From Outsiders to the Mainstream: A comparative evaluation of Sinn Féin as an all-island party since the Great Recession

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This project sets out to develop an all-island study of Sinn Féin (SF) which compares its operations in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) to Northern Ireland (NI). This will be achieved within a framework that aids comparison to other political parties on the island of Ireland and with similar anti-systemic parties internationally. This project aims to explore the evolution of SF as an all-island electoral force, the impact this has had on its party identity, and the workings of its intra-party democracy, which may help us to better understand how this unusual party has become a significant electoral player in two separate jurisdictions. This research matters because a United Ireland is the central aim of SF, an area of policy convergence for its activist base. Therefore, SF in government both sides of the Irish border will have obvious implications for the NI peace process, the integrity of the United Kingdom, internal European Union politics, European borders, and have potential ramifications for nationalist movements in other European countries. Irish unification is a legitimate democratic aim, but policymakers and the academic community need to better understand SF, in order to help prepare for the potential of new constitutional settlements within Europe. SF's links to the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its gradual acceptance of NI's political institutions has been the focus of much political scholarship to date. However, this focus on political violence and constitutional normalisation has meant that SF's evolving party identity and intra-party structures remain underexplored. In addition, the increasing importance of SF in the ROI and the impact this has had on its party identity and decision-making remains inadequately understood. This project will rectify this gap in our knowledge through the use of semi-structured interviews with key political actors, social network analysis, party manifesto data, policy documents, electoral data, and opinion survey data.