Carthy commends Ní Riada – Acknowledges SF needs to learn lessons of presidential campaign
Sinn Féin MEP, Matt Carthy, has commended his EU collegaue Liadh Ní Riada for her performance as his party’s candidate in the Presidential Election which saw Michael D Higgins re-elected on Saturday last.
Carthy, who oversaw his party’s tally operation for the Cavan Monaghan count in Cavan Leisure centre and proceeded to attend the official election announcement in Dublin Castle, acknowledged that Sinn Féin will need to learn lessons from the campaign.
Speaking this week, Carthy said:
“I want to offer my congratulations to Micheal D Higgins on his re-election with a renewed mandate. I wish him well for the coming term.
“I also want to commend my party’s candidate, Liadh Ní Riada. You can often tell most about a person, especially in politics, when you see how they manage themselves when things don’t go their way. Having joined Liadh at the official count centre in Dublin Castle on Saturday I was hugely impressed with way in which she handled herself, showing dignity and grace at all times
“This was reflective of the way in which Liadh approached the entire election campaign. Despite the poor result, we are very proud of her.
“Of course, for us in Sinn Féin, there are lessons that we will have to take from this experience. I firmly believe that we were right to contest the elections while the other parties sat on the sidelines. However, the vote received by our candidate is extremely disappointing.
“We will now carry out a full review of the way in which we ran the campaign and the message that we presented. We will have to analyse this and all other aspects of the election and learn the lessons for the battles ahead.
“Sinn Féin is about delivering radical and progressive change. In order to achieve that we need electoral strength. That means listening and learning and we intend to do both in the period ahead.
“We will face local and EU elections next year and will contest a General Election as soon as either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael decide to end their grubby little ‘coalition that isn’t a coalition’ arrangement. It is my view that only a strong Sinn Féin can deliver the type of change that Ireland requires and therefore we will lose no time in getting back to work after last week’s results.”
ENDS
