Bad Politics is like Bad Sex

Sinn Féin backs Catherine Connolly for President

“I think Sinn Féin’s participation will be a game-changer. It will be very much game on”. - Mary Lou McDonald

Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, promised the assembled press corps a “game changer” at the ploughing championship in County Offaly on Thursday, triggering a tsunami of speculation as to who they might nominate for the upcoming Irish presidential election. Sinn Féin tantalised and teased us; they dropped the hand, the Presidential race was coming alive. Things were heating up! Social media was abuzz, ready for fireworks—a presidential candidate to sweep across the bedsheets of the nation, leaving democracy moaning “yes” in six different Irish dialects. But the crescendo? It’s over before it started. Sinn Féin backed someone already in the race. How is that a game-changer?

Much like that infamous night we’ve all experienced, the build-up from Sinn Féin was a masterclass in seduction. Sinn Féin hinted at a presidential revolution, but what they delivered was tepid smal…