EVERY NIGHT DURING the general election, TheJournal.ie brings you the latest from the Election 2016 campaign trail.
Everybody’s talking about
Gerry Adams ill-advised claim that there is no such thing as “ganglands” has opened him up to renewed criticism with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour only happy to oblige.
The fact we’re in the middle of a general election campaign only heightens the rhetoric from other parties with Enda Kenny today calling on Adams to comment on the weapons used in the fatal attack on the Regency Hotel last Friday. For the record, Adams said “the IRA are gone and their weapons are gone”.
But the scrutiny of Sinn Féin’s links to elements of dissident republicanism will continue in the days ahead. Furthermore the sentencing of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy on Friday for tax evasion will require further reaction from Adams on a topic he’d rather not talk about during the election.
All that said, the biggest and perhaps most important question is whether it will damage Sinn Féin in the polls. Previous controversies have tended not to. In the midst of the local and European elections in 2014 Adams’s arrest did the party little harm as it scored its best-ever electoral result south of the border.
Still, that won’t make it any easier for a party that would prefer to focus on its policies and not its past with its manifesto being launched tomorrow.
Slap Down of the Day
Sinn Féin made good use of Leo Varadkar’s unfortunate slip on Morning Ireland.
(He meant to say Sinn Féin)
Row of the Day
We’ve enjoyed the spat between Sinn Féin and Young Fine Gael over an unfortunate typo and an ill-advised photoshop job.
WTF Moment of the Day
Oh nothing, just Nelson Mandela on a Renua candidate’s leaflet.
Shout out also for these, er, wet wipes courtesy of Simon Harris.
It was a good day for
It was a bad day for
Tomorrow’s news today: What’s happening on the campaign trail
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say