Sinn Féin earthquake will affect the future of UK constitutional makeup.

It seems that Plaid Cymru's historic decision to invite the Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald to deliver a keynote address to the activists of Plaid Cymru at their party conference in Swansea last year was both inspirational and showed foresight.

Speaking at the conference McDonald called for a “pan-Celtic political culture to defeat Toryism”. She said:

“The futures of Ireland and Wales must be shaped by the hopes and aspirations of our peoples. Not by Boris Johnson and his band of Eton elitists in London.

“Toryism is a political culture that has always been a clear and present threat to our well-being.

“We need a counter political culture; a pan-Celtic, anti-Tory political culture that respects each other’s sovereignty and right to nationhood.”

Today Ms Mc Donald wakes up won almost a quarter of first-preference votes, possibly pipping Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, two right-centrist rivals that have taken turns ruling Ireland for a century.

0With just about half the seats filled Sinn Féin have already surpassed their 2016 surge.

A Flourish data visualisation

However, because Sinn Féin only ran 42 candidates across 39 constituencies as against 84 for Fianna Fáil and 82 for Fine Gael, it’s share of the vote will not translate into seats to the same extent as the other two parties and both FG and FF are likely to end up with more seats but with 80 seats needed for a majority government , they to wil not be able to form a government on thier own.

That is sure to be a matter of regret to the party, but then who could have seen this coming and reflects one problem of STV in that Parties have to anticipate the strength well before the nomination of candidates 

However it will be interesting to see how SF "surplus votes" translates and it could boost Socialist Paries and the Greens .

The big loosers however could be Irish Labour for years the Kingmakers  in Irish politics and will struggle to match the 7 seats they won last time.

Like the SNP in Scotland Sinn Féin have preformed a earthquake in these Islands  one that threats the constitutional make up , increasing the movement to an United Ireland.

We can only wonder when Wales will follow suit and have its own Political revolution.