Sinn Féin: The Perennial Opposition?
Roger Berkeley
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Another election, another ‘FFFG’ government. Sinn Féin is in with a real shot at government for the first time since 1918, but only as a minor coalition partner. For eight years, the governing duopoly has moved ever closer to indistinguishability. Yet the party still has not taken the reins of power. Given the massive rise in popularity in 2020, Sinn Féin’s history is not the only thing holding it back. The natural consequence of a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil coalition was a Sinn Féin government in 2025. Yet despite Fine Gael losing popularity for the third consecutive election, it’s one deal away from extending its reign to 19 years in power. Fianna Fáil’s post-2008 recovery is complete as the largest party in the Dáil. Sinn Féin, it seems, has missed its opportunity to lead a government of change. To figure out how it can recover, we must look at how it rapidly grew from a small semi-fringe party to the only challenger to the duopoly in a century.