Following on the heels of Catherine Connolly’s landslide presidential victory, there is now much excited talk about a new dawn for Ireland’s left.
That political chatter centres around talk of a grand alliance of parties such as Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Greens. While Ireland’s left is usually better known for its delicate egos than class solidarity, the thing that’s rarely mentioned is that these parties already have a lot more in common than they might like to admit.
This is certainly true of the leaders of these parties if not the rank and file. Consider for one moment that the leaders of Sinn Féin, Labour and the Green Party all have the dubious distinction of being the products of private, fee-paying schools. While the far left PBP don’t actually have a leader as such, its de facto public face TD Paul Murphy also has the distinction of belonging to this same exclusive club.
No one is saying that a marker of social privilege such as attendance at a private school should disqualify anyone from a career in politics. People are free to spend their own money on whatever they choose and that also includes private education. However, surely that should inspire a little more humility and self-awareness in those from privileged backgrounds who go on to build political careers in social justice and equality of all things.
Those same qualities appear to be strangely lacking in Ireland’s left which today appears to have more to do with middle class values than the working class it claims to represent. Perhaps the most striking thing about Ireland’s left today is just that – it is unmistakably middle class in character.
No political party better illustrates this than the Social Democrats, the newest political offering in Ireland’s expanding left wing product range. For starters, its leader Holly Cairns exudes solid middle class appeal and pitches directly to a middle class, professional voter base.
These are the type of people who love nothing more than to be seen by their friends tweeting working class and progressive slogans or sporting Palestinian badges. For such people, the left and its slogans are as much a fashion accessory as they are a political ideology; in fact, it is very much the case that the ideology is the fashion accessory.
However, the left’s view of the actual working class frequently diverges dramatically from this idealised view especially when they don’t behave as they want them to behave. This is well illustrated by the ongoing debate about immigration which has impacted working class areas disproportionately. The view of much of Ireland’s left in this case appears to be that the working class people who question them are either borderline stupid or else are the hapless victims of misinformation being pedalled by sinister far-right players.
What the recent presidential election showed is that the left’s claim to represent the working class clearly does not stack up. Consider for one moment that the highest number of protest/spoilt votes were recorded in working class areas such as Dublin North West (20.5%), Dublin Mid West (20.2%) and Dublin South Central (19%). These voters were not just rejecting the Fine Gael candidate, they were also rejecting the candidate backed by the Irish left who happened to be the only other candidate in the contest.
Conversely, the constituencies with the lowest percentage of spoilt votes were amongst the most affluent in the country and included Dublin Bay South, Dún Laoire and Dublin Rathdown. The irony, of course, is that these affluent constituencies are the kind of places where you’re most likely to find Labour, Social Democrat and Green supporters living.
The phenomenon of a middle class which has signed up to an avowedly leftist political ideology is by no means unique to Ireland. It is now found throughout much of the western world and its double standards were on display recently in places like America and elsewhere in the wake of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
It is only now that attention is being focused on college campuses and their role in the ideological formation of people who, although from comfortable middle class backgrounds, like to see themselves as of the left and identify with an idealised working class.
Today, Ireland’s college campuses could hardly be described as ideologically neutral places where differing political viewpoints are openly debated. On the contrary, college campuses in Ireland now have an inherent institutional bias towards a leftist worldview.
No one has yet to give a satisfactory explanation as to why it is now a requirement for someone registering to study at a third level college in Ireland to join (and fund) both a Students’ Union and Aontas na Macleinn in Eirinn (formerly USI). Neither provide any services of note to students apart from political messaging and in the case of the latter, this requires members buying into the world view of what is effectively a quasi Marxist political organisation.
This is now key to the ideological formation of many young Irish people. Indeed, it’s worth remembering that current Social Democrat TD Eoin Hayes first cut his political teeth when he became President of UCC’s Student Union.
As readers will be aware, Hayes was at the centre of the recent ‘blackface’ controversy while heading up UCC’s same Students’ Union and was also embroiled in controversy over the sale of Palantir shares. Apart from anything else, these two episodes clearly illustrate the double standards such people are capable of.
The takeaway from all of this for Ireland’s much trumpeted grand alliance of the left is that the left in Ireland today is more a middle class movement than it is a working class one. Not only that but it would appear that many of these same people might even despise the actual working class.
The real challenge for Ireland’s grandiosely named grand alliance of the left might well involve them not just learning to work with each other but also respecting the working class that they like to think they represent.