Coming 6th in a 4 Horse Race
Anthony McIntyre
23/5/2002The Southern elections are over and Fianna Fail shall be back in government running the show much the same as before. Despite predictions like that thrown about by the Irish Voice that 'the story of the Irish election will be the performance of Sinn Fein', the epilogue told it somewhat differently. Last year's post-Nice referendum pronouncement by recently defeated Dublin candidate Nicky Kehoe that the Southern political establishment would be shocked and knocked sideways by the party's showing in 2002 did not come to pass. Outside of the right wing press there was little sense of alarm. And that alarm was probably fed by no small measure of embarrassment at having pronounced the party's chances dead in the water, particularly in North Kerry. While the republican party performed well, there was little that should engender surprise, Maurice Hayes making the point that the achievement was 'less mould-breaking than many commentators would suggest'. But not to be deterred from making good stories the media, more so in the North, opted for the sensational rather than the sensible.
Comments: 7:04:42 AM 
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