A lack of alternatives
An independent member of the upper house stood talking to a small group of people with Trans-Atlantic accents. “We have almost washed out the last of the terrorists,” he announced.
”Has Adams gone?” asked one of the listeners.
“Oh, yes, he has gone,” said the speaker, with an obvious sense of satisfaction.
Not more than two or three seconds had passed when one of the “terrorist” party walked by. Perhaps recognising a stranger in the house, he looked at me and nodded, “hello.”
To be honest, he didn’t look like a terrorist, but, then, who knew what a terrorist looked like? Silver-haired and neatly dressed, he looked the sort of person you might meet in a suburban pub, rather than as someone suspected of being a member of a paramilitary organisation. A Google search revealed that he had been a community activist in a poor area of Dublin. There was no suggestion that he had ever had any paramilitary involvement.
Why had he joined the group that the independent politician had labelled as the “terrorist party?” Why had he joined a party that was more populist than progressive? Why had he joined a party that claimed to be left of centre but was not averse to nationalist rhetoric when such words seemed to suit the purpose?
Perhaps the problem lay with the perception that there was no other party he could have joined.
After its dismal performance in the European elections, leader of the Irish Labour Party suggested that the Social Democrats and the Green Party should form a progressive coalition with his own party. Progressive? The party that agreed that working people should suffer austerity to pay off the debts of those who had lost at their games of casino capitalism. At the time when free market commentators like David McWilliams was suggesting that bond holders should not be recompensed for the bets they had lost, the Labour Party was committing public money for decades to come to cover the debts of the gamblers. Why would anyone want to join with such a party?
The deputy for the terrorist party might have pointed to many other reasons why he would not have wished to join the Labour Party; the problem is that there were few other places to look.
Perhaps the vociferous Independent politician might ask questions about why people join the parties they do. Ireland still lacks a viable alternative to the two centre-right parties – should Fine Gael lose power, they will be replaced by Fianna Fáil. Where would a genial, softly-spoken, silver-haired man go?
I think on both these islands there is a real problem with the Left. But in Ireland the Left rarely included the Labour party in any true sense.
The Irish Labour party was a development of the Railway and the increase of State sponsored industry and services. But in general you have the Left of the Communist communes in Limerick and Clonmel, and the left of the railway and bus companies, then the ESB and Bord na Mona, and the lower civil service. And these positions were the property of ex-army, having followed the tradition of the GWR re-employing the people employed before the first war.
And if ever you are going north from Dublin again you might give a read of the plaque to those that joined up from the GNR.
The IRSP of Seán O’Casey’s time seemed genuinely radical.
The memorial plaque erected in what was Amiens Street station is a very fine one.
Ohh yes. But the Labour of Connolly was far more connected to Scotland and England. And he was held as a beacon having been killed but his direction wasn’t followed by the party, if indeed there ever was a following while alive here. I would argue Labour in Ireland is more akin to the denizens of the Union Jack festooned pubs and their relationship to the Tory party, where the relationship with Irish labour is too FG.
In my studies of the islands since 1730 (George II, more or less), calling something an Elephant rarely has any relationship to that thing with tusks and a long nose. Blaming England for the Great Famine in total is just plane wrong. Highland Clearances for sheep ditto. The sheep thing was a bonus, the real goal was seaweed and it’s uses in gunpowder.
The Irish Tithe was another.
I agree with Ian’s comments on the Irish Labour Party. I was a member but left in 2014 because of the Party’s enthusiastic implementation of Fine Gael’s neo-liberal policies. Ireland had, effectively, a majority Fine Gael government and, if there was one thing that scared me more than a majority Fianna Fail government it was a majority Fine Gael one. The current leader of the Labour Party, Brendan Howlin, was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic of the Ministers implementing Fine Gael policy as was Joan Burton, Deputy Leader and then Leader. Howlin’s calls for left unity made me smile.
Every 20 years or so Labour swings left, produces attractive policies, gets an electoral boost, and then throws the opportunity of further growth away by going into an, at best, centre-right coalition. Result in subsequent elections is back to square one. The party’s recent time in government may have damaged it beyond repair. Its main achievement, apart from hari-kari, was to open the space for FF to revive and lots of independents to thrive.
Despite all, I voted Labour in the Euro elections because I believed that another seat for the Party of European Socialists would help slow the rise of the extreme right – especially as Corbyn and co have given on any attempt to do the same. I don’t expect FG and their allies in the EPP to do anything other than to adopt some of the extreme right’s policies.