Four months after the election, Ireland finally has a government and a prime minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin. The country has since independence been governed by the two old Civil War parties – a conflict without any resonance whatever in contemporary Ireland – and, surprise surprise, it still is. The difference now is that whereas previously, Tweedledum and Tweedledee took it in turns to govern, now they’re doing it together, with indispensable help from the Greens.
The remarkable performance of Sinn Féin under Mary Lou McDonald in the February elections when the party won more votes than any other was traumatic for the Irish political establishment. It brought home that in the Republic now, the divide isn’t between the two old parties; it’s between them and the Momentum style left – Sinn Féin with its Corbynite economic agenda and toxic IRA connections – and smaller parties such as People Before Profit which together have pretty well seen off the old Labour party.
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