Politics Update #31: Sinn Féin: Fit to Govern, North and South? Interview with Dr. Ray Bassett

On both sides of the Irish border, Sinn Féin is on the rise – they’re the biggest party in the Stormont Assembly; in the Irish parliament they’re joint biggest, and polling indicates they would win a clear first place at the next election. To learn more about the reasons for their new successes, Primary spoke to Dr Ray Bassett: Ray was a former Irish ambassador to Canada; he was involved in the negotiation and drafting of the Good Friday Agreement and is a Pynter Fellow at Yale University.

Our interview covers the issues influencing Irish politics in the North and South, how SF might go about forming a government in the Republic and the hurdles they could encounter; their links to the IRA are less of an issue for voters now, but is their ‘anti-business’ economic approach still a liability?