Miriam Lord: Mary Lou makes an epic entrance at Sinn Féin think-in

Republicans rejoiced when their weary wanderer finally returned after long, backbreaking hours of toil on the hard podiums and in the steamy banqueting halls of Australia and Amerikay.

She sailed back on a transatlantic ship of the air, where travel conditions were so appalling she was forced to tweet from Dublin Airport on Sunday afternoon: “Two hours landed in Dublin from San Francisco and still no bags.”

So what better place for her handlers to mark Mary Lou McDonald’s homecoming than the Irish Emigration Museum. It’s called EPIC, rather like their heroine’s journey around the globe on behalf of Sinn Féin and the people of Ireland.

Tripods were pitched on the cobbles of Custom House Quay and a bank of cameras focused on the plate glass doors of the CHQ building. The Sinn Féin leader was expected to breeze through them at any moment, make for the microphones to answer media questions and set out her party’s stall before their pre-political season bonding session.

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No sign of her. Although there was plenty of sound earlier in the morning when McDonald did the traditional tink-in round of radio interviews.

Where could she be?

There wasn’t much happening around EPIC, with scarcely a party official in sight where usually there would be battalions. And there was no indication as to when proceedings might commence.

Suddenly, movement was spotted down the far end of the dry dock, under the trees. A large crowd of people had assembled. (They must have slipped out the back way.) Something was afoot. Then the penny dropped.

“Here comes the Corpus Christi procession!” announced a veteran SF observer.

But of course. Everyone knows by now that the Shinners cannot engage with the media in an outdoor setting without first making The Grand Entrance. They do this by marching forward en masse to the cameras, for the cameras. It’s quite the show. The other parties do it sometimes, often during elections, but the result can be a bit straggly and self-conscious.

“They might have told us,” grumbled the camera operators, sulkily readjusting their equipment.

And down they swept — life is one big plinth for the Sinn Féin PR machine — Mary Lou all in blue, bang in the middle of the front line, leading the way to the designated spot in front of a big limestone arch. When the large contingent of national and local politicians stopped marching, they fell in around their leader.

Rows of them and only one navy suit, shirt and tie that we could see (independent fashion choice from Dundalk’s Ruairí Ó Murchú). No po-faced local TD plonked beside the boss and trying to look relevant for their brief cameo on the TV news. Mary Lou McDonald is the local TD in Dublin Central so there was no fear of that.

Sinn Féin won the think-in leadership cluster contest by a mile with a massive Mary Lou McDoughnut. Housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin told the gathering that they were standing beneath “a triumphal arch” dating from 1813. It originally stood in nearby Amiens Street but was moved in 1998 to the redeveloped George’s Quay in the International Financial Services Centre.

Oh, the symbolism! Sinn Féin on the march — their leader standing outside the emigration museum following her meetings with the Irish diaspora in the US and Australia, promising comfort to the huddled masses of Irish youth planning to leave home because they feel they cannot afford to stay.

And all around her, the shimmering temples of the IFSC with their corporate movers and shakers, the ones Mary Lou is currently wooing in an effort to convince them that Sinn Féin, should it get into government, will not shut down their golf clubs and take all their money. Not to mention that triumphal arch, built to mark Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Salamanca.

And then, inside, the party held breakout sessions in different rooms but their main discussion in a glass-walled meeting space. Oh, the transparency! It was all a bit too much. A bit too, well, arch.

“Time for Change” is Sinn Féin’s big message to the public. “The momentum for change is evident all across Ireland,” declared deputy McDonald. “We will again be urging the Government to start planning in an orderly, thoughtful way around the question of constitutional change. I mean, we’ve made this point many, many times before — and I’ve said this publicly and privately to the Taoiseach and the person who anticipates being taoiseach on December 15th — that there won’t be any prize for not planning for change, for not recognising that fairly fundamental change is under way.”

Oh, the profundity.

“Instead of ruling nothing out, it’s now time to rule things in.”

But what about the cost-of-living crisis? The Government is urging caution against spending all its cash on supports in the short-term because reserves are needed to counter what could be a deepening crisis next year.

“We cannot drain the tank” is the headline from Merrion Street. But McDonald says that money must and can be found to help people now. Sinn Féin’s cost-of-living package would run to €3.8 billion.

“That. Is. A. Lot. Of. Money. That’s a lot of money,” she conceded. “But we are more than fit to carry that burden.”

Never mind not draining the nation’s financial tank. You don’t need a tank if the kitchen sink has already been thrown. That’s just the man who anticipates being taoiseach on December 15th (Leo Varadkar) coming out with more of his “desperate nonsense”.

The Sinn Féin leader, sounding relaxed and bursting with confidence, had no time for his recent remarks about Ireland becoming an EU pariah if her party gains power. The country would end up “outside the tent” with a Sinn Féin prime minister, sidelined with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and a possible Italian far-right premier.

“I think there is a real smack of desperation off those comments,” said Mary Lou, pointing out that Orbán was a member of Fine Gael’s EU grouping until recently. That is true. Sinn Féin in Europe is aligned with Mick Wallace and Claire Daly’s grouping.

Compared to the gatherings held by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians, there was a definite energy and buzz about the Sinn Féin event. The party leader, in her opening speech to party colleagues, made a point of directly addressing young voters.

“The spectre of forced emigration is with us once again,” she said. “So, I want to say this to our young people: that we in Sinn Féin hear you. Ireland is your home and we need you here.”

How that can be achieved and paid for is neither here nor there. But look at that confident march and that can-do swagger and that triumphal arch. And then Micheál and Leo, Michael and Paschal, also promising to spend big but also urging restraint.

The next election: It’s going to be EPIC.