Nationalism has rocked the United States and could put Sinn Fein in power on both sides of Irish border

The outstanding story of the past year, apart from the scourge of Covid-19, is undoubtedly the upheaval and disorder in the world’s most powerful democracy, the United States.

The free world has been rocked to its foundations and genuine fear for the stability of Western democracy is apparent throughout Europe and further afield.

Questions must be asked: how will weaker nations fare if the world’s ‘policeman’ loses the battle to overcome the political scourge of rabid nationalism?

And there are ominous signs too for both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Since last year’s general election, and for some time before that, Sinn Fein, a nationalist party conceived in the early years of the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, has made major advances in the Republic of Ireland.

That party came ominously close to being part of a coalition government but failed to make the breakthrough.

Based on the rise in populist regimes across Europe and now including the United States, it will not be too long before Sinn Fein populism becomes endemic in Irish society.

Governance North and South is their avowed aim.

The warning signs have been there for many years but Irish government ineptitude and Sinn Fein’s strategy of applying pressure by challenging the government on issues related to the Irish language means successive governments have been caught in a bind of their own making.

Ongoing government hypocrisy means playing Sinn Fein at its own game and they are the undisputed masters.

Clandestine connections with a private leadership based in Belfast seems of little interest to RTE (the national broadcaster in the Republic).

Successive Irish governments and most of the mainstream media in the Republic support the fiction of Irish being our first language though only a tiny fraction of the population can understand a word of it.

Is it any wonder that Sinn Fein will soon enjoy governance on both sides of the border.

Democracy or hypocrisy?

We can still save the ship!

Niall Ginty, Killester, Dublin, 5

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