General Election- the Tweedledee & Tweedledum of Irish Politics has finally been broken

It is great to see so many progressive parties and independents doing so well in this election. In particular the rise in the Sinn Féin vote has finally broken the mould of Irish politics that has been in place for almost 100 years with its capture of nearly 32% of the youth vote (double the combined total of FF, FG and Labour). The tweedledee and tweedledum of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has meant that a Thatcherite social and economic conservative philosophy has dominated for far too long. The power of a well-connected elite that includes Denis O’Brien, bankers, landlords, beef barons and property speculators has meant that the land, former state companies, media, services and resources of Ireland have time and time again been sold off to a few well-connected men leaving the country having one of the greatest disparities of wealth in the western world.
Mary Lou McDonald’s performance on last week’s three way leaders' debate was fantastic and showed the Irish people what we were missing when it came to true differences of policy. She raised issues such as the political influence on Irish politics of monied vested interests that none of the main parties would ever have questioned.
In a time of Climate Chaos, biodiversity loss, environmental catastrophe, social deprivation, growing inequality and privatisation of national resources, there is now a golden opportunity to take positive action to create a better future for both humanity and the rest of Nature. A strong united front of left, green and other progressive parties/independents as well as progressive elements within FG and FF can reshape government policies. For I truly admire some politicians in both of these latter parties that have done some great things for the nation including Eamon O’Cuiv in FF and Ciaran Cannon in FG. It will not be easy forming such a grand forward-thinking coalition that includes FG or FF but there may be no choice. The future of the planet and the hopes for a more egalitarian state are at stake.
As a life-long environmentalist, socialist, republican and feminist, I hope that such a realignment can come to fruition even if it means going as a united green/red front into government, but only around key fundamental lines that have to be honoured at all costs. Sadly the history of Irish politics has been one where small progressive parties have gone into government, been gobbled up by the bigger parties and sold out on their principles for the sake of a power that was not real. This time the combined seats of the green/left parties/independents can control the shape and direction of any coalition with either FG or FF to ensure a truly radical programme of government.
In the process though Sinn Féin itself will have to review its attitude towards Irish farming and promote a move away from dairy/beef livestock monoculture towards a more historical and sustainable mix with a strong emphasis on organic tillage, horticulture, native forestry and regeneration/reflooding of the bogs that will revitalise rural Ireland. Furthermore the new government has to take long overdue action against Denis O’Brien, Michael Lowry and other powerful individuals over the findings of the Morarity Tribunal in 2011 which highlighted the influence of the ‘old boys’ network that has undermined Irish parliamentary democracy but which has been collected dust on a shelf ever since.
Finally what is happening now reminds me so much of when I was co-leader of the campaign against Ronald Reagan’s conferring of a honourary law degree (when he was breaking international law in Nicaragua) by UCG (now NUI Galway) in 1984. There was initially strong opposition even anathema by the wide progressive coalition partners against the left wing (there were indeed very right wing elements) of (Provisional) Sinn Féin becoming part of the campaign. I and a few others had to fight hard to ensure their involvement in Galway city’s mainstream protest politics for the first time since the 1930s. But it succeeded and the rest as they say is history.

Saor Alba & a Pyrrhic Victory for the Tories?

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Congrats to the Scottish National Party (SNP) for their great historical victory yesterday. They are a movement whose origins in part are due to the inspiration that Scots got in the early part of the last century from the Irish struggle for nationhood and independence from an imperial Britain.

Yesterday was a watershed in British politics, an important milestone in the shaping of the United Kingdom similar to the 1945 General Election which brought the Labour Party to power and to 1918 when Sinn Féin consigned the once dominant Irish Parliamentary Party to the history bin and led a few years later to the establishment of an Irish free state.

This week Labour was annihilated in its heartland by a rising nationalism due in large part to its betrayal of its socialist principles, its support for the hugely expensive Trident nuclear weapon programme and its arrogance towards the Scottish people that it took for granted over so many years.

The three principal founders (Hardie, Anderson & MacDonald)  of the British Labour Party were all Scottish and it has been the largest party in Scotland since the late 1950s. Until yesterday.

The Conservative Party may have won the 2015 UK general election but it could be a Pyrrhic victory. Mainland Britain now has a geographical political fault line separating Scotland from the rest of the island. The Tories are primarily a party  of England; it has only one Westminster seat in Scotland out of 59 seats, with SNP on the other hand holding an overwhelming 56.

The nationalists will now campaign for the maximum powers possible for the Hollyrood parliament under the increased powers of devolution promised at last referendums. Furthermore, the UK referendum on membership of the EU that will take place within the next two years may lead to the majority of the population of England voting to leave whilst the Scots may  decide the opposite. What happens then?

Now for an enjoyable read of What did the Irish ever do for Scotland?, click here

The Irish & European Elections in Ireland: a Step Forward for Democracy?

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End to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum Politics?
The results of the local and European elections of last Friday were a watershed in Irish politics. Public anger in the last general election (in 2012) brought to an end Fianna Fáil’s tenure as the largest party in the Irish republic.  Popular disgust at the lies and betrayal of the electorate by the Labour Party has ended its century-old status as the main left-wing force in Irish politics and ushered in Sinn Féin as the new radical movement of the island of Ireland. The division of political power between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-dominated governments, that has been a hallmark of the state since the early 1930s, has come to an end. 

 

There are of course many good honest hardworking idealistic people in all of the established parties- Ciaran Cannon and councillor Frank Fahy in Fine Gael;  Eamon O'Cuiv, John McGuinness and Noel Tracey in Fianna Fáil; Sean Sherlock and Billy Cameron in Labour. But they are too few; power and greed has corrupted too many of their colleagues.  
When Michael D. Higgins left Labour after winning the Irish Presidency the party lost its conscience. Both Fianna Fáil and Labour have betrayed the egalitarian principles of their visionary patriotic founders.

The Cosy Cartel 

This weekend's results show that there is now an alternative government-in-waiting comprising progressive independents, socialists, republicans, environmentalists, community activists and beneficial business interests that has the potential to break the three-party monolith and its long time cosy relationship with property speculators, builders, top civil servants, the trade union leaders, bishops, ranchers, bankers and the EU hierarchy that has created a huge democratic deficit in this country and across Europe that has led to growing public apathy and alienation with the body politic due to the high levels of emigration, unemployment, corruption and taxes.

For the first time since we joined the EEC in 1972, people are starting to question the never-ending loss of sovereignty to a supra-national unrepresentative bureaucratic institution that has created the environment and circumstances to privatise public services and sell off national resources across Europe to multi-national corporations unaccountable to its citizens.

Newly elected TD, Ruth Coppinger

Of course the struggle for nations, local communities and ordinary people to secure control over their destinies will take many more years to achieve and will not be without heartbreak. Sinn Féin could lose their idealism and become over time corrupted by power. But the election results today was a step forward hopefully to a better future for Ireland and Europe that will be a true union of peaceful, democratic independent countries. 

It will mean at last that the great untouchables such as Denis O'Brien and others, who as the Moriarty Tribunal showed undermined the democratic institutions of our state, can be brought to justice.