It is strange watching people in the Republic puzzle over where Sinn Féin sits on the political spectrum following last week’s byelections in Galway and Dublin.

Does nobody think to look to Belfast, where sitting in government has located the party quite clearly on the centre left, with the emphasis on centre?

Republicans will say Stormont does not let them be themselves. They have to govern with unionists inside a British fiscal framework. Powersharing imposes other requirements for consultation and consensus that nudge all policies towards a mushy middle.

But the compromises reached under these circumstances are still revealing. Sinn Féin seems comfortable settling for situational Blairism, accepting combinations of centre-left and centre-right ideas. It will also adopt such positions unilaterally, and it might add pre-emptively, to ensure compromise. After a quarter of a century of devolution this simply appears to be where the party in office comes to rest.

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