Sinn Féin echoes Labour in 1997 with softly-softly Stormont campaign
by Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent from World news | The Guardian on (#5YTG3)
With ultra-guarded, disciplined election strategy, party is cautiously edging towards potentially momentous win
In the 1997 general election Roy Jenkins compared Tony Blair to a man carrying a Ming vase across a slippery floor, tiptoeing gingerly towards a Labour victory.
The same description fits Sinn Fein as it approaches Northern Ireland's assembly election on Thursday, cautiously edging towards a potentially momentous win. The prize is to emerge as the region's largest party and claim the post of first minister - a symbolic and psychological breakthrough for Irish nationalism given Northern Ireland was designed to have a permanent unionist majority.
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