Irish coalition parties hammer Sinn Fein in local elections

Ireland’s two main coalition parties soundly beat Sinn Fein in local council elections on Sunday, a surprising and potentially devastating blow to the left-wing party’s hope of its first victory in national elections due by March.
Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, has recently seen a commanding three-year opinion poll lead disappear as more voters came to see immigration as their top concern rather than affordable housing, an issue which Sinn Fein dominated.
With almost half of the 949 seats filled, the outcome was far worse for Sinn Fein than polls suggested. Prime Minister Simon Harris’ Fine Gael and his main coalition partner Fianna Fail each had 23% of the first-preference votes, with Sinn Fein on 11%.