Ireland’s Sinn Fein rules out joining government as youth party

LONDONDERRY (Reuters) – Ireland’s leading opposition party, Sinn Fein, ruled out joining a coalition government as a minority partner after an election due early next year on Friday. Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army, has gone from holding five of Ireland’s 166 seats in parliament before the 2008 financial crisis to being one of the two most popular parties, according to most opinion polls in recent months. On Friday, party members passed a motion barring it from acting as a minority partner in a coalition for either of the country’s two dominant right-wing parties – Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael or Fianna Fail. Neither party is expected to win enough votes to govern on its own. The motion made no mention of Ireland’s fourth most popular party, the centre-left Labour Party. It has received less than half of Sinn Fein’s support in recent opinion polls and is not seen as a candidate to win an election. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Larry King)