When you observe Irish politicians up close for as long as I have, you start to notice something fascinating and bizarre about them as a class that isn’t discussed often enough: you realise just how apolitical many of them are, even at the highest levels of government.
While some elected representatives clearly have a strongly-held vision for how the country should be run ideologically, and could reasonably be classified as liberal (e.g. Neale Richmond), Marxist (e.g. Paul Murphy), or conservative (e.g. Ronan Mullen), one gets the distinct impression that many others have no particular philosophy to speak of. They couldn’t rightly be described as “Leftwing”, “Rightwing” or even “Centrist”.
This article is premium content
Get unlimited access to Gript
Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience
Subscribe
Already a member? Sign in here