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While its still up in the air whether or not there will be a General Election this year, nonetheless, as the above picture shows, it is getting more likely with the date 22 November been rumoured by many. Maybe then this site would like a general thread to discuss the subject and also specifically to try and learn lesson from the recent Local Elections and apply them to this election.
Fake problems for nationalist candidates
But to begin I would like to try and refute, two theories from that election that are often put forward as problems for the nationalist camp. One is that their vote was split by too many candidates and that is why we didn't get so many seats. I think this is a misunderstanding of the Irish electoral system, which is hopefully explained here so no need to dwell on again: (1). In Westmeath for example they had a nationalist alliance among the various anti-mass migration parties, but it seemed to make very little positive difference to the outcome. So while this writer certainly advises people not to vote on any preference for members of the uniparty, which is all the parties in the current Oireachtas, and hopes that individuals on the ground would assist each other in putting up posters etc, nonetheless this factor, the number of candidates, is not like to make a big difference either way.
The other tale you hear endlessly is that the ordinary Irish voter will just vote the same FF, FG, SF etc, faces back in no matter what happens. On the contrary, in the local elections Sinn Fein won 11.8% of the vote when even in the General Election in 2020 they got 24.5% and as late as a year ago were polling in the mid 30s.(2) In general terms I think Irish people viewed Sinn Fein back then as a real opposition to the uniparty, and have now realised it isn't and other than that many are looking at other false dawns like Independents in Independent Ireland and personalities like Luke 'Ming' Flanagan. Its obvious that they are trying to move away from the main parties, but don't see anybody particularly to vote for. Point is that they are not so very set in their ways right now, even the Ard Fheiseanna of the big parties (like recently Sinn Fein pictured), are not very impressive these days in terms of turnout.
Real problems for nationalist candidates
So what are the real problems or lessons that could be learned from the Local Elections? I would definitely say it is publicity and the related problem of finance. You see what some people reading this website and various similar twitter, telegram and youtube accounts floating in the same general political space, sometimes don't realise is that the Irish general public largely know nothing about the modern Irish nationalist movement and the personalities now going up for election from it.
Elections are like selling soap powder, ultimately, you might have the best quality brand in Ariel as opposed to Bold or what have you, but the best sales figures will probably not be for the best powder, but for the greater marketing budget assigned to each. There is no point in having the best powder if nobody has heard of it, and thats what applies to elections. Its all about name recognition, getting your face and name on everybody's lips and, as I say, nobody has heard of the Irish nationalist candidates.
This is no accident, its the culmination of been blanked out of all mainstream media for decades, so the only chance any nationalist candidate has in the election is therefore a good display of posters and leaflets to get your name out there. That brings us to the related point, finance. It emerged after the Local Election campaign that not a few quite prominent candidates (prominent that is for those who follow the nationalist social media) just didn't have enough money for any posters or for the postal leaflet drop which is standard for the mainstream candidates (all this is paid by the state for those candidates). Without that they never stood a chance, especially with the ongoing discrimination in the various old school media outlets.
That I think is the problem people might like now to focus on and try and solve if they can, if you are trying to help some good candidate get elected make sure he/she has enough finance at least for the leaflet drop to give them some chance.
Footnotes
1. https://www.sarsfieldsvirtualpub.co...irish-proportional-representation-system.989/ .
2. https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/ireland/ .