Irish Politics Thread

They’ll no doubt be delighted with the win but I don’t think it’s going signal a National resurgence for labour. I think this is more a win for Bacik personally as opposed to the Labour Party

What is often forgotten about KOC is that in spite of her national and media profile, and her willingness to point out her own party (and by extension) the government, when she saw it as necessary, she still lost out to Eoghan Murphy. This was at a point when the Government was unpopular, and intuitively she would have won the single seat available for FG. Much of the criticism in public, of the decision surrounding selection by FG, seemed to come from opposition and independent voices, who would have not have given KOC a first preference vote when the time came. At best it would have been a transfer but inevitably behind several other candidates, to the point where it would have been performative.

I take 9fingers point about Bacik and a personal vote, and I think given the unpopularity of the Government, and the relative lack of interest in voting for SF in the area, it offered a great potential to Labour.

The only way FF can survive is if they go populist. 

I think there are shoots of that already, but they face a couple of difficulties. 

First, the Shinners have claimed populism. Their last manifesto was riddled with populist sentiment (not least the FF-esque low tax-high spend mantra), and they also cloak it in nationalism (which is the height of populism)

Second, they also have to compete with the Rural Independent group that have a large contingent in the Dail, and on Councils around the country. Not only do a few of these independents have history with FF, they can do populism better than FF.

Third, the relationship between FF and FG is now such that what divides them is even less obvious than it was before, and that means the days of staunch voters on either side are ebbing away.

A feature of the by-election was also the battle between FG and SF. There seems to be some sort of concensus that this is just a taste of what is to come, as a new binary creates itself. That binary will exclude FF.

It’s weird how that this thread doesn’t get much traffic. We love nosing at the UK and commenting on their situation. Strange when we have plenty of scandal/ stories going on locally. 

Did anyone watch the debate between O’Broin and O’Brien last night? Is the consensus that it was a bit of a non event?