"Th' whole worl's in a terrible state o' chassis" is the last line of ‘Juno and the Paycock’, Sean O’Casey’s play set in the Dublin tenements during the Irish Civil War.

I could be absolutely wrong but I suspect that the average Unionist voter in Fermanagh and South Tyrone has little knowledge of O’Casey, and possibly little interest either, which is a pity.

First performed in The Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924, it was the second of O’Casey’s three famous plays of the time, the first being ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’.

The level of interest in last week’s elections in the Republic may not have excited interest or attention either, which is more than a pity, it is a significant political error.

They would be the only people not watching closely, not least because of the state of ‘chassis’ (chaos) in which Europe and the whole world finds itself.

O’Casey came to mind as I busied myself supporting the Independent Left and sitting MEP, Clare Daly, in Dublin.

The electorate, at a local and EU level, produced a solid vote to the Right of the centre of what passes for political ‘-isms’ or ideology in these parts... Nationalism, Militarism, and the opposing views of Socialism and Capitalism, and ‘I’m alright’ Jackeen-ism.

The moral of the story being that while all political decisions create the realities of life – three generations living in one house; others living in tents; people whose house is falling in around them because of dodgy concrete; and families in temporary accommodation that feels very permanent to those living in it – you get the feeling that the chaos of O’Casey’s world may have come full circle, and it will have to do.

Those responsible for the chaos have just been returned to power.

In the back of the minds of both FF and FG leaders in the South is the thought that if they can keep it going a while longer, they can each make it back to power without the other, and with SF stalled for the moment, it is to the North that they will both look to build momentum.

I wouldn’t count on the parties’ civil war being over just yet.

What happened to the rise and rise of Sinn Féin?

How did the wheels come off the wagon in such a short space of time? There will be a post-mortem.

There are three potential contributing factors that the party might consider, if they want my opinion (which I am sure they don’t). Other parties are available, and my following advice for Sinn Féin is adaptable.

1. If you are broadly a Centrist party, which I think you are (not that you care what I think), better to own that ’broad church position’ openly, especially as the main ‘Centrists’ in Government are moving steadily to the Right.

This is not the same thing as being all things to all people, which makes you look like you just go with the daily flow to be popular. The flow is hard-Right!

It looks like you don’t know why you want to be anything other than ‘on to the government benches’, and you think it is your inherited right since the 1918 election.

In a nutshell, the people have no idea what your ‘New Ireland’ looks like.

Policy and Programme for Change matters.

2. Cocky and arrogant is okay for teenagers. I know. I may have been that soldier!

It doesn’t flatter a mature approach when a person or a party comes of age.

Entitled isn’t a good look either. Sinn Féin has an unconscious tendency, although not alone in that, to feel that the voter owes them. Owes you what, exactly?

Loyalty to an ideal, a shared purpose, a vision is not the same thing as loyalty to an organisation.

The latter is merely the vehicle for transforming the idea into the reality. Without clarity of the vision and direction of travel, people will get off the bus at the first convenient stop, and grab the next one pretending to be going where they thought you were taking them.

Left, Right and Centre are three different places!

Make your mind up.

3. Palestine, Palestine Palestine! It mattered that you symbolically stood the line on St. Patrick’s Day.

I hope the youth of the USA make Joe Biden pay even more dearly than you have paid for standing with him.

You may yet win back the young people who afforded you, at best, the charity of abstention at the polls, and those for whom the arrogance and entitlement with which you shamelessly asserted the priority as Party before Palestine.

You were not the only party before the principle of solidarity when the movement mattered more to the people than the party, recently. I’ll grant you that, but their lá will tiocfaidh, too!

The world is drowning burning and if Biden, Netanyahu, and Putin have their way, we will soon cross the threshold and be in World War III while some of those who survived the last world war are still with us.

The UN mechanisms for avoiding conflict becoming war are under siege from the USA and its satellites.

The people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone can take comfort in knowing that the TUV has its finger on the pulse of what matters most for any electorate.

Jim Allister has discovered that the flavour of Northern Irish Tayto Smokey Bacon crisps are under siege from the EU.

If that straw doesn’t break the camel’s back and result in a TUV landslide, what will?

Captain Boyle was right in his ‘Juno’ quote at the start of this column: "Th' whole worl's in a terrible state o' chassis".