World of Politics with Harry McGee

In 1980s Galway, we teenagers thought we were different as we listened to U2, wore Smiths badges on our lapels, and railed against the conservatism of our parents’ generation.

But we weren’t. Ireland was a mono-everything society – church, State, political parties, race, and thinking.

We were more conformist than radical but didn’t know it at the time.

At the time there were two dominant political parties. Over 80 per cent of the population voted for them. They included a majority of practically every demographic.

Implicit in that vast vote for the establishment party was a deference, more or less, from the population for the powerful institutions of the State.

The death grip of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was loosened gradually in succeeding decades. That said, until a decade ago, it was inconceivable to think any other party would be able to form a government.

Because if you didn’t want to vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, where did you turn?

Labour might have been an alternative. But the party went in with Fine Gael in 2011 with 37 seats and got hammered in 2016 and were left with seven. So they were hardly going to step up to the breach, were they?

The battering of Labour told us another lecture. There had been a long tradition in Irish politics of the smaller party in government taking a hiding after the election. Labour were (nominally) the small party in government and suffered because of it.

What people did not fully realise then was that it was not just the smaller party in government that was coming out worse when they next encountered the electorate. It was also the main party in government.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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