The right needs to calm down about Sinn Fein. It needs to chill out about the fact that the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, will be attending the coronation of King Charles. It needs to relax about that selfie featuring Sinn Fein’s former president, Gerry Adams, gurning next to Joe Biden during his jaunt in Ireland. It needs to stop fretting over the spike in support for Sinn Fein in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in recent years.
For all of this stuff is not proof that Sinn Fein’s old radical goal of creating a 32-county republic is gaining ground. On the contrary, it points to the neutering of Sinn Fein, to its hollowing out and humiliation; to the transformation of this once guerilla-style party into Ireland’s version of the Lib Dems. Pale, drab and madly keen to cosy up to the powerful, Sinn Fein has well and truly had its balls removed.
In sidling into Westminster Abbey, Michelle O’Neill is signalling her acceptance of the legitimacy of the British monarchy
It is hard to think of another political party on these isles that is as politically compromised as Sinn Fein.
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