We're not voting for anyone, stay in bed yeah.
No, you have to go out and vote, vote for Sinn Féin, yeah.
We need a new government, the best outcome is a government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil
so that's the first thing that I want to test. Okay? Great stuff.
One night I made one and I sent it to my friend, I didn't ... I was like, don't put this anywhere.
I was like, I'm just sending it here because it's funny, it was only meant to be for group chat,
and then he sent it to another one of our friends and he was like, it's going up on TikTok.
Hello, we're twins, we're twins, yes sure. I am me, she is she ...
You have this constant circle where Fianna Fáil are let into government and then they do a really bad job,
so people go oh, why don't I vote for Fine Gael?
And then Fine Gael go into government, they do a really bad job and then people vote for Fianna Fáil.
And it's been this constant circle in Ireland over and over again, since basically the foundation of the state.
Then finally people are seeing that so it was kind of just making fun of the two of them for trying to pretend
they are not the same party.
And how does it feel when people say you don't understand the past?
You know, I was born in 2000.
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998,
so I have never known anything but peace, same with all of my friends that are from the north.
And I don't know, it just kind of hurts that like people are trying to put what happened in the past
in front of what should happen in the future.
So did you vote Sinn Féin for the first time this year then?
For me? Yes, yes.
Some people have said that quite a lot of young people might have started being activists for Sinn Féin
because they didn't live through the Troubles.
Well, they might have not lived through the Troubles,
but they've certainly all known the Troubles were there
and all the issues that went around that.
And nobody will ever condone, you know, that history of Ireland.
But, you know, we are where we are today and what the young people will remember more,
and my generation remembers just as much, is the recession and how it would affect the people.
Was there something particularly different about this year and this election?
I think for the first time in politics, the young people have got involved and it's great to see it.
Like, 10 years ago, you know, there was a little bit of talk of, oh my God, we're leaving this country to the youth,
today, now I'm proud to feel that we are leaving this country to the youth today.
In Ireland you have this like persona that the father in the family decides who he votes for.
And then he learned from his father and he learned from his father and that's why we have consecutive
terrible Fianna Fáil governments.
But now the children are talking to their parents and maybe they are changing their ways.
So it's like, yeah, the youth got involved for the first time and there has been a huge change.
But also I think it was this whole conversation that happened that, you know,
if the young people involved are talking about this, maybe everyone is talking about this, I think.
Just wanted to make it awkward, punch your sign at the people coming in,
very peaceful but very clear with our message.
Students cannot afford to live in Dublin.
They're sleeping on the streets, they're sleeping in cars,
they are sharing cars so they can sleep in them.
They're not carrying books in their bags, they're carrying sleeping bags.
Housing prices are higher than they've ever been, homelessness is higher than it's ever been.
And I think that the result of the recent election just shows that people in Ireland and the young people
just don't want to stand for that anymore.
Did it impact how you voted? Absolutely.
My first choice was Sinn Féin.
Like, obviously people have different opinions of Sinn Féin, I know that people in my family
are very against Sinn Féin because of their past.
Did you vote Sinn Féin?
My parents are watching, for my parents I gave them a high preference.
Is there a possibility they just tapped into what they think people want, but they won't actually deliver it?
Absolutely, but I would say at least they've tapped into it,
at least they can see what people want.
You know, they're clearly saying the right things, so they're doing something out there.
Obviously the Irish people placed a lot of faith in Sinn Féin, they won the majority vote.
We trust them obviously that in the next government, that there will be some change and if there is no change
well, that will be your answer to whether our trust was well placed or not.
Because we had ministers in the past who really lost touch with reality and we don't want that to be the case
in the future. Whether it's going to be a Sinn Féin-led government or a Fianna Fáil or a Fine Gael
group or coalition ... that table will have to go because the people of Ireland will not accept it.
It's been described as a youthquake what happened today. Is that correct?
No, I think that's too simplistic. So, first of all, the youth vote has been really, really significant,
but their parents also voted for us and their grandparents also voted for us
in very significant numbers.
Two long-standing voters of ours told us that their mother, who is 83, who has never voted for our party,
was voting for us because she was fed up of the crisis in the health system and the expensive childcare,
that her grandchildren had to pay and the fact that their grandchildren couldn't afford to rent or buy.
This is cross-generational, this is young people, this is their parents, this is their grandparents
saying the old political system is over, it's now up to us to create something new.
So what happens if the talks break down?
We want to be in government, but it has to be a government that does things differently.
We can't go back to the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael status quo.
Should there be another election? No, there shouldn't.
People have voted, they've given their view, they want politicians to roll up their sleeves,
form a government and deliver the change that people have voted for.
And that's what we're going to focus on in the time ahead.
If you've got a situation today where you've got a teacher and a guard [police officer] maybe in a house who
cannot get a mortgage, it's ridiculous.
And that's been the case in this country for a long time.
What do you hope it's going to happen from this result?
So it's looking like the deal on the table right now,
it's Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, even though they swore they wouldn't go in with each other.
are going to go into a coalition and they're looking for the greens going with them.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil don't care, they don't care about the climate crisis, the housing crisis,
they care about their little bubble inside Dublin.
Them to jump together now and going there, they're not doing what the people are asking
and they're not listening to the people and they're ignoring the voters.