The changing face of Sinn Féin.

After nearly a century in which power has passed back and forth between the two main centre-right parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - Sinn Féin won the popular vote, taking 24 per cent of first preferences and topping polls across the country. When she was elected as Sinn Féin's first MEP in the Republic of Ireland in 2004, a headline in the Sunday Times read: "Shopaholic Trinity [College Dublin] girl is new face of Sinn Féin". The narrative was that McDonald was one of a new OBSERVATIONS generation of middle-class graduates joining Sinn Féin and transforming the party's image, as it moved away from its days as the public voice of the IRA during the Troubles and towards being a coherent and successful political party. [Extracted from the article]