Ireland's 2020 Election: A Highly Biased, Ideologically Partisan Approach

By Zack Breslin

A collection of essays dealing with some of the most important issues that arose during, and in the aftermath, of the 2020 General Election in Ireland. Topics include the rise of Ireland's protest movements, climate change, the housing crisis, a united Ireland, the Irish ruling class, left-wing unity, the Sinn Féin surge and the rise of the far-right. Ranging from measured and analytical opinion pieces right through to satirical takes on who a dog might vote for, this varied collection of essays takes a left-wing approach to the many issues Ireland currently faces, as well as providing insight into the future direction of the politics of a nation which continues to undergo fundamental change

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zack Breslin
• Release date: Mar 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463415252

Zack Breslin

Essayist, scribe, deliberationist, pencil gripper, and writer with a focus on current affairs, political economy, socioeconomics and ketchup reviews.

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Ireland’s 2020 Election:

A Highly Biased, Ideologically Partisan Approach

Zack Breslin

Table of Contents

Introduction

New Politics

Would You Rather Be Deaf or Blind?

How Not to Run a Campaign

The Climate Change Election

Who Deserves Ireland’s Climate Change Vote?

One Dog, One Vote

A United Ireland: A Catalyst for Change

The Disunited Left

Ireland’s Ruling Class

The Sinn Féin Surge

What Next for Ireland’s Far-Right?

Political Policing

The Old Guard Unites

Conclusion

Introduction

On 8th February 2020, Ireland went to the polls in an election to determine the composition of the 33rd Dáil and the make-up of our next government. Such occasions are akin to Christmas for political junkies such as myself. And just like Christmas, you seldom get what you want. As I write this short introduction, we are nearly one month on from the vote and my own personal preference of a left-wing government seems fairly remote. That’s okay though because, just like a Super Nintendo or an 18-gear bicycle, a left-wing government was never on my list of realistic wishes. A thumping Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael majority was my one big fear and thankfully this particular bag of coal did not arrive. So, all in all, I remain satisfied.

This satisfaction is increased as I consider that Election 2020 gave me the perfect opportunity to produce plenty of content for my Irish politics blog, TheZackAttack. Irish politics can sometimes, dare I say it, be a bit boring. The tedium of the Dáil committees or the Standing Orders is, however, swept away once election fever hits and, accordingly, I set out to write a number of articles on what I considered to be some of the most pressing issues in Irish politics and society. These articles form about half of this mini book (although if you feel hard done by for having spent a few quid on this book, rest assured that all bar one are no longer available online). These pieces address important issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, a united Ireland, the ruling class, how dogs vote, and left-wing unity.

Following the election, I whiffed a chance to earn a couple of quid (literally, a couple) and decided to write a few post-election pieces and then combine these with the earlier musings to create this compact little mini book. These post-election writings provide some political context to the recent election, as well as examining issues such as the Sinn Féin surge, Fine Gael’s bizarre commemoration of the black and tans, the potential rise of the far-right, Ireland’s ongoing history of political policing, and, of course, whether the Ross and Rachel of Irish politics, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, can finally stop messing around and tie the knot once and for all.

Given this is a self-published book, I have omitted references and a bibliography to keep publishing costs down. If the reader has any questions regarding the factual accuracy of the content, they should ‘come at me on Twitter’, as the kids say. That said, as the title of the book suggests, the following chapters will not necessarily be a dispassionate, moderate, non-biased study of the Irish political system although I do hope you will find them informative and thought-provoking whatever your political persuasion.

Zack Breslin

05/03/20

New Politics

In 2016, voters went to the polls to deliver their verdict on the coalition of Fine Gael and Labour, which had governed since 2011. The result was both decisive and indecisive. The governing coalition resoundingly defeated. Fine Gael lost sixteen seats while Labour were decimated, losing all but seven of their thirty-three seats. Yet the result was also indecisive as there was no clear winner. Fianna Fáil more than doubled their seat take to forty-four but Fine Gael remained the largest party with fifty TDs elected. With neither of the two-rival centre-right parties willing to work with Sinn Féin, the largest party of the left, the electorate had delivered no clear workable majority to the Dáil. Months of negotiations followed but eventually a solution was found. Fine Gael would form a minority government (i.e. one that did not command a majority) with a collection of independents, formally grouped together as the Independents Alliance. Fianna Fáil would support this government from the outside, promising not to vote the government down in exchange for some policy pledges, most noticeably a commitment to emphasise public spending increases over tax cuts. Enda Kenny would remain as Taoiseach (although he would soon be replaced by Leo Varadkar) but would be reliant on the acquiescence of Fianna Fáil leader, Micháel Martin.

The new arrangement was hailed by some as the advent of ‘new politics’, a more consensual European style of governance where opposition TDs would be consulted and would even have the chance of enacting legislation. Compromise would be the order of the day, according to the many commentators who heralded this ‘new politics’. Inevitably, it didn’t play out this way. Week after week, opposition TDs brought legislation to the Dáil, got majority support for it, and there the matter would end. The legislation would be obstructed by the government, with the cabinet often resorting to the archaic ‘money message’ procedure by which legislation could be blocked. ‘New politics’ was not new, it was a barely disguised old politics in which political power remained centralised in the executive branch of government.

What was new, however, was the extent to which the power and popularity of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had declined. These two parties had ruled the state since its inception, swapping roles between opposition and government, although admittedly it was Fianna Fáil who were usually the party of government. Despite broadly sharing the same pro-business ideology, the two parties were bitter rivals and every election was essentially a contest between them to see who could gain power. Between them they averaged more than 70% of the vote share (reaching as high as 80% in the 1980s) for most of Ireland’s history as an independent state. Now, following the 2016 election, their combined vote share had dropped to below 50% for the first time. Their duopoly of power over the state was coming to an end and the only way for the status quo to be maintained was for there to be unprecedented cooperation between them, even if Fianna Fáil preferred to stay out of government.

The decline of both parties can be traced back to the fateful events at the end of the first decade of the millennium. In 2008, an economic tsunami hit Ireland. Beginning with a sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States, the global financial system teetered on the brink of collapse and with it threatened to bring down Ireland’s economy. What had, in the 1990s and early 2000s, been a booming export-led economic miracle had, by the eve of the crash, gradually transformed itself into a skewed economy primarily based around ever-rising property prices and insane speculation by the Irish financial sector. Economic growth had come to be sustained by increasingly indebted banks gambling upon the rising price of property,