Rjan:
I would put the issue this way. Most of Sinn Fein’s support is not driven by any true “nationalist” agenda, but by resistance to Tory rule at Westminster and the right-wing Unionists generally, and a series of grievances (both recent and ancient) against the British state.It’s the same with the SNP - they are wildly popular in Scotland and have thrown up some of the best politicians of the current generation, and yet when it came down to it their “nationalist” agenda was beaten comfortably in the Scottish independence referendum, and so too Scotland voted decisively to Remain in the EU referendum (their party ambition nowadays seems to be becoming an independent member state of the EU).
When the SNP was a centre-right nationalist party, it struggled to gain traction (it’s previous high-point in October 1974 was mostly at the expense of the Tories) but now that it has established a track record as a centre-left party, voters have said yes please to its left wing agenda whilst leaving the nationalist family heirloom firmly on the shelf. The fundamental source of it’s broader “nationalist” appeal today is opposition to the Tories at Westminster, nothing more than that. Until Corbyn was elected, the SNP was clearly to the left of Scottish Labour, and their landslide in 2015 was clearly at the expense of the vestiges of New Labour.
When the expected line of any Nationalist Party and vote worth its salt would be Sinn Fein standing on both sides of the border for ‘both’ Irexit ‘and’ Brexit and maintaining the Good Friday agreement as part of that.
Indeed, and yet once upon a time Sinn Fein was clearly in favour of Irish reunification (this seems to be downplayed nowadays). The obvious implication is that they are not a nationalist party. They are simply a left-wing, anti-Tory party.
At least until such time as Europe sees sense in going for a Confederal Europe and in which national sovereignty means and does what it says.
The EU more or less is a confederation, with the mere ambition to be a union.
Which can only be confirmation what I’ve said a Socialist Party masquerading as Nationalists.When what they really mean is that they only recognise democracy that is to the advantage of Socialism and hide under the banner of Nationalism and National sovereignty and secession when it suits them to remove themselves from any agenda that they percieve as going against Socialism.While expecting everyone else to kow tow to any type of perceived Socialist majority which they can gerrymander by selectively imposing foreign Federal rule on the country when it suits them and then taking advantage of secession when it doesn’t.
As for a ‘Confederation’ of independent Sovereign states,which Sinn Fein are ‘claiming’ that they stand for ( Conditional or Contra take your pick Federation meaning the right to agree to disagree in the form of national state sovereignty and by definition the sovereign right of opt out or substitution over decision making within the Federation ) no that is totally different to the unconditional ‘Union’ of subservient non sovereign states,subject to Commissioner ( Politburo ) and QMV cross state rule which is the definition of a Federation and what we’ve got in the case of the EU and what Sinn Fein like every other Remainer is ‘actually’ knowingly supporting.To the point where ‘they’ are willing to lie about what they actually stand for if they think that it will further their ultimate goal of a Socialist EU that actually rules us all,rather than a Nationalist Ireland.On that note no thanks as a Nationalist both English and Irish I view the Soviet Union,or the obvious plan for an EUSSR,as being even worse than Lloyd George’s/Churchill’s or Thatcher’s UK.
