In the space of half a century, Ireland has lurched from being a fiercely conservative country to a fully woke and fiscally reckless one.
That’s been quite the journey. It has now delivered a country where 23% of the population weren’t even born in Ireland; where abortion is effectively on demand and where the chances of home ownership for many young people is fast receding.
The first whisperings of this Ireland started half a century ago in the 1970’s. Self-styled liberals spoke endearingly about the appeal of an Ireland based around tolerance, equality, inclusion and the like. But this was still very much a political movement outside the citadel of power.
In terms of political real estate, this vision was essentially the preserve of the Labour Party. Fine Gael and their political opponents Fianna Fáil were still unapologetically political conservatives on both social and fiscal matters.
But the long march of liberals and the left through the Irish body politic was already underway. During the 1970s, many of these activist groups became state funded NGOs and used this to establish a bridgehead with the help of a largely sympathetic media.
However, the biggest changes came through politics. Dr Garret Fitzgerald was leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987. Fitzgerald’s public image as the endearing if somewhat absent-minded professor masked an important shift in the Irish political landscape, namely: a shift to the left.
If you want evidence of this then consider the striking differences between Fine Gael leaders Liam Cosgrave (1965-1977) and Garrett Fitzgerald (1977-1987). The former was unmistakably an old style Fine Gael conservative while the latter could well have been leader of the Labour Party.
That intellectual collapse of a right-leaning Fine Gael has continued under subsequent leaders such as Enda Kenny, Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris. Indeed, the party has now effectively become a Dublin 4 version of the 1970’s Labour Party.
Fianna Fáil duly followed Fine Gael across the political spectrum to the now crowded centre left. For Fianna Fáil, however, that leftwards shift had less to do with ideology and more to do with the perception that this was now where the votes were.
The irony, of course, is that for both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the move leftwards has been an unmitigated disaster in terms of electoral support. In the 1980’s Fianna Fáil routinely commanded about 45% of the popular vote; in the 2024 general election, the same party polled just short of 22%.
It’s been much the same story for Fine Gael. While Fine Gael polled a record 39% under the leadership of Garrett Fitzgerald in 1982, their vote in the most recent 2024 general election was just under half that at 20.8%. These days, both former centre-right parties don’t really win elections any more so much as they do post-election deals aimed at keeping each other in power.
Yet, the most striking thing about liberal Ireland today is that it exhibits few if any of the principles which lay at the core of its foundation. It is neither tolerant nor inclusive. Neither is it a place where open debate is encouraged.
This was demonstrated in stark terms during a Dáil debate in December 2018 after the passage of abortion legislation when Fine Gael TD Kate O’ Connell reprimanded pro-life opponents declaring: ‘We won. We’ll get our way. Ye can talk for as long as ye like….Ye lost. It must be hurting.’
That shrill outburst had all the characteristics of a political hostage who feels the need to denounce the beliefs and values of their own side in order to curry favour with their captors. That might well now describe the modern day Fine Gael and its apparent trenchant opposition to many of the founding principles of its own party.
Mention should also be made of the malign influence of many of the NGOs who came to prominence at this time. Unelected and invariably leftist in outlook, these NGOs have had enormous influence in shaping government policy in many areas.
This has been clearly evident in housing policy. The policy approach of Irish governments over the last two decades has largely mirrored the approach of leftist housing charities and NGOs with its emphasis on hyper regulation and rent controls.
The effects have been stark – since the implementation of rent controls by Fine Gael in 2016, supply has contracted and demand has increased mainly through inward migration. This is now one of the main reasons why your twenty something Irish adult is still living upstairs in the box room.
One of the effects of Ireland’s over-crowded centre left political landscape is that it has deprived Irish people of political choice. Political debate in Ireland now tends to be restricted to a limited palate of centre left policies. Anyone who dares to voice opinions outside of these is liable to be branded ‘far right’ which is now liberal Ireland’s own way of silencing dissent.
Liberals in the 1980’s may have promised a country that would be open, transparent and accountable. However, that hardly describes Ireland today. Ireland is now a highly centralized and controlled entity which hardly merits the title democratic.
That’s not some throw-away comment either. Voter participation rates in Irish elections have been in steady decline in recent times which is hardly surprising given the lack of choice available in a political system dominated and controlled by centre-left political parties.
Voter turnout in the most recent 2024 general election was 59.7% making it the lowest turnout ever in the history of the Irish state. In fact, you have to go back a century to the troubled days of the end of the Civil War and the 1923 general election to find a comparable low voter turnout in a general election.
It is this sense of disenfranchisement and disengagement that has enabled Fine Gael to stay in power for a remarkable 15 years despite having effectively lost the last two general elections. They have done so by occupying the centre-left political ground and being part of a so-called liberal Ireland which has consciously restricted political choice.
In most functioning democracies, such closed political systems as now exist in Ireland could expect to face intense questioning from journalists and the media. However, readers will hardly be surprised to hear that that is not how the Irish media now operates.
The media in Ireland is now largely dependent on state funding for its survival. In 2026, Coimisiún na Meán, the state-funded media regulator, is expected to provide more than €15m in funding to the Irish media industry. No one seriously believes that the recipients of this funding will be holding their funders to account.
Indeed, it seems far more likely that these same people will be holding those who question their funders to account. No doubt this will be done under the sanctimonious pretext that they are countering misinformation or the nefarious ‘far-right’.
The Ireland that people like Garret FitzGerald enunciated could hardly be said to adhere to liberal values today. It is neither tolerant, inclusive or equal. Indeed, at this stage neither could it be said to be particularly democratic either.
Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about liberal Ireland now is that it is no longer a liberal country.