clarke:

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke to the media as the election count progressed. She admitted she was 'disappointed' by her party's performance

The collapse in the Sinn Fein vote has been extraordinary - well signalled in recent opinion polls but still extraordinary.

They will end up in fourth place behind Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independents in the number of city and county council seats won by the party. They will, however, probably win two seats in the European Parliament, a gain of one.

Sinn Fein opposed Brexit although many of their members are thought to have been unhappy at the decision. It is a democratic centralist outfit so most of their members went along with the decision.

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However, they forgot about their supporters. Ignoring them didn’t matter so much with Brexit (support for the EU is beginning to drop here but it will take a while) but it became a habit within the party.

They did the same with the immigration issue - most “asylum seekers” (in reality, migrants jumping the immigration queue) are dumped on the poorer parts of the Republic, where Sinn Fein’s support was strongest, but the party bosses were slow to pick that up. By the time they did, it was too late.

Likewise, with gender issues (trans rights, etc.) they have been “right on” as they were during the recent woke referenda where the government got a hammering.

I heard an RTE journalist say on Sunday that Friday’s elections were the first that an Opposition lost! In truth, Sinn Fein has been found out down here so we will just have to see where they go from here.

Michael Clarke, Dublin