As the Guardian notes this morning, there is a general election in Ireland today.
As it also notes, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are all on about 20% in opinion polls after a short, sharp campaign.
There is a claim in that Guardian article that almost nothing separates the parties, none of whom could form a government with that level of support without a coalition being required. But that is not true. There is a massive gulf between them.
The gulf is that the two parties of the Irish establishment -Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil - who have been in coalition with each other for the sole reason of keeping Sinn Fein out of power - have said they will do all that they can again to ensure Sinn Fein is blocked again this time.
In other words, the Single Transferable Party of the Irish Political and Management Caste (PMC) is, once more, trying to undermine any democratic choice that the people of Ireland might make.
Are there reservations to be had about what Sinn Fien plans? Of course, there are. No party has a solution to all ills. It will also require a potentially quite unstable colation for Sinn Feing to secure power, but what is most noticeable is the willingness of the Irish elite - which is very powerful - to seek to undermine democratic freedom.
The idea that democracy is now only being tolerated if it delivers what the PMC (hat tip for that term to Aurelian) wants is becoming very obvious, and nowhere more so than in Ireland.
There is a class war going on in Western democracies right now, and it is one between the PMC and their Single Transferable Party against the rest of us.
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Agree. two of the main problems: cost of energy and housing. The former exacerbated by the growth of data centres coupled to a failure to build out renewables (windy place ireland). Had a couple of meetings with SF in Bx on the energy subject. Modest interest, I have the sense that they play their cards very close to their chest.
I wonder how the Irish media are reporting this? I love reading the Irish newspapers when I’m over there. The Guardian is well behind the curve here.
My brother who lives in County Tipperary is pro Sinn Fein (he’s lived there nearly 30 years now) and told me a lot of people he knew were really disappointed at the last election and talked of the elite based in Dublin (so he thought) and their machinations. The anger about housing and immigration is palpable over there (I arrived there once when they were having that riot in Dublin – it caused havoc the rest of the week) to the point that some very tense conversations have been had over The Murphys in the pub (not your blog Richard, that dark brown and unctuous stout that they have in that neck of the woods – much more preferable to Guinness in my view).
The PMC eh? Created by Capital to manage their affairs of state – very credible.
I hear SF is growing
@Pilgrim Slight Return
What type of publication is the “Irish Independent”?
Left, right, cuckoo coocoo land?
Centre right
Where ever you go Tampa Bay, the papers seem to be a bit crap. I find it hard working out the political bent of the Irish Independent or my favourite, the Irish Times. The writing seems to be very good though, especially in the Times.
A small country it is but the Irish can certainly write as well talk the ears off a donkey ( the ferry is good for striking up conversations with complete strangers). I suppose that because I am foreigner when I go over I am not as plugged into the politics as I’m am here so I miss things.
@Pilgrim Slight Return
I find the writing in the “Irish Independent” very good. Their online publication writing is in the superior category for the mainstream.
Compared to the political writing in the USA everything in the Europe and the UK seems to me very much to the political left. This is why I have to ask what seems to other posters as mundane questions to get my bearings. For all practical discussion purposes, the USA operates under a very different system politically and economically than the EU and UK. Goals may be/are the same but approaches are radically different.
Thanks
Noted
And interesting
Maybe we still encourage critical thinking more. Trump obviously lives in fear of it.
Response to PSR’s comments on the high quality of the Irish Times:
Having Fintan o’Toole as a regular Opinion Writer certainly doesn’t do the Irish Times any harm. His dissertations on Brexit were head and shoulders above those in the UK media, thereby proving the old saw that if you want to understand your own country and its ways, start by reading foreigners’ opinions.
He is a first rate writer, and thinker
@Ken Mathieson
“thereby proving the old saw that if you want to understand your own country and its ways, start by reading foreigners’ opinions.”
This is the exact reason I spend so much time on Richard’s blog.
Thank you to those of you (and you Richard) who have cited Aurelien. His (?) essays are well worth reading, and subscribers to his substack are growing. We need reasonable, informed dialogues on the net, and Aurelien’s are thoughtful and enlightening.
Agreed
Thank you and well said, both.
Aurelien has been made aware of the shout out today.
Further to the subject of this post, a friend / former City colleague lives near Leopardstown races, sympathises with concerns over housing and has long predicted SF to eventually take over from what he calls “south Dublin”.
Ballsbridge is what will need to be taken over
As the survivor of an IRA car bomb which killed 6 people I have no love for Sinn Féin. However, they are the only big, truly Left Wing Party in the British Isles. I think that they will do much better in this election than most MSM believe.
I would argue that this is democracy, the electorate understand the consequences of their vote. It is up to the parties to deal with the outcome.
Two years ago Sinn Féin were polling in the low 30% and by far the highest polling party. Now they are polling around 20%. You have to wonder what changed.
But as the excellent Carlton Greener has said, this is up to the Irish electorate now. If you’re descended from someone who left the Republic then it’s probable that you have an interest but you don’t get to have a say in this.
I think you miss the point of my piece
I don’t know what your point was as I lost concentration after the first of the unevidenced assertions.
What I do know is this: that if the Irish electorate do or don’t want FF, or FG, or SF in power, then they get to vote accordingly. Your dislike of the probable outcome indicates that you should be in favour of less of life being decided by politics, but for you if there is any question that wants an answer, then that answer starts with “Government needs to do . . . .”
You really did miss the point
It might be worth engaging your brain next time
@Tom Moncar
My step-daughter’s fiancée is from The Republic of Ireland. He is an Irish National working in the USA.
According to him the people of the Irish Republic want the same thing the Brits and Yank want: CHANGE!
You are correct, the people will vote to make their voices heard just like they did in the USA and UK.
Let us hope they get what they think they are voting for.
One of the funniest things my brother, backed up by all his in- laws, told me about life in Ireland is how little the Irish think of their politicians. My sister in law said, exactly as you have, that Gael and Fa’il are essentially the same party, and as such, she holds them in equal contempt.
As such the Irish tend to vote for whichever party (currently) has the least openly crooked mps. Yes, it really is that bad. Sinn Fein are held in the same level of contempt due to the provos past links to organised crime.
However, Sinn Fein, unlike the two main party’s are at least slightly progressive, something feared by the Irish establishment, and as such, keeps them out of power. Even without the party’s past, the media can make plenty of noise to stop them becoming the largest party.
So, once again, Ireland will be governed by who the public see as the least sleazy, not the best party to take the nation forward. What a stunning result for democracy!
I couldn’t disagree more. The Irish electorate are very attached to their electoral system and to call it undemocratic is nonsense. The current coalition govt has a far larger mandate, with votes from over 70% of the electorate, than any UK government since…. When? Ever?
My first preference was Green and I gave no preference to Sinn Fein. In a situation where no party has an overall majority it’s entirely normal for negotiations to take place to establish a coalition and there is nothing in the slightest undemocratic about parties indicating with whom they will and will not go into coalition.
Any party willing to go into coalition with Sinn Fein would get no vote from me. I am very far from alone.
I did not say the system was undemocratic, per se.
I said it was being used to exclude SF from power.
You are happy with that. The PMC has support, from the PMC, of course.
Way back in the late 1990s whilst studying at QUB, a politically well connected and informed fellow Irish student predicted the rise of an all Ireland Sinn Fein over the next 25 years. This would be due to their policy to focus energy and funds on fielding local representatives in every neglected county outside Dublin and Belfast. Try as they might, Dublin/Belfast/London centric STP brigades will be hard pushed to regain this decades in the making Sinn Fein/Leftwing groundswell. They have all been too busy being self congratulatory and exchanging favours on the Metropolitan dinner party circuits to feel the political earth shifting.
QUB = ?????
Queen’s Unversity, Belfast.