Political earthquakes are rare, but the result of the parliamentary election in the Republic of Ireland on February 8, 2020 stunned the political establishment by the surprising performance of Sinn Féin (We Ourselves), the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, the IRA.  Though it had run only 42 candidates, Sinn Féin, S.F., gained 14 seats, 24.5% of the vote, and won 37 of the 160 seats, while Fine Gael (Tribe of the Irish), the party of prime minister Leo Varadkar, got 35 seats and 20.9% of the vote and Fianna Fáil (Soldiers of Destiny) got 38 seats and 22.2% of the vote. S.F. had run a good electoral campaign with proposals for positive programs for mass housing, rent freeze, better health system, increases in public spending, and climate change.  Yet whatever the sincerity of these promises, the real objective of S.F. is Irish unity and a referendum as the means to secure it.  S.F. is now important in the...(Read Full Article)