Surely this isn’t right? Sinn Féin going all fluffy and light

Goodbye to angry and negative Sinn Féin. Hello to positive, constructive, and nice Sinn Féin. Not since Ryanair went from being the big bad airline to the sort of nicest airline in Europe has an organisation gone through such a transformation.

In the wake of its disastrous local and European elections, one of the early messages which seemed to land was the fact that too many people found the party “too negative, too aggressive” in its messaging. This week in the Dáil, we saw the early stages of the fight back: A much softer, sweeter, nicer Sinn Féin on its best behaviour. On Thursday, Pearse Doherty, taking leaders’ questions abandoned his normally agitated tone and instead was all pleasantness and light.