The Wearing of the Green

If the concern were to keep out the supposedly radical and left-wing economic policies of Sinn Féin, then the Green Party would not be in the Irish Republic's new governing coalition. Many of us would dispute that the Greens were radical or left-wing at all, but theirs is the definition of being so that is now accepted by Sinn Féin. And indeed by most people these days, more is the pity.

Sinn Féin has been in government in the other part of Ireland for a very long time, and there is absolutely no sign of any economically left-wing radicalism there. The Provisionals were founded to resist the shift towards sort of thing, as Republican Sinn Féin was to resist the desire to enter the Dáil in no small measure in order to pursue such policies. Well, the Provos have well and truly entered the Dáil now, and they have been indispensable to the government of the Six Counties for decades. Don't hold your breath.

No, the reason to want to keep out Sinn Féin is not that. Nor is it a history of political violence. Neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael can say anything about that. Rather, it is the fact that for a century in the 26 Counties, while normal political life has proceeded day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, and decade by decade, there has always been something else there.

And everyone has always known that, if pushed, then some level of sympathy for it was not confined to a noisy hardline fringe of Fianna Fáil in certain areas. It could be found across the political spectrum, and throughout the country. Straddling the Border, seven elderly men are on the cusp of making it as big as London's much-derided Governments in Exile of this or that Eastern European country did 30 years ago. And the Dublin Establishment will do anything to stop them. Absolutely anything at all.