Sinn Féin’s Southern Strategy

The Long March to the Centre

Abstract

Outside the glare of publicity, Sinn Féin (SF) leaders have embarked on a new project. They are meeting business lobby groups and multinational firms to offer an assurance that a Sinn Féin led government will be supportive. In September 2022, Mary Lou McDonald travelled to Silicon Valley to meet senior executives from Google and Salesforce. She said that ‘winning FDI [foreign direct investment] and strengthening our business relationship with the US will continue as a key component of Ireland’s economic strategy.’ Housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin has met landlord lobby groups and builders. Pearse Doherty, the party’s Finance spokesperson, summed up the message when he claimed that big business has nothing to fear from a Sinn Féin government. “They know that Sinn Féin isn’t going to go after them,”