As Sinn Féin surges, will Ireland’s election herald radical change?

Faced with a deepening housing crisis and a troubled health system, the country’s voters are challenging the historic duopoly of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. .

By Caelainn Hogan

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald speaks during the seven way RTE leaders debate at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) campus in Galway, Ireland on January 27, 2020. (Photo By Getty Images)

In matching navy suits, two men stood against a backdrop that resembled the set of a game of Quasar and answered the questions of a third suited man about the future of Ireland. This was the first debate (22 January) of the 2020 Irish general election, between prime minister Leo Varadkar and challenger Micheál Martin, the leaders of two parties historically divided but now seen as different faces of the same establishment.

These two parties, which have alternated in power since the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, were on opposite sides of the civil war at its inception. Fianna Fáil, Martin’s party, opposed the British treaty that partitioned Ireland, while Fine Gael, Varadkar’s party, accepted it in the hope of still pursuing a united Ireland.