'All to play for' as SF aims to present clear alternative

In sporting parlance, Sinn Féin needs to get a result this weekend.

The task is to present a clear alternative to the Government parties.

It must be done by selling policies that can deliver things like affordable housing, cutting childcare costs, and making the health system function far better.

Right now, Sinn Féin's support is sliding in opinion polls and the trajectory has been decidedly downwards of late.

That said, the party is still ahead of where it started the last general election campaign.

Back then everything changed swiftly when the party’s message captured the mood of voters seeking an alternative.

The optimists in this political movement point to that successful period, plus they highlight the fact that about one-in-five people say they have not decided how they will vote next time.

Coupled with this is the recent research compiled by the Electoral Commission.

It showed that, on average, half of voters only decided how they would vote in the week before local and European elections.

That is all leading several Sinn Féin TDs to enthusiastically suggest that "it is all to play for".

The party is also operating at close to full tilt in terms of campaigning and canvassing on the ground even after the bruising elections earlier this year.

This work is primarily focused on delivering a leaflet outlining the party’s housing policy entitled 'A Home of Your Own'.

Hundreds of thousands of leaflets have been printed.

While the party activists are said to be motivated, they are unquestionably angry too.

They feel aggrieved that their reservations about the Family and Care referendums were ignored by the party’s leadership.

There is a view among the delegates gathering in Athlone that this mistake was accompanied by a series of missteps on immigration too.

They think the combined effect was that Sinn Féin became indistinguishable from the Government.

That seems to be the core problem identified by the review of the party’s underwhelming performance in the June elections.

A party with a leadership more willing to listen to its grassroots is likely to emerge from this Ard Fheis.

While there is no outward criticism of the party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, there is a strong feeling that much hinges on her performance in the upcoming election campaign.

Widely regarded as a capable and combative politician in the Dáil, party strategists are keen to find ways of presenting her more "human side" to voters.

This is based on a prediction that the final weeks of the general election campaign will have a presidential vibe as three party leaders pitch themselves as the future Taoiseach.

If the last general election brought in a wave of new TDs for the party, there is an awareness too that an ebbing political tide can be devastating.

To maximise its electoral chances, the party is seeking to be nimble in its candidate selection.

It has selected more than 50 candidates so far, but it is retaining the option of adding many more to election tickets. The final figure could rise to 64.

Therefore, in areas like Donegal, where the party has long been regarded as having a good chance of winning three seats, just the two sitting TDs are currently selected.

But this is subject to change.

The party believes that the major promotion of its housing policy will yield results soon and it could find itself on the election starting line, in at least second place.

Essentially, they feel, as the old song goes, that things can only get better.

Or as Pearse Doherty put it: "The closer we get, the harder it gets. So, the harder things are; the closer we are."

That is a sentiment which motivates the party, but it is not clear at this point if it just amounts to misplaced optimism.