What would constitue the far-right in Irish terms anyway?
Now is a time of discontent.
So, the bells toll as Fine Gael’s hearse, towed by a pair of tawdry jades, creaks towards Glasnevin cemetery wherein already repose the mortal remains of the Irish Parliamentary Party, the PDs, Clann na Phoblact and Clann na Talmhan
After all, if the independent electoral commission was actually independent, would politicians have been so eager to set it up?
As of now, the “Yes” side is in a very strong position, and it’s incumbent on the “No” side to think carefully about how to reverse that in the time remaining.
They both have a big challenge in setting something up to begin with. And they’ve both made different sacrifices to go about it differently.
Which way Sinn Fein jumps will tell us a lot about the party, and it will also tell us a lot about what it’s hearing on the doorsteps.
Little birdies tell me, for what it’s worth, that it’s the word from the doors that’s terrifying Government.
It is not the next election that the Irish establishment should fear. It is the one after that.
None of this will make the slightest bit of difference to events in Gaza. Nor, for that matter, to the majority of voters in the country.
It is, perhaps, the stupidest three paragraphs of text ever suggested to an Irish Government.
It is very likely that over the coming months, the public are going to be confronted with the spectacle of dozens, if not hundreds, of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael candidates for the county council telling voters on the doorsteps and on the local airwaves that their national party leadership is entirely wrong on immigration.