'Cowards and Women': Reporting the Rise of Sinn Féin

Chris speaks to BBC Ireland correspondent Aoife Moore about the controversial rise of Ireland’s largest political party, Sinn Féin. Hardline militants in the republican movement used to regard their political wing as a place for ‘women and cowards’, but with Sinn Fein already the largest party in Northern Ireland, and leading the polls for the next Dail election, how do we assess the party’s journey from irrelevance to the brink of power?

Before moving to the BBC, Aoife was named Irish journalist of the year in 2021 for her reporting with the Irish Examiner. Her new book, The Long Game, traces the history of Sinn Féin from the 1970s to the present day, and was nominated for Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. In front of a live audience at Ireland’s Edge in Dingle last December, Chris spoke to Aoife about her book, her life as a journalist, and the future of Irish politics.