Sir, – Anne Harris ("Sinn Féin had a great Covid. But a bad Ukraine", Opinion & Analysis, April 19th) makes some useful points about the uncertainty of Sinn Féin's preparations for government so far in advance of the next scheduled election, its efforts to build working relationships with businesses and lobbying groups, and its past statements on Vladimir Putin (the latter two of which many of the party's supporters will find distasteful).
However, her own distaste for the party leads her into two errors.
First, Harris states that Sinn Féin “dropped 2 per cent” in The Irish Times/Ipsos poll “while support for the Government grew by 5 per cent”. The margin of error on the poll is 2.8 per cent, so Sinn Féin’s fall is not statistically significant. Moreover, “the Government” is made up of three parties – while Fianna Fáil grew by 3 per cent and Fine Gael by 2 per cent, the Greens fell by 2 per cent. So a net growth of 3 per cent for “the Government”, which is a statistically significant increase, but only just.
Second, Ms Harris says that Eoin Ó Broin is “an ideologue who is turned on by social policy”. This is a somewhat strange criticism of a man who wants to lead a government department responsible for housing policy. Surely there are few things more attractive to voters than a potential housing minister who really wants to build houses for people. Clearly the use of the phrase “turned on” in this context is an attempt to portray a desire to build houses as something weird. Harris adds to this with her talk of “The Great Flirtation” with Sinn Féin of middle-class voters, who supposedly “fancied” a “chic” Sinn Féin with whom they could go “skinny dipping”.
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Every week, Harris runs the risk that her own (dare I say) ideological dislike for Sinn Féin will discredit even reasonable criticism of the party’s policies and actions. This is particularly so when she cherry-picks polling data and introduces frankly bizarre language into the discussion. – Yours, etc,
ALAN EUSTACE,
Marino,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Anne Harris reminds us that Sinn Féin decided to clean up its website which “was replete with denunciations of Nato and sympathy with Vladimir Putin”. Fortunately, the party does not have access to our memories. We can remember Lynn Boylan accusing the EU of being overly confrontational toward Russia. She and her then Sinn Féin colleagues in the European Parliament, Liadh Ní Riada and Matt Carty, also voted against the European Parliament resolution condemning the annexation of Crimea. For Sinn Féin, presumably, the difference between this act of aggression and the invasion of Ukraine is a matter of timing and the necessity of being on the right side of public opinion. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET LEE,
Newport,
Co Tipperary.