I'm not taking about the representatives but a slice of their voters, including older relatives of mine*. It's like abortion: policy was in favour, but a chunk of their vote against which led to some rather strange contortions

* In at least one case because the EU is the vehicle of the antichrist.

Sinn Fein opposed Ireland's entry to the EU and pretty much every referendum since then which devolved more sovereignty onto the EU. However that opposition softened over the years as Sinn Fein sought to become a mainstream party culminating in Sinn Fein campaigning for Remain in the 2016 UK Brexit referendum.

Even then there was some debate within the party and mixed feelings about supporting the Remain side - something Sinn Fein is rather coy about admitting now. With the DUP supporting Brexit, it had little choice but to support Remain as the issue became refracted by the sectarian divide in N.Ireland.

As a nationalist party it opposed European integration and as it moved leftward it increasingly embraced left wing critiques of the neo-liberalism, globalisation, and neo-imperialism of the EU.

But now Brexit has provided it with a stick to beat the DUP with and an opportunity to become part of a pro-EU majority in the North - almost as a proxy for a united Ireland. So prior opposition has been replaced by a muted scepticism, if not down right enthusiasm.

Past opposition to almost anything EU has been consigned to a memory hole.

Index of Frank's Diaries