Sinn Féin may need to hone its migration policy — and then communicate it better 

There may be a kernel of truth in Siobhán Fenton's suggestion that spinning SF's immigration lines was like 'putting lipstick on a pig'

Pearse Doherty TD and party leader Mary Lou McDonald with other Sinn Féin members at its annual away day at the Grand Hotel, Malahide, ahead of the new Dáil session. Picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA

In the morning sunlight of Malahide, Sinn Féin TDs slowly filtered out the front door of the Grand Hotel to the awaiting media.

Mary Lou McDonald beckoned TDs to move up the line, before setting out the party’s stall on the upcoming budget, military neutrality, and Irish unity.

But after the publication of a new book by a former Sinn Féin press officer, Siobhán Fenton, questions about the party’s handling of the immigration question have bubbled to the surface once more.

In extracts of her new book, Ourselves Alone: Sinn Féin Behind Closed Doors, Fenton describes how the party struggled to get to grips with migration and that it did not have a coherent strategy to deal with the matter.

She said spinning the party’s immigration lines was like "putting lipstick on a pig", but there was no lipstick and no pig.

One party operative was asked if they were concerned about the possible impact of the book.

“Let her at it,” they said, shrugging their shoulders, seemingly unworried.

McDonald denied knowledge of the excerpt itself but did acknowledge the party faced significant difficulties during 2024 around migration.

“At a point in time, our communities reflected to us that they weren’t hearing loudly enough from us in challenging the Government in their failures to manage the process of asylum seeking,” McDonald said.

Harder line on migration 

In the years since, Sinn Féin has spent considerable time seeking to remedy this, with Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy appointed as the party’s migration spokesperson and taking a decidedly harder line on the matter than his predecessors.

At its most recent ard fheis, a motion was passed instructing the party to pull together a new policy document on migration, with work on the matter underway at present.

Strands within the policy include changes to issues like citizenship, which the Government has since taken a run at through Jim O’Callaghan’s reforms and appears to have outflanked Sinn Féin in the immediate term.

A second strand is seeking to build a policy around migration on an all-Ireland perspective, with sources saying this will particularly look at cooperation between north and south in areas such as data sharing.

SF 'needs better communication'

But while Sinn Féin is changing its policies, is it getting through to voters who may have turned away from the party in 2024?

One TD told the Irish Examiner that the issue of migration had cooled significantly for the party compared to 2024, but that it still “isn’t easy”.

Another said there is still “a job of work” to do on improving the messaging on its migration policy, pointing the finger at communications rather than policy.

“That’s going to be an ongoing matter,” the insider said.

Sinn Féin is, no doubt, being squeezed on multiple fronts, with a government taking a stronger line on migration, the Social Democrats pressing from the left, while more insurgent parties, such as Aontú and Independent Ireland, are coming up on the right.

While it is likely to be an issue that will continue to challenge Sinn Féin, elections remain a long way off.

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One TD acknowledged that fact, describing the current political atmosphere as "stale" and pointing to the lengthy timeframe before the local and European elections, which are not slated to take place until mid-2029, followed quickly by a general election.

Sinn Féin will be able to use this time to hone its policy offering on immigration, while also preparing its communication campaigns.

Sorting out the lipstick and the pig.

• Tadgh McNally, Political Reporter