Letters

Sinn Féin and Generation Z

Younger voters want change

Thu Sept 08 2022 - 00:10

Sir, – Gemma Haverty has ticked all the boxes that Sinn Féin has ostentatiously presented to the electorate in its attempts to get into power (”Sinn Féin is speaking the language of my generation, but can it deliver?, Opinion & Analysis, September 7th).

But there are other issues in its profile that it has not been so keen to highlight. It has been unable to formulate a coherent policy on the great existential subject of our time, emissions reduction, and it seems the reason for this is that it cannot decide which segment of the electorate it wants to impress the most, rural or urban. Its record in various referendums shows it is, at best, ambivalent about Ireland’s role in the European Union, our membership of which is the most important political development for Ireland in any generation, including Gen Z.

It cannot be denied by anyone that Sinn Féin glorifies violence. Even as it depends on the desire of younger voters to live in the present, in order to gloss over what they were responsible for in the receding past, senior figures like Michelle O’Neill can still, right now, make remarks to the effect that the IRA had no alternative to the sickening acts of violence it perpetrated. A current frontbench member was able to shout IRA slogans in the euphoria of Sinn Féin’s relative success in the last general election.

We need to take the totality of what Sinn Féin stands for into account. – Yours, etc,

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SEAMUS McKENNA,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – What makes the promises of Sinn Féin more believable than the promises of any of the other Opposition parties? Surely not the age profile? I would like to think that Generation Z has done its homework. – Yours, etc,

NIALL GINTY,

Killester,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – Gemma Haverty is correct when she says that no alternative exists in the forthcoming general election for young people other than to vote for Sinn Féin. Her generation is, naturally, eager to live in the present and the fact that the “Troubles” are not mentioned should also be heeded by Sinn Féin. At least that party seems to believe in a social-contract obligation and is prepared to garnish the income of the wealthy to restore equity among the Irish people, something both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael appear to recoil from. Primarily they still represent the contained wealthy in Irish society.

Generation Z will have its opportunity, and the chattering classes have run out of alphabet. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Firhouse,

Dublin 24.