Sinn Féin select Boylan and Doolan for Europe

Sinn Féin have selected Senator Lynn Boylan and veteran Councillor Daithí Doolan as their candidates for the European elections next June.

Boylan is looking to win back the European Parliament seat she surprisingly lost to Clare Daly in 2019, while Doolan is looking to make the leap from Dublin City Council to Europe.

Sinn Féin plans to run two European candidates in each constituency in Ireland next summer, and the selection of Boylan and Doolan marks the first time two Sinn Féin candidates will appear on the ballot in Dublin.

While there was speculation that Sinn Féin would run Senator Fintan Warfield as a candidate, Doolan and his decade-plus experience winning out.

Doolan has been a Councillor for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh ward since 2014, and prior to that was Councillor for the South-East Inner City between 2004 and 2009.

Doolan also contended the 2002 and 2007 general elections for Sinn Féin.

Speaking following the announcement, Boylan said “the demand for real change grows stronger by the day.”

She said “the housing crisis, health crisis and the high cost of living” are the main issues she is campaigning on.

“Our future is to be at the forefront of creating a transformed, social European Union that is about improving people’s lives.”

“Europe must concern itself with advancing the causes which nations need to collaborate on to resolve together; worker’s rights, environmental protections, social justice, ethical trade, research and developments are areas in which co-operation is necessary.”

Doolan said “a vote for Sinn Féin in the European elections is a vote for strong representation, for people who will stand up for Irish interests and work with others for a better European Union.”

“We will oppose any attempts by the European Union to take further power from member states, including on foreign policy or tax.”

“We have seen this most recently in the partisan actions of European Office holders, especially Commissioner Ursula Von der Leyen with regards to the conflict in the Middle East,” he stated.

Doolan said that Ireland needs MEPs “who will bring the case for Irish unity to the European Parliament.”

Sinn Féin running two candidates in each European constituency is representative of the party treating next year’s local and European elections as a proving ground for the next general election, with the party eager to learn from their mistakes in 2019.

Sinn Féin’s traditional left-wing Euroscepticism has fallen to the wayside in recent years as the party continues to moderate in their bid for power, with the party rowing back policies such as withdrawing from the EU common defence arrangement.

In recent months, Sinn Féin has indicated they are willing to switch their European Parliament grouping from GUE/NGL. the most left-wing grouping in the EU parliament and consisting of communist or left-wing Eurosceptic parties such as Greece’s Syriza party or Germany’s Die Linke, and switching to the Socialists and Democrats grouping.

The Socialists and Democrats grouping is home to the likes of traditional centre-left parties such as Labour, Germany’s governing SPD party, and Spain’s recently re-elected PSOE party.

The Dublin constituency has seen a major shake-up in recent weeks with the news that Fine Gael veteran Frances Fitzgerald will not run for re-election.