Mick Clifford: Sinn Féin needs to stick with core values regardless of which way the wind blows

The party moved from being a rallying point for those who felt they were outside the system to queuing up for their turn in charge within the system. But the local and European elections showed they had run out of road

Sinn Féin's share of the vote in the local elections was just under 12% and they failed to get a candidate elected in Midlands North West, where two were on the ticket. Picture: Damien Storan/PA Wire

Just before Christmas 2022, a young female political reporter in the national press was savaged on social media. Her crime was to report the news, which in this case involved the existence of a Sinn Féin-affiliated Facebook page on which some contributors had left racist comments. 

The reporter got the pile-on treatment that was the lot of anybody perceived to have been critical of Sinn Féin. She was abused in every imaginable way, which was nothing too unusual at the time, particularly for journalists or political opponents.