Open-minded but still a misjudgement of Sinn Féin

Tipperary councillor David Doran is the latest public representative to quit Sinn Féin, describing the party as “an affront to democracy”.

Mr Doran’s resignation came just before Fianna Fáil deputy and European election hopeful Billy Kelleher offered a view on a FF/SF coalition in conflict with his party leader Micheál Martin’s position. Mr Kelleher also suggested FF should be open to a partnership with Fine Gael.

This open-mindedness is commendable, even if he may be using the SF red-rag option as some Brexiteers use the possibility of a no-deal divorce to focus attention. Despite that, it is hard not to think that Mr Martin’s judgement is more realistic. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald’s comparison of poverty in Ireland in 1919 with today’s poverty at this week’s Dáil centenary celebrations suggests Mr Martin’s view is correct. So too does the party’s recent adventures in Venezuela.

However, revelations at the North’s ash-for-cash inquiry surely close the debate. Conducted by former judge Patrick Coughlin, that inquiry found that the Sinn Féin minister for finance at Stormont, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, had to get approval for key decisions from unelected senior republican Ted Howell. Despite the encouragement of officials to make budget cuts, Ó Muilleoir consulted senior former IRA members who have no electoral mandate good, bad or indifferent and are largely unknown to the public.

They haven’t gone away you know, indeed.