Sinn Féin announced on Friday that its leader Mary Lou McDonald and her deputy Michelle O’Neill would boycott St Patrick’s Day events at the White House this year. As the party’s former deputy head of press in the last Dáil term, I have some idea of the reasons – some principled, some pragmatic – that lie behind the decision.
The party obviously feels a genuine affinity with the people of Palestine. In the context of the ongoing genocide inflicted on the people of Gaza, the boycott will be well received by its membership and broader voting base. But the move is also about strategic positioning.
In the South, the boycott is part of an increasingly aggressive approach to put clear water between Sinn Féin and the Government parties – a bid to shed its “government in waiting” tag, which undermined its electoral performance in the 2024 general election.
Sinn Féin also has an eye to this autumn’s presidential election, where a party candidate for the Áras could come under pressure from left-wing rivals over Gaza. And so the party was keen to pre-emptively take the White House visit off the table as a potential political vulnerability.
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In the North, it will be hoping the decision will address a growing paradox that is becoming increasingly apparent in O’Neill’s role as First Minister.
O’Neill made history by becoming the first Irish Republican to hold the position, following an Assembly election campaign in which she ran on a promise to be a “First Minister For All”.
The symbolism of this was electrifying for many Northern republicans and nationalists. In a state that had been carved up to ensure that unionist supremacy in the top position would reign indefinitely, many thought they would never see the day.
The DUP’s refusal to return to Stormont in the immediate aftermath of those election results, ostensibly due to concerns about Brexit, added to the sense of history – and a narrative that the North’s largest unionist party felt threatened by Sinn Féin holding the office.
Sinn Féin boycotts Trump's White House over Gaza
When the DUP’s boycott of the institutions ended and O’Neill was finally able to take up the role in February 2024, there was a novelty for nationalist voters in seeing her at the helm of the Executive. Although the difference between the roles of First Minister and Deputy First Minister is largely abstract and symbolic, in Northern politics, symbolism is everything.
But in the year since, however, Sinn Féin has struggled to maintain that momentum. O’Neill is faced with a paradox. She cannot criticise the DUP too aggressively without putting it in a position where it can use the strained relationship as a pretext for pulling down the institutions again. Similarly, she can’t be seen to criticise other moderate parties in the Assembly too strongly without risking alienating much-needed transfers from the Alliance Party and SDLP.
As a result, O’Neill has spent her time in office so far as a moderate and inclusive voice. This has been characterised by calls for partnership and collaboration and gingerly tiptoeing around the political rivals Sinn Féin once fought tooth and nail.
Sinn Féin has stumbled into a trap; it has been able to hold on to the position of First Minister only by virtue of doing very little with it. This creates a strategic challenge for the party as it looks ahead to the Assembly election due to take place in 2027. Given how much the symbolic value of the role has waned in the last year alone, it is likely to be even less potent by the time voters next go to the polls. In that election campaign, the party will not be able to sell the prospect of a Republican First Minister as a historic first. Nor will it be able to point to many instances where having a Republican at the helm of the Executive will have made a tangible difference, or engage in the crude inter-party squabbles that often characterise Assembly election campaigns.
Implicit in this strategy was the hope that McDonald would become taoiseach in November’s general election and, in so doing, reinject energy into the party’s position within Northern nationalism. Now O’Neill will be looking for other opportunities to reposition herself in the First Minister role. This means taking a harder stance on issues outside of Stormont, to inject some of the passion and vigour that has been lacking from the party’s style in the North recently.
Through boycotting this year’s White House events, O’Neill has an opportunity to position herself as a strong voice and an activist once again. She can engage in the protest politics and robust language that the party is more comfortable with, facing few, if any, negative repercussions for her position as First Minister.
Former US president Joe Biden’s time in office was characterised by a keen interest in Irish affairs, while few in the current administration will see O’Neill as an important player in international politics. Likewise, few senior figures will share Sinn Féin’s ardently pro-Palestine stance. There will be many conversations taking place behind the scenes with influential figures in Irish America to explain the party’s decision. Sinn Féin will have made a political calculation that any temporary strain on relationships will be limited and outweighed by the prospect of electoral gains at home in Ireland.
Therefore, for Sinn Féin, this boycott is a safe gambit and is likely to be the first of a slew of stronger stances on issues outside of Stormont that O’Neill will engage in.
In the Dáil, this will include the party continuing to take a more hostile approach to the Government parties. This will not only seek to establish Sinn Féin as the antithesis of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, but by promoting sharp Dáil exchanges heavily on the party’s social media channels, it will also serve a secondary purpose in reminding Northern voters of the passion and drive that its Stormont proceedings have come to lack.
Siobhán Fenton is a writer living in Belfast. She was a senior communications adviser to Sinn Féin in the last Dáil term, including as the party’s deputy head of press in the Oireachtas from 2022-2024
