Political conversation seems very different these days with online posts quickly turning into threads of abuse where people trade insults faster than Hydroxychloroquine on the stock exchange. Nowadays it’s simply irresponsible to post anything unless you’re willing to double down with extreme viewpoints and a hard-drive load of South Park memes. In the online world of tech-tac-toe centrists tend to get called bootlickers, stans, and sheeple while anyone right of centre is a fascist toryboy, and the latte loving socialists to the left get called everything from snowflakes to libtard globalists.

With all this going on it’s hard to know if you’re left or right in Ireland, especially when you listen to radical viewpoints. For example the far right will call Fine Gael Marxist traitors while those on the left call them Leo liberal poshboys.

Those on the right believing Ireland to be left leaning, especially in comparison to American conservatism, and those on the left believing we’re following the neo liberal ideology of the UK a little too closely. Meanwhile the confused centre thinks they’re getting the best of both worlds, but in reality they’re just successfully failing the extremists. Nonetheless the centre trods along, contently believing it is doing the best for average Jane and middle class Joe.

For example coalition partner Jackie Cahill (FF) said of the 2021 budget “I do not believe it is an overstatement to say that this is the most progressive, stimulation focused budget in the history of our State”, much to the confusion of pensioners, child care workers, unemployed youths, regular motorists, and perhaps the entertainment industry, who wondered what was so progressive about it.....but with hospitality vat slashed to 9% to help the recovery it’s more clear what is meant by stimulation focused.  After all we’re one step closer to the greatest recession ever seen.

This leads me onto my next point on what exactly is left and right politics, where is the centre, and what is its purpose.  As a very lose definition the centre is a friend to wealth creation and will make reasonable arguments to justify its actions, despite knowing that some are harmful to Irish society or the climate. Most centrists are capitalists who invest in the game and usually have some business interests that influence their decision making. The Irish centre is European, expresses itself through Gaelic traditions, and believes in stable market growth.

On the other hand the left tend to make ideological decisions based on moral conscience that put people’s well being ahead of profit motives, as a result the left is often snubbed as a hippiesh venture that would result in a low wage economy with little personal opportunity.

Generally speaking the right push for survival of the fittest in a low tax economy, they tend to not want to share wealth and believe in little government interference, with a preference for the market to provide goods and services at whatever price that might be. In Ireland the right have close ties to conservative values, Christian doctrine, and can be traditionalist in how they view roles for men & women.
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How someone develops on this left/right spectrum will reflect how they view the world and form political loyalties. That said it’s not always clear if our big parties are left or right, the pendulum swings, and often individuals can have a huge variance in opinion from one another; even within the same political party. All the same I thought I’d present some scenarios to help explain the difference between left and right politics on some key issues in Ireland.

Local Property Tax

This might seem like a confusing issue, with people you think to be left or right calling to end property tax, but generally speaking the left look to implement taxes that are as fair as possible while the right look to pay the least amount of tax possible. As the Marxist adage goes; ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need’. Leftists believe society is a cooperative venture in which people of means should contribute the most.

The group most supportive of property tax in Ireland is the Labour party, with Brendan Howlin saying:

“"Local Property Tax is designed to be as fair as possible, with those in more exclusive dwellings paying more. Anyone who cannot afford to pay due to a low income is able to defer payment.....Local Property Tax is essential for local councils to deliver road repairs, street lighting, playgrounds, public parks and many more local services. Local people should be given more say over what needs to be funded in their areas”.
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The ability to raise taxes to fund local projects is a critical component to involve people in local politics, to show how we can work as a co-operative to the benefit of the community. Whether this is fixing a bridge, or painting old houses, or building a bingo hall.....the council needs money and in recent years this isn’t coming from central government.

LPT isn’t just about tax, it’s about empowerment, and making local decisions to benefit the community. The LPT was introduced by a Fine Gael / Labour Government in 2013 but is generally opposed by FG / FF/ Sinn Fein while the Social Democrats look for reform to allow a greater amount of LPT to be spent in the area it’s collected. 

Covid 19

Approaches to Covid 19 vary differently, depending on how much you believe in science. The result is that wearing a mask has become a statement of solidarity, and not wearing one a symbol of individuality and belief in personal freedom.

Left leaning ideology puts significant value on every single life, and calls for a total lockdown aiming for a zero covid country, with the government providing free grain for an indefinite period while we achieve this. The strategy could only be achieved in a co-operative society that lowers the cost of living by way of debt forgiveness, free rent, and greater control of the supply chain to ensure everyone eats.

Meanwhile fun loving economy lovers on the right believe we need to warehouse the sick and elderly in order to let the party continue. On one hand the right call for herd immunity, while on the other they dismiss Covid 19 as a fake news story, and tend to call it the Kung-Flu.

The centre have taken half measures, closing part of the economy down, in an effort to rollercoaster the virus until a cure is found.  Of course the left will argue the cure should be free for all, the centre will insist we pay a suitable price for it, and the right think the vaccine is a tracking device that sterilises alpha males.
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Thankfully most our parties fall left of centre when it comes to how we handle the virus, even the current government have made left leaning decisions on the crisis, but one has to think the outcome of the February 2020 elections set the agenda on how we responded, which is an optimistic reflection on the power and consequence of democracy. 

Climate Change

Another key differentiator we have to consider is climate change. The right don’t actually believe we as a species are responsible for global warming, and they dismiss all scientific evidence in favour of viewing it as an act of god. Sadly there are a few of these people in the Dail, they tend to believe anyone with a love of nature has idle hands, and climate action comes at too high a cost to the economy.

Centrists like FF/FG and the Greens believe in collective action and aim to stall global warming by meeting EU targets and directives. They believe in applying carbon taxes on goods that are bad for the environment in order to gradually price them out of the economy.

Labour are slightly to the left of this and want to ensure any carbon taxes are pumped back into the economy to support transitioning to green energies, retrofitting houses, and subsidising electric cars. However this is problematic as in the past few years Ireland has been fined heavily by Europe for not meeting targets.

Further left leaning parties like Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats believe carbon charges are a tax on the poor which don’t modify behaviour so much as they punish those who can’t afford to transform. They call for carbon taxes to be poverty proofed or income sensitive.  

The ultra left believe we are on the crest of Armageddon and must immediately transform to a green economy, calling for a green new deal to prevent the apocalypse, they are likely to take more radical action than to wait on our EU neighbours to call the shots. People of this persuasion tend to be more troubled by the dogma of extinction than the thought of how far you can go on a Nissan Leaf - without stopping to charge it (not far enough).  

The coalition partners have finally formed a government with Micheál Martin elected as Taoiseach, but it's to the backdrop that the majority of the cabinet members failed to get elected on the first count. As such it's a compilation of second choice TDs who have come together to form a majority government. It's also clear that despite Micheál (6th Count) fulfilling the ambitions of Fianna Fail to re-enter government that the real winner here is Leo Varadkar (5th Count) who keeps six ministerial positions for a party that was voted out of office in the last election.

Leo Varadkar, said prior to the election that "Putting Micheal Martin back in charge of our economy would be like asking John Delaney to take over the FAI again". With that in mind Leo looks to have got the best out of negotiations with Fianna Fail and despite offering up the office of Taoiseach he's very much still at the helm of this government.

Paschal Donohoe (9th Count) remains on as Minister for Finance and Simon Coveney (8th Count) remains Minister for Foreign Affairs. While as new Tánaiste, Leo takes up the position as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Loyal Simon (15th Count) didn't lose out either, he takes the position of Minister for Higher Education, Innovation and Research. This is the backbone of the economy that Leo didn't want to give up possession of, and with Paschal in charge of the budget it's a wonder what Fianna Fail were negotiating for at all.

Meanwhile accidental Landlord Stephen Donnelly (15th Count) is the new Minister for Health and despite surviving a motion of no confidence in December 2019 Eoghan Murphy has lost out on his position as Minister for Housing to Fianna Fail's Darragh O'Brien (9th Count). So Fianna Fail take on the two most challenging portfolios in what has to be considered a major burden to any political party in a three way coalition. 

Michael McGrath (FF 8th Count) gets an appointment as the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. This will appease many in the party who would see him as a possible contender for leadership if the opportunity arises.

If Micheal Martin has made a tactical move here it is perhaps an effort to rebuild the party's base by attracting more rural votes and recover some former Fianna Fail strongholds. Two factors that would suggest this is the appointment of Barry Cowen (8th Count) from Offaly as the new Minister for Agriculture and Norma Foley (8th Count) from Kerry as the new Minister for Education.

However if Micheal was serious about capturing a rural base he wouldn't have left Heather Humphreys (FG 1st Count) take the portfolio for Social Protection, Community & Rural Development and the Islands. Further proof that Fine Gael got the best of negotiations, with one hand gripping the economy and the other hand caressing rural Ireland. Fine Gael also retain their law and order image with Helen McEntee (9th Count) becoming the Justice Minister, a complex portfolio that will keep her in the spotlight.

On the face of it this is very much a Fine Gael government with Fianna Fail being thrown a bone. Fine Gael have also cleverly outsourced the difficult portfolios and come next election they will be saying Housing & Health were doing fine until FF came along.

The Green Party have also done exceedingly well, capturing three portfolios that most closely align with their objectives. It's no surprise Eamon Ryan (1st Count) negotiated his position as the minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport. To come away with anything apart from this would be a cardinal sin for the party. In the DreamTeam cabinet I had Eamon Ryan as the ideal Minister for Transport, so standing by this I think this is a really good outcome for the Greens and the country. Hopefully the party can grow with their new found influence.

Catherine Martin (5th Count) who was being encouraged to make a bid for leadership will be Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sports and the Gaeltacht. This is not only a huge win for Catherine but momentous for the Greens as the party will gain popularity through the distribution of good will grants all around the country.

The Greens third seat goes to Roderic O'Gorman (6th Count) as Minister for Children, Disability Equality and Integration. The department will take on responsibility for Direct Provision which is another issue the Greens have been fighting for a d this will satisfy the party's base if they can introduce necessary reform.

All in all I think the Greens have landed three great portfolios; all focused on progress, Fianna Fail will either triumph or fall over, while Fine Gael have the last laugh retaining the major offices of government.

The government was also supported by 9 independents:
Marian Harkin, Michael McNamara, Noel Grealish, Michael Lowry, Peter Fitzpatrick, Matt Shanahan, Richard O’Donoghue, Verona Murphy and Cathal Berry.

In a time long before digital channels, online archives, and mobile downloads we told our history through art, story, and public monuments. Ireland has a rich heritage of such artefacts, from Royal Mail post boxes painted green, to busts of poets, to megalithic tombs, and religious icons.  

Statues and monuments all across Ireland tell different stories from different time periods, which highlight the diversity and complexity of our journey through the ages.

Internationally there has been an energetic movement to challenge some of the more embarrassing elements of the past, with petitions to remove confederate statues from public parks in America closely correlated with a statue of slave owner Edward Colston taking a swim in Bristol.

The recent wave of mob justice over racist landmarks has stirred up a bit of fervour in Ireland too, with calls to remove some conspicuous, but perhaps misplaced sculptures, we face the possibility of erasing our history at the whim of a purist ideology which deems no statue should court controversy. In ancient times the practice of erasing someone from history was considered a fate worse than death, akin to being cast into oblivion. One of the most famous examples is that of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten who around 1353BC tried to convert his people to believe in one god, the sun god Aten. Some historians have made links between Akhenaten and the biblical character Moses, as he lead his followers out of Egypt and into the desert to start a new kingdom. On his death not only did his followers return to their old gods but the new pharaoh (Tutankhamun) had any record of his name or presence destroyed, to the extent that he wasn’t rediscovered until the late 19th century, and the history of ancient Egypt had to be completely rewritten.  
  
Erasing the past does not serve the same purpose as removing statues or symbols of hate that cause mass offence to a great number of people. As such it’s important that we are able to tolerate and respect the opinions of different groups in a shared society. This often means respecting monuments that we might not necessarily agree with. So here’s a little bit of info about the most controversial statues in Ireland and why we should keep them. 

1. IRA Leader Seán Russell

Following Ireland’s first true milestone in independence an unavoidable feud erupted which resulted in a violent civil war, the fallout of which resonated for many years. For some the hurt and bloodshed was never forgotten, which is why men like Seán Russell found themselves securing arms from the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany many years later.

The statue of Seán Russell in Fairview has been attacked several times, on the premise that he was a terrorist Nazi sympathiser who died on board a u-boat in 1940.

However the statue remains an important example of how Ireland’s history is far from a linear path; Seán Russell fought in the 1916 rising, the war of independence, and was so anti treaty that he favoured firearms over democracy till the day he died. His belief in continuing a forgotten war is a tragedy that repeated itself in Republican fanaticism for many decades more.

However it’s unfair to call him a Nazi or a Nazi sympathiser as in no way did he further the cause of Nazi Germany or align with their bigotry. In fact at the time Russell’s IRA were busy kicking fascist blue shirts and were closely linked to Fianna Fail until De Valera started to sever ties to maintain peace with the UK, under the guise that Ireland was to remain a neutral country during the European conflict.
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The statue is a reminder that 1920 was not an easy struggle, that bloodshed is humanity lost, that bitterness lasts for many years. It remains in place as reminder that military action by Irish Republicans continued for longer than most people are comfortable with, and that finding peace was as big a task as winning independence. 

2. Christopher Columbus Monument

Yes this funny shaped block is number two on the list. In 2020 PBP Galway called for the removal of a sculpture gifted to Galway by the city of Genoa in 1992. The sculpture plays on loose historical records that Christopher Columbus visited Galway in 1477.

The ultra left wing group have taken offence to the genocidal colonisation of the New World by Columbus in 1492, his racial views of the indigenous people, and his contribution to the international slave trade of the time.

The danger of holding 15th century explorers to the ideals of 21st century morality is that we would end up tearing down everything we own. Christianity in the middle ages  is immersed in war, atrocity, and conquest. Of course PBP would just as likely remove all aspects of Christianity from public life, it’s as easy for them to remove an artistic monument about exploration as it is to remove statues of the virgin Mary from grottoes all over Ireland.

The argument that Galway Merchants were responsible for the slave trade is the same as blaming County Clare for the Iraq war, it’s meaningless to suggest a city/county without prosperous means is a participant in the acts of superpowers who bully their way through Ireland. Calling for its removal furthers the belief of conservatives that the far left are intolerant and a danger to their way of life. As such calling for its removal is premature given the debate on how we view conquistadors has only begun.

The monument itself has more to do with Ireland’s links with Europe, Galway’s historic ties with Italy and Spain, as well as the Irish desire for freedom & exploration. It was a gift to the city and it is a popular tourist attraction, serving more purpose near the Spanish Arch than in the quiet halls of a museum. 

3. Prince Albert Statue

Outside the Dail stands Prince Albert, husband to the Famine Queen and one of the last prominent statues of the British Empire in Ireland. A lot of people get upset at the thought of our former colonial masters trolloping around in the gardens outside the Oireachtas, and it’s certainly ironic considering we fought for a Republic to be independent of the rule of monarch and empire.

However the statue of Albert is a national treasure, sculpted by Irish artist John Henry Foley who also created the towering statue of Daniel O’Connell on O’Connell street. Again another example of how differences of opinion are very closely related in Irish history.  In fact there was another Foley statue of Queen Victoria in Dublin, but this was removed for safe keeping in 1949 and gifted to Australia in 1987, where people hold her in higher esteem.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Ireland at the height of the famine in 1849, history has not been kind to England’s handling of famine relief but at the time Victoria was welcomed with banners that read “Hail Victoria, Ireland's hope and England's glory”, and the people of Cork renamed Cobh as Queenstown after her visit. Its note worthy that despite the politics of the empire, and the conflict of war, there was no animosity for the royal visit at the time. So we should not be so quick to erase our history and the details of our relationship with Prince Albert.

Aside from the starvation of our people at the hands of the empire, it’s worth looking at Prince Albert and judging him by some of his actions. He was considered to have very liberal views, unlike other landowners of the time he opposed child labour and supported moves to raise the legal working age. He’s also known for his contribution to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, making slavery illegal throughout the empire.

Now try imagine what city life was like in the late 19th century, and that the progress of worker’s rights was often as a result of handouts from the ruling class of the time. Prince Albert seems to be a man of good conscious, as president of the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes he championed better housing conditions for the poor. This is no small feat either, especially given the narrative that landlords were very cruel to Irish tenants. 

So again it’s not clear that the statue of Prince Albert is grossly offensive, it’s a reminder of the past and the struggles for progress of human rights. It’s hard to say where statues are best placed but I also think there is little point in housing them all in a museum or gifting them to Queensland.
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Personally I like touring around a city when I visit, and discovering different aspects of history at every location. It would be a shame to lose our rich and diverse range of monuments to appease a small group who show little tolerance to the stepping stones that lead us on the journey through our past, not all of which may be entirely glorious but none of which is profoundly grotesque.