The Long Game: How Sinn Féin went from Political Outsider to a Party of Government

Sinn Féin is the most popular political party in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The local government elections in Northern Ireland in May 2023 cemented Sinn Féin’s status as the largest party north of the border, while polling indicates that Mary Lou McDonald could lead the party into government in the Republic at the next General Election. Questions therefore arise as to what a Sinn Féin government would mean for Ireland’s role in the European Union, Irish unity, and military neutrality, amongst other issues. In her keynote address to the IIEA, award-winning journalist Aoife Moore discusses her new book, The Long Game: Inside Sinn Féin, including what can be expected from Sinn Féin as a party of government and how a Sinn Féin-led Northern Ireland Executive may impact post-Brexit politics. In the 25th anniversary year of the Good Friday Agreement, Ms Moore also discusses the state of play in Northern Irish politics. 

About the Speaker: 

Aoife Moore is an award-winning journalist and the author of The Long Game: Inside Sinn Féin. She is a former political correspondent for the Sunday Times and the Irish Examiner and spent two years working as a journalist for Press Association. In 2020, she broke the “Golfgate” story on the Oireachtas Golf Society scandal along with her colleague Paul Hosford, for which they were jointly awarded Journalist of the Year at the 2021 Newsbrands Irish Journalism Awards. A Derry native, Ms Moore has written and commented extensively on Northern Ireland, Irish and Northern Irish politics, the legacy of the Troubles, and the Good Friday Agreement, as well as the unique challenges faced by women in Irish journalism and more widely in Irish society.