The general election on Thursday presents Sinn Fein with an historic opportunity to become Northern Ireland’s largest party in Westminster, albeit while continuing its decades-long policy of abstentionism.
It would come less than a month after a disastrous showing in the local and European elections in the south, which has plunged the party into a crisis requiring what one of its senior strategists in Dublin said was a “recalibration”.
The result has piled pressure on Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s leader, as it has effectively stalled the seemingly inexorable rise of the party as a political force on the island of Ireland.
• What happened to Sinn Fein and what’s next for Mary Lou McDonald?
It was far from this current crisis just a few
