"Sinn Fein ties Irish government party for 1st time" Associated Press October 10, 2014
DUBLIN — A Republic of Ireland opinion poll has found that Sinn Fein, the nationalist party long an outsider in southern Irish politics, has grown as popular as the main government party for the first time.
Analysts say Sinn Fein could win both parliamentary seats being filled in two special elections Friday, putting more pressure on the two-party government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny with a general election looming by 2016.
Thursday’s findings in the Irish Times newspaper put Kenny’s center-right Fine Gael party at 24 percent voter support, matching a record low since gaining power in 2011.
That's what happens when you have a government that serves bankers.
And Sinn Fein rose 4 percentage points to join Fine Gael at 24 percent, reflecting the party’s populist appeals to shift tax burdens to Ireland’s richest citizens in an era of unrelenting austerity.
Fianna Fail, the once-dominant party blamed for imploding Ireland’s economy at the end of the last decade, rated 20 percent support, down 5 points. Kenny’s coalition partner, the left-wing Labor Party, was at 9 percent. Independent lawmakers had 23 percent support.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail trace their origins to a split in the original Sinn Fein movement that pushed for Irish independence from Britain in the early 20th century. Today’s Sinn Fein, led by Gerry Adams, has evolved since the 1970s from the ranks of the Provisional branch of the Irish Republican Army in the British territory of Northern Ireland.
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Related: Touting Traitors
"Talks begin on Northern Ireland power-sharing" Associated Press October 17, 2014
DUBLIN — Negotiations to bolster Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government opened with recriminations and empty seats Thursday as the 7-year-old alliance of British Protestants and Irish Catholics faced a tough political test.
Britain convened the Belfast talks in hopes of narrowing the divisions that threaten to unravel Northern Ireland’s five-party coalition, the central achievement of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.
At stake is a government of former enemies who are committed to ending a 45-year conflict that has claimed 3,700 lives. But many grass-roots disputes that stir unrest remain unresolved, particularly sectarian parades.
The major Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, wants existing restrictions on Protestant parades strengthened and more British symbols removed. The Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s primary defender of its political union with Britain, seeks the opposite.
The two sides are also battling over Northern Ireland’s budget, with Sinn Fein blocking welfare reforms that are law in Britain. The impasse has caused $138 million in lost money and cuts in services.
Should the talks fail, the Northern Ireland Assembly could be dissolved for early elections and power-sharing would face an uncertain revival.
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Also see: Ireland to phase out tax break used by technology firms
UPDATE: Catholics, Protestants honor Ian Paisley in Belfast
