Stephen Donnelly, the man with a plan. He was an anomaly in the Irish political landscape. Being unattached to a political party or dynasty, he was truly independent of the system. He didn’t have a background of parish pump politics to his CV to make himself presentable to his prospective constituents, which was something stalwart independents had in spades in the past. Instead he presented himself and his no nonsense attitude with direct, sharp views on the financial mess the country was in, how it was being managed and how it should actually directed for any improvements to occur.

He sounded like he knew what he was talking about. In the mess of NAMA and Anglo, in the IMF and in the Trioka, and in the ECB, you found yourself half confident in half knowing what he was talking about half the time.

He blazed a trail in being a new age politician; a person who, after seeing the faults in the public and political realm, came from the private sector to put these wrongs to right, or at least highlight them in his capacity, with no ulterior motive or personal profit to be gained.

After some time of building up his brownie points in Dáil Éireann, he went into business with Catherine Murphy, a complete legend of a politician with a hard working red background and a very public presence of bringing to light the consummate failure that was, is, and forever will be Irish Water.

Another shareholder in the new venture was Roisin Shortall, one of the few Labour ministers who had the courage to call bullshit on the then government, walking out on James Reilly when he was doing his best gerrymandering impressions regarding Primary Care Centre locations.

While they were baptised the Social Democrats and placed themselves left of centre, Donnelly was certainly the one to keep it “centred”. But even at that, they had found a common ground to create a new political dialogue away from the predictable civil war stuff that he himself decried. He purple suited his introduction to politics.

The likeable Murphy, the honourable Shortall and the believable Donnelly, how could the Social Democrats lose to an electorate who were sick of everything to do with anything?

They didn’t win, nor did they lose, strictly speaking they drew. They must have been disappointed not to gain seats, coming very close with Gary Gannon, but identifying themselves as a new party was still an achievement.

Fast forward some months after #GE16 (as the kids called it), and Donnelly left the purple party. Irreconcilable differences. The parting was a moot point for both sides, and while far from amicable, it seemed they both said their pieces are were happy with that.

Fast forward again and we get to him joining no ordinary party, Fianna Fáil, the party that “more or less” got us into the mess, the party that repeatedly lied and said all was fine, the party that he blamed on the stagnation of the Irish political scene, the party that will beautify CJ Haughey for all time to come, ever and after, forever and ever.

Admittedly, I was very quick to scoff and laugh from my very high horse, Morality, and I made the bare minimum requirements of a joke regarding Fianna Fáil on Twitter no less. But then I stopped.

To a certain extent, some SD followers got behind them due to Donnelly’s “charisma”, not necessarily a friendly kind, but it was a confidence and accuracy he held, no doubt from his days as a consultant. Do they now feel slightly betrayed?

The man who held views we all agreed with has gone bad in our eyes. It must also be said that his elevation to Spokesperson on Brexit would have certainly ruffled feathers in the party’s backbenches. But just because he is now on the frontbench for Fianna Fáil, that doesn’t change them. Sadly though, it just kind of changes him. By joinging Fianna Fáil, he’s chosen his own destiny, and whether he wins re-election is another matter, he has to win back the minds of the cynics who finally had a little bit of hope.
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This post was written by Paul McCarrick (@PaulMcCarrick), who every now and again takes time to write some great political satire, in between bouts of social commentary at paulmccarrick.wordpress.com The original title in full was “The Not So Curious Case of Stephen Donnelly in A Fianna Fail Dress. I also note that since this article was originally published Lisa Chambers has become Fianna Fail’s spokesperson on Brexit. Stephen Donnelly is currently the Fianna Fail spokesperson for Health. 

Never has Ireland been so divided over politics, at least not when it comes to a state visit from the President of the USA. So why are we at odds with a man who holds potentially the most prestigious office in the world, and represents his country in doing so?

Do we understand Trump or his country? Reflecting the title of Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest shockcom “Who is America”, writer William Wall examines the true nature of the USA in his latest article, which neatly explores Trump’s power base and a side of America we’re not so familiar with.  

Firstly, let me say that Donald Trump is not the American Nightmare. He is, in fact, the American Dream Writ Large. He is rich, arrogant, shallow, individualist and lacking in empathy for others. When Americans say they don’t want to pay for medical care for others, they are talking Trumponian.

When they say America is the greatest country on earth, a beacon of freedom, the leader of the free world, the kind of place that people look up to, the home of the free or the brave or any of the other standard epithets, they are talking Trumponian.

But what are the values of the USA?

I’m not talking about Mom’s Apple Pie and the so-called ‘American dream’. I’m talking about the values of the state that is the USA. It’s possible to deduce these values from the actions of that state. What states say about their values can, of course, be dismissed unless the rhetoric matches the reality.

The USA places a very high value on projecting its power. This is clear from the size of its military forces and the amount of national expenditure it eats - especially if taken with sweetheart deals and tax breaks for the military-industrial complex.

The USA places a high value on being able to extract resources from weaker countries. We can see this in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in its conflicts with countries like Venezuela which refuse to buckle to the power of the USA.

The USA values its power of life and death over its citizens and its power to incarcerate minorities and awkward presences - often for a very long time indeed. 

The USA places a very high value on the subservient behaviour of vassal states such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, so much so that it wastes vast amounts of scarce resources on them. I say ‘scarce’, because clearly there are not enough resources left over to take care of its own citizens.

The USA places a very high value on being able to interfere in the internal workings of unfriendly states in order to achieve the right result in elections and coups. I hardly need to give examples of this, but Pinochet is an outstanding one of many.

The USA places a high value on war and death and has defined a particular kind of heroism for its soldiers which involves them losing life or limb for very little reward. Soldiers are valued as killers, but also as role models, making appearances in schools, colleges and sports stadiums, for example. Many unrelated businesses (cafes, bars, restaurants, etc also reference the military as objects of charity which reinforced the role-model effect).

The USA places a high value on weapons, from ‘personal' weapons including sniper rifles and assault weapons to nuclear weapons. It is only possible for America to be continuously at war because ordinary people are at war: white people with black and brown people and Native Americans; rich people with poor people; capital with labour; fascists with anti-fascists; states with the state; Christians with atheists, Muslims, and Jews; straight people with queer people; men with women.

Why else would the USA have the highest rate of gun-ownership in the world? And why would a state tolerate such gun-ownership? Because guns are for war, and the people are at war, and the state is at war.

The central tenet of the state’s creed is not liberty or equality, but authoritarianism and conformity.

This is not to say that ordinary Americans support these values. Many do, many don’t. Many don’t see them. I am not speaking of people and their values, but the values of the state.

This post has been slightly shortened/edited, the original, called “American Values”  is from The Ice Moon Blog by William Wall (@wiliamwallbook). William Wall is the 2017 winner of the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature. He has also won the Doolin Prize for poetry, Virginia Faulkner Award, The Sean O’Faoláin Prize, several Writer’s Week prizes and The Patrick Kavanagh Award. You can access more of his writing including free books and essays @ http://williamwall.net/