Could Sinn Féin become the law and order party? Concern in the Republic over crime and anti-social behaviour gives it an opening to reconnect with urban voters, reassure the suburbs and demonstrate a Sinn Féin government could be trusted with the criminal justice system.
This is an opportunity to move the conversation on from immigration, where the party faces some discontent in core constituencies. From the 1980s until the late 2000s, Sinn Féin was associated with vigilantism against drug dealers, particularly in inner city Dublin. It cannot risk such perceptions today, yet it can still benefit from a lingering air of menace, to which not all voters are averse. A feature of this historic tension is winning extra applause for things that would be considered utterly mundane from any other party, such as calling for more police officers. Even a stale whiff of cordite lends excitement to the dullest policy.
Sinn Féin launched a document on Tuesday to address crime in Dublin, entitled Keeping Communities Safe. Its main proposal is to invest in Garda recruitment, which it accuses Fine Gael of neglecting during 12 years in charge of the Department of Justice.
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Notably, senior Sinn Féin figures have been making the same call since last year, when the Government missed its own recruitment target, probably due to general labour market tightening.
Before that, garda numbers had risen steadily from 2015 to a historic high in 2021. However, what counts in political terms is not Sinn Féin’s accuracy but its determination to own the idea of spending more on policing, as a straightforward popular policy. Keeping Communities Safe is careful to empathise with “under-funded and over-stretched” officers while deriding Fine Gael as “the supposed party of law and order”. Sinn Féin also pledges “to invest in our court system”, especially family courts, to reduce delays.
Beyond this point, the document parts ways with popular opinion. There is no promise of stiffer sentencing and no mention of the Prison Service. The only reference to custody is “for those who exploit or coerce a child into criminality”.
Instead, there are repeated references to “youth diversion programmes” and a pledge to explore “alternative mechanisms such as restorative justice and community sanctions for less serious crimes”.
Most crime is committed by a small number of persistent offenders, almost all of whom will stop by the age of 30
Custodial sentences for violent young offenders are essential to break the cycle of coercion and criminality, according to John Lonergan, the former director of Mountjoy Prison. His comments to Virgin Media’s Tonight Show on Monday were shared across social media to widespread approval. Sinn Féin can get away with ignoring this because every other major party does likewise.
Most crime is committed by a small number of persistent offenders, almost all of whom will stop by the age of 30. So imprisonment can be highly effective in protecting the public. But few governments anywhere are prepared to confront the electorate with what this requires: a huge investment in well-run, modern prisons that do not brutalise their inmates. It also requires a belief in custody that officialdom has lost, or had browbeaten out of it, often without resistance. The Irish Penal Reform Trust, for example, is funded by the Government to lobby the Government for less use of imprisonment.
While Sinn Féin cannot stretch itself to becoming the lock ‘em up party, it has chosen to send a ‘common sense’ signal over the hate crime Bill by withdrawing its initial support and seeking amendments
But there is a paradox in political fashion. The Government is trying to create hate speech offences punishable by up to five years in jail and to lengthen sentences on crimes such as assault where hatred is an aggravating factor. This has contributed to a sense of hypocrisy, elitist priorities and an establishment out of touch with reality.
While Sinn Féin cannot stretch itself to becoming the lock ‘em up party, it has chosen to send a “common sense” signal over the hate crime Bill by withdrawing its initial support and seeking amendments. This is a remarkable enough change of clothes for Mary Lou McDonald’s party. It is now one step away from criticising Fine Gael for being woke and defunding the police.
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Sinn Féin has a relatively clean slate to pursue this experiment in the Republic, as it has never had any meaningful responsibility for law and order in Northern Ireland. It did not accept the devolution of policing and justice until 2010. Prior to that, it wanted to police republican areas via its own restorative justice schemes. This was deeply unpopular and never got off the ground — the mention of restorative justice in Tuesday’s document cannot be implying anything similar.
After 2010, the DUP and Sinn Féin agreed not to take the justice portfolio, which they usually pass to Alliance. Stormont’s minister for justice is mainly responsible for prisons, with policing overseen by a separate board.
This is neatly compartmentalised for the complexities of republican politics. If the Government leaves the door open to Sinn Féin laying claim to law and order, of course the party will seize its chance.