World of Politics with Harry McGee

One of the perennial political debates during my lifetime has come from followers of the left, bemoaning the lack of a left-right divide in Irish politics and expressing frustration that the State was beholden to Civil War politics.

All that has changed in just a decade and a half with the Civil War parties now struggling to make up 45 per cent of the popular vote on a good day.

The recent Presidential election was an unusual showing of left unity with all the parties and groups coming together to gain a spectacular success for Catherine Connolly.

Some of those on the left hailed it as a new movement and as a sea change. But is it?

It will certainly change the dynamic and has given momentum to the left for now? But how permanent will that shift be?

Given the cyclical nature of Irish politics, even if the left has a major breakthrough in the next election, that could be 100 per cent reversed in the following five years.

Mary Robinson, a candidate backed by the left, had a stunning victory in the 1990 election. There is no doubt that her success provided a catalyst for the Spring Tide of 1992, when the Labour Party under Dick Spring had a historical surge and won 33 seats. Indeed, like Sinn Féin in 2020, it could have won more had it run more candidates.

But was it a permanent shift? No, not then. And, by extension, not now.

There has been a permanent shift, for sure. The tail of the comet that was Civil War politics has almost petered out.

But it has not been replaced by a left/right dichotomy – more a fragmented and piecemeal political landscape, where centrist and left-of-centre, and very slightly right-of-centre parties will dominate.

Ultimately, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats could be in the same political space as the British Labour Party – a little to the left but veering to the centre in government.

Neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael are right-wing parties in the British or European sense. They are not the same as the Tories. They are not the same as Reform. They are not the same as the Five Star Movement in Italy, or Alternative für Deutschland or Brother of Italy or Fidesz in Hungary.

Pictured: Changing tides…left united behind President Catherine Connolly, here speaking at a party in Druid Theatre to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Druid last Sunday. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.