The Daily Ireland reports that Ireland’s largest political party, Fianna Fail, may be set to organise in the North if the SDLP fare badly in the election. (Hat-tip to Slugger’s Mick Fealty.)
The Daily Ireland source is un-named (although some of their own writers might fit the description?). However, the suggestion accords with some of the speculation on an earlier thread here at the Green Ribbon.
In may ways, an all-Ireland presence would be a natural development for Fianna Fail, which celebrated the anniversary of the Easter Rising on Sunday. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s speech on the occasion is a good guide to the party’s basic philosophy.
A least one passage could be taken to imply an onus on Fianna Fail to put its case to the electorate in the north:
The positions of Taoiseach and Uachtarán Fianna Fáil bring with them a
clear and historic responsibility at the head of Nationalist Ireland. It is a role I take seriously and one that I will not shirk. I will not play the politics of exclusion. I will always seek to persuade and convince all elements of Nationalist Ireland of the veracity of our analysis of Republicanism.
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