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AN OPINION POLL published last week succinctly showed what is becoming clearer: that Fine Gael and Sinn Féin are currently the great beasts of Irish politics.
This isn’t necessarily a surprise, but the fact that both parties have a combined support of nearly two-thirds of voters means that as of now, any upcoming general election looks more and more like a choice between the two.
It is in this context that we must look at the increasingly contentious debate and the apparent animosity between the parties.
Fine Gael’s call this week for Sinn Féin’s TD Brian Stanley to lose the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee stems from Sinn Fein’s efforts to pass a motion of no confidence on Tánaiste Leo Varadkar last month.
Depending on your point of view, either of you may deserve to lose your job, but the fact that both parties were actively trying to remove someone shows you where the relationship is right now.
Perhaps it also points to where the political debate is heading in this current Dáil and raises the question of whether people are better served by scoring.
Sinn Féin’s trust movement in Varadkar is perhaps one such example. The party filed a motion of no confidence against the leader of Fine Gael over the leak of an agreement to the NAGP medical union in 2017.
Varadkar answered questions about the incident in the Dáil and acknowledged “errors of judgment” but did not face a formal sanction, something that Sinn Féin said was insufficient.
The subsequent vote of confidence was predictably along party lines and Varadkar survived, but not before the insults were so predictably launched.
Sinn Féin accused Fine Gael of a “network of old men”, while Fine Gael spoke of “IRA victims across the country who are still buried.”
Regardless of the substance of the debate, the main conclusion for anyone who listened was that these two parties were at the center of it. A fact that is also reflected in the surveys.
Some Fine Gael representatives have argued that focusing on Sinn Féin is counterproductive, but it has also been pointed out that it has the advantage of neglecting Fianna Fáil, which is perhaps Fine Gael’s long-term strategy.
To think that people are missing an entire part of FG’s attack strategy is not to reduce SF support, but to keep FF support low.
As poll after poll since February has shown, a competitive SF creates a competitive FG on the other side.
– David McCann (@dmcbfs) November 29, 2020
Online abuse
What is perhaps a more troubling question to consider is whether animosity is really the most effective language in political debate right now. That’s not to say it’s a good thing, but rather an acknowledgment that people who yell the loudest or angriest get the most attention in the world of social media.
And it’s this particular sphere that has received special attention this week, first because of Stanley’s controversial tweets, but also most notably because of Varadkar’s claims about Sinn Féin fans online.
At a parliamentary party meeting, Varadkar claimed that Sinn Féin supporters have targeted him online with racist and homophobic abuses.
Sinn Féin called the claim unfounded, but this or similar charges are likely to continue, in fact they are far from new, as the party supporter has been criticized for some years.
In recent years, Sinn Féin has actively sought to increase the number and reach of its followers online. In fact, he still has a page on his website specifically to grow this cohort.
This party effort has been highly successful, but it also means that it has a responsibility not to fuel a deteriorating public discourse.
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Sinn Féin publishes guidelines for its representatives and activists on how to behave online and it is understood that it has been reminding members of their responsibilities this week.
But there is also the question of where the responsibility lies for people who are simply voters and not active party members.
A party may not have control over individual tweeters, but if it has fostered the growth of its online support to a level that is out of control or chaotic, then perhaps it has some responsibility for that.
Claims about online abuse by unidentified supporters can be difficult to counter, not because they are not true, but because a party cannot reprimand people who do not know they are members.
Varadkar did not mention any names when speaking to her party colleagues, and party MEP Maria Walsh did not specify Sinn Féin supporters when she also spoke about online abuse this week.
But vague statements about people’s behavior online can have the effect of focusing attention on that topic rather than something else, which is what Sinn Fein’s Louise O’Reilly suggested was Varadkar’s intention.
In fact, Varadkar’s claims were made the same night the government voted against a motion to pay student nurses and midwives.
However, what all this means is that as long as the two parties talk to each other, they are still talked about.
As long as the polls remain the same, expect that to continue.
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