Election 2020: Eoin Ó Broin on the multifaceted key to Sinn Féin’s ascent

The story of Sinn Féin’s steady ascent in the polls is a multifaceted one, Eoin Ó Broin says.

As the party’s housing spokesman, he is playing a key role in that same story and has emerged as a star performer in debates.

Sinn Féin was the bad news story of the 2019 local elections, losing half of their council seats with questions being raised about the leadership of Mary Lou McDonald. After the election, party strategists sat down took a “hard look” at where they went wrong and also where they went right, Ó Broin says.

A decision was taken to put forward a more positive message which focused heavily on solutions to the key crises in health, housing and the cost of living. That strategy was partly validated in November’s byelection when Mark Ward took a second seat for Sinn Féin in Ó Broin’s constituency of Dublin Mid West.

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At the start of this general election campaign, the party found its core vote returning alongside what Ó Broin describes as a “new layer” of voters.

These were voters who were fed up with the current Government and who viewed Fianna Fáil as being intrinsically part of it thanks to the confidence and supply deal. Couple this desire for change with strong performances by Mary Lou McDonald in TV debates and that, he says, is why Sinn Féin has enjoyed a surge.

Work ethic

He leaves out his own role in the campaign and pauses when asked if he is the new and more acceptable middle-class face of Sinn Féin, given his private education in Blackrock College. If he doesn’t like the question, he doesn’t show it.

“I don’t think it is about class background. I am middle class, I come from south county Dublin and I am not ashamed of it.” His popularity is linked to the issues he tackles, he says.

“I think people are fed up of politicians going on TV shows and not knowing what they are talking about and making it up. I’m serious. Making it up. What I have done, what Pearse [Doherty] has done, what Louise [O'Reilly] has done is say okay, we have policies, we understand the facts and figures. TDs are exceptionally well paid, we have staff. The very least you can do is know the subject.”

He said that younger voters in particular are motivated by issues, not by party politics. Housing, he says, is one of these issues.

Ó’Broin’s work ethic is evident. His team are targeting 1,000 homes every day. Their carefully laid out map ensures that no voter is bothered twice. His hands are covered in bloody paper cuts from handing out leaflets in the cold.

On Tuesday he is canvassing with Mark Ward in Clondalkin. At one door, a woman tells him that she was due to retire next year but thanks to the planned increase in the pension age to 67 she does not know if she will be able to do this.

“I have worked 50 years. They are taking the choice away from me. I’ll have to carry on. I don’t feel good about it. I am not in good health at the moment myself.”

Ó Broin counters: “The same TDs who voted to extend your pension age voted to allow TDs to retire at 55 on their TD’s pension.”

She tells him that other parties are “promising the sun, moon and stars.”

“It’s like the dogs are barking, throw them a bone and keep them quiet for a while. And I am no dog.”

Interestingly, that same comment is made at the next door by Mary Boylan who works in St James’s Hospital which she says is “like a third world country.”

“Something has to change. The homeless issue is horrific, the health service is horrific. It is all about them. Self-obsessed. They promise the sun, moon and stars but look where it has gone. Yes, we definitely need a huge change. We need to go back to basics.”

Seismic shift

Not everyone wants to hear what he has to say, however. Some older voters do not appear inclined to talk and those who have made their mind up in favour of other parties tell him this without delay.

If what is written in the opinion polls is reflected in the actual poll this weekend, Sinn Féin may regret only running 42 candidates. Ó’Broin says no one could have predicted the potentially seismic shift, inferring that the party did not see such a significant surge coming. He says they will reflect on that issue afterwards.

He says he understands why there has been so much focus on the so-called coalition-ology: “Voters are voting for a Government.” Mark Ward, who is fighting to keep his seat after only nine sitting days in the Dáil, joins the canvass and is circumspect about what may develop next week.

“We will speak to anybody. But we will be going in with the red line issues around health, housing and infrastructure.”

When asked if Sinn Féin would be better off doing another spell in opposition, given the fact only 42 candidates are in the field, he says: “Well, we are not going to be the hurlers in the ditch.”

Having said that, he says it is his genuine belief “that we should be in that conservation on how the programme for government is formed.” He says another election this year is possible.

Ward, unsurprisingly, does not agree with the contention that the Sinn Féin manifesto is over-promising. It pledges huge increases in spending on housing, health, childcare, education, social welfare and public transport.

“The Department of Finance has come back and said that all our spending is justified. We have no doubt we will be able to deliver on what we are saying.”