I love living in supposedly one of the richest and most democratic countries in the world! I love having a parliamentary system that means we aren’t dominated by two parties! I love the two main parties not being blatantly corrupt, and I love how they are completely different and aren’t just identical neoliberal parties! I love that they tried to deplatform the opposition by letting independents in government speak during opposition time!
Ireland is extremely corrupt, and everyone here knows, but no one gives a shit. They don’t call it corrupiton on RTE so its not a matter of national discussion. Fuck this country’s politics.
Also side note but I think its strange for the author to call it “Southern Ireland” although they’re presumably an Irish socialist. The country is just called Ireland, or Republic of Ireland if you need to distinguish between the Six Counties. The northernmost part of Ireland is in the country of Ireland, not the UK
since the exceptional coalition (coup) of 2020 they have shown they can do whatever they want with no real backlash. what was the precedent for a “rotating taoiseach”? none. the system is theirs to subvert and bend the rules of as they wish, with minimal backlash at the end of the day beyond some scolding online. truly feels like the homeowner generations will have to start to die off before we see any real change here. 15 thousand homeless, a whole new generation, and we still aren’t close to dragging these ghouls into the streets, the populace still suffers from a profound apathy like you say. of course what we actually need is a cultural revolution. it feels like the vast majority of young people can see through the whole thing at this point, but things will get worse before they get better. i still have hope although it is unbearable living here the past 5 years especially. i feel like anytime i catch up with a friend or my parents the conversation inevitably ends up at “things are really shit huh”, like it’s all anyone can think about day-to-day at this point.
Agree about the cultural revolution aspect. I think another aspect of it is the widespread emigration of people under the age of 40. Many of the people who would engage in political change have been forced to leave by the greedy landlords that run the country. I think we should have a Land League 2.0.
yeah, it’s unfortunate how convenient a pressure valve emigration is for radicalism. and of course it defines practically our entire history. the icing on top is that you get fully disenfranchised when you emigrate… some democracy!
Yeah I caught that one too. South Ireland / Southern Ireland gets put alongside The British Isles as a term that is likely to spike the ire of many Irish people.
