‘Gerry’s are very big boots to fill’: Sinn Féin members on life after Adams

Manus Maguire, Mayo

Gerry Adams has brought the party on very well . . . Now it’s time to make way for new, up-and-coming blood to take over. He could probably bring someone in transition and help them along. My preferred choice as party leader would be Mary Lou [McDonald, Adams’s deputy]. She’s a very good leader. She gets on well with everyone. She has a strong quality. The party has voted overall to go into coalition. I’ll sit on the fence [about who its coalition partner should be]. We’re in the strongest position ever for a united Ireland. My own feeling is that there will be a united Ireland in the next 10 or 15 years. We can’t go back. We keep moving forward, and we are the largest party in all of Ireland. This is our best opportunity now.

Brian Canning, Sligo-Leitrim

Gerry’s are very big boots to fill. I think we have some very strong candidates: Mary Lou, Pearse Doherty, Matt Carthy, Eoin Ó Broin. I’d be quite happy with any of them. I’d be more worried that we’d draw up a programme for government that’s good for Sinn Féin, good for the country, rather than who the coalition partner is. Sinn Féin will set out looking for certain stuff that they want in the programme for government, and if it’s not achievable then I don’t think we’ll be going into coalition. The whole Brexit question is pushing a united Ireland forward.

Linda Waters, Roscommon

We need somebody who can take us even further than we’ve already come, who can go in a new direction. Somebody said to me earlier, “We’ve got Merkel and Theresa May.” I said, “Imagine putting Mary Lou up against those two,” and I was told she’d eat them up for breakfast and spit them out. She is extremely good at what she does. She’s very down to earth. And she has the party ethos. She knows where we’re going. I would prefer to see them wait until they’re in government [to push for a united Ireland], because then they can make changes and people can see that they genuinely mean what they say. There are huge differences in the way social services are administered north and south. If we could get parity between the two sections of Ireland we could have more things in common. While I don’t trust either of them, Fianna Fáil have a republican background. Fine Gael are Tories. Everything they’re doing is towards privatisation. Leo is more of a party leader than a Taoiseach. The Taoiseach is supposed to put the country first. He’s more interested in going off on trips and talking to other leaders around the world, like Trudeau in Canada, and showing off his socks.

Michael Garvey, Cork North

Mary Lou McDonald is one of the favourites for leader, but [there are also] Pearse Doherty of course, Matt Carthy and Eoin Ó Broin. Parties of the left and the Independents [are my preferred coalition choice]. We all know what happened with Fianna Fáil in government. I don’t think the leopard has changed its spots. Fine Gael represent a different constituency. Leo Varadkar is a charismatic chap, I suppose. He’s made some good pronouncements recently – he’s taken on the British and Brexit. He’s quite firm on that. But I think very little has been achieved. I think to have a society where we all feel we can have jobs, where we all feel good, we have peace, is as important as a united Ireland.

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Karen Maye, Sligo-Leitrim

Mary Lou McDonald, as a woman, would bring the party even further. She has ambition, vision. She’s a strong woman, and that’s what we need. Leo Varadkar is for the privileged. What he has done with austerity in the country, what he has said about the homeless, his views on the homeless, and the way he looks at them, is very wrong. I think the unionist parties in the North, particularly in the agriculture sector, are now seeing that Brexit is not good for them, is not good for the North of Ireland.

Joan McDermott, Cork East

It’s not the right time for Gerry Adams to go. The issue at Stormont is very difficult at the moment, and leaving at this particular juncture would be devastating. I would love to see Pearse Doherty as leader. He’s extremely engaging, an extremely articulate, intelligent man – not that Mary Lou isn’t as well. I think he has the quality and ability to be an excellent leader. I would hope the party wouldn’t go into coalition with any of them. I don’t think Sinn Féin will be in government after the next election. I would predict a united Ireland in my lifetime, and I’m 70 years of age, but Stormont is a big stumbling block.