It's hard to say what exactly goes on each time, but in general there's a baseline capitalist ideology, and within that, the ideology is reactive to the worlds stimuli. They can't predict everything that's going to happen, but for the most part the world works the way it works. Events don't just happen, they are precluded by trends and other events which are all closely monitored. For example, no one predicted the day or method that Hamas would attack Israel, but everyone knew that an eventuality like that was bound to happen, and the media was ready to pounce on the specifics, and interpret them with the usual ideology.

In this case, Ireland has been heading down the path of independence for a long time, and Sinn Fein taking power in Northern Ireland was not unimaginable. It was then announced, and now the media will react with their usual takes. The usual takes are ready at hand, because the ideology is the same every time. The think tank paper they cite is pretty long, and probably wouldn't just appear overnight - if it did, then all the research (the ideology) was already to hand, and they mad dashed it out. But I don't think that's the case.

In this case, if you'll trust my internet detective work, I deduce that this article was already in the works, and just happened to coincide with specific events (Sinn Fein taking leadership in Northern Ireland). They might have even published it earlier than they should've in order to catch that days Sinn Fein news cycle.

The 'publication' they source, until about an hour ago, didn't lead anywhere. They report it's contents, but don't link to where it can be accessed. My first thought was that it was some very shoddy journalism. I went searching and found nothing initially. I tried again later and found it:

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/closing-the-back-door/

I then inspected the webpage's source code: "datePublished":"2024-02-05T00:01:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-04T23:41:48+00:00",

It was modified on the 4th at 23:41, and It was published on '05' - today, at '00:01:01'.

The Guardian reported on it 9 hours ago. The Irish Times reported on it 8 hours ago.

Therefore, I can say without a doubt that The Guardian and The Irish Times colluded with the Policy Exchange think tank in advance, and these articles were probably lined up in advance of today. Perhaps those publications uploaded in advance in order to catch the Sinn Fein leader news cycle while it was hot, because they hadn't anticipated new leadership happening in that moment (the day before).

The Mirror also published an article on it at the time the Policy Exchange website went up about an hour ago, but I can't be arsed to check whether they're just regurgitating second hand info from the Guardian and Irish Times, or whether they're reproducing first hand info from the original publication.

Also, the think tanks leaders are ex secretaries of defence. The department of defense (offense, realistically) always has ties to top media publications. They 'leak' information, or report it first hand for the media to publish. These links are well documented.