Aontú

It would appear to be the best party currently available. I am not terribly keen on pushing Irish Unity on people who don't want it but I do sense that it will be a distinct possibility in a few decades.
By that stage most of those who supported the Provos will be gone which should detoxify Republicanism. So I think I could back a party that wants an agreed respectful unification.

I am a little disapointed Aontu isn't a party that is explicitly pro life just as Sinn Fein is explicitly pro killing the unwanted unborn. From my reading their future TDs would have a free conscience vote like Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. And we know where that ended up. I would hope their reps wouldn't do an abortion "journey" and end up as pro abort zealots. Still as this is the core issue leading to their founding I would hope it won't be a sell out issue in years to come.

I do like its Eurosceptic stance. This should appeal to Nationalists and those fed up with our subject status in the Euro empire. I hope they put up candidates in the May Euro election as this could overturn decades of centralising in Brussels. Eurosceptics are tipped to do well. It is important that there are Irish critics of the EU at the table.

Finally Toibin is an attractive intelligent character unlike some of those who lead the other micro parties. As well as a policy you need someone to sell it convincingly.

Do we not have to convince the vast bulk of our people that there may even be a problem? We will be a long time waiting for a perfect party that will get a majority in Dail Eireann. I think we need to work with the imperfect tools left at our disposal.

I don't believe politics alone will save us. Our faith is in serious decline and the wider culture and sense of nationhood is in deep trouble. Even if an Irish Franco appeared tomorrow and imposed a National Catholic dictatorship for 40 years we would still be in crisis at the end of it. Look at secularised Spain which is in even worse state than Ireland.

Fundamentally our Civilisation is in crisis. That has been brewing for a couple of centuries and will take a very long time to repair. The rot is very deep. Today's catholic church is in many ways now the greatest leftist NGO. Who saw that coming 6 or 7 years ago?

I see politics especially in Ireland as mostly corrupt. Perhaps Peadar Toibin can do some good but I don't expect him to be a secular messiah. We are in this for the long haul and most of us will probably never see the end of this dark age.

As for the National party I might vote for a specific candidate as a protest but I wouldn't want to see them in power.

Then I cant see what else I can say to you other than the fact you must have hope. Yes this rot has been ongoing for centuries, but that is why a disruption is neccessary now. Trump is hardly going to save America from its prophecised dissolution but what he has done in two years has been more than anyone could have hoped for even just five years ago, Europe is undergoing increasingly re-traditionalisation right across the board, all of them with imperfect parties in power. I am not saying a revolution will fix everything I am saying we must not fall for the fallacy that we actually HAVE the time neccessary that would take to properly fix everything perfectly. We don't and the powers that be know this, and would sooner freeze out or co-opt any of the parties we could possibly elect that might begin righting the ship then even give us the foot in the door. We would make the mistake the neocons have been forcing American conservatives to make time and time again, that is, believing we can fix this in the ordinary cycle of elections while each cycle we'd lose more and more of our country.

Believe me if and when we actually start making actual inroads into changing the country, our left wing will rise up and attack us physically. They are already doing so in America, Antifa is doing so in Europe and Brasil's left is actively allying with criminal elements and SHOOTING at Bolsonaro's government there. They will do the same here, the only reason they wont is because they correctly perceive our isolation and demoralisation, the second we start getting things done is the second the masks come off and the billy clubs come out, these parties like Aontú from policies alone are by definition the old last-year's-liberalism-this-year's-conservatism that is meant to keep us distracted and hoping in false prophets, just like the republicans in America have been for the last 40 years. Our country is being flooded with immigrents, our birthrates are barely above replacement rates, our women are being all but coerced to avoid having babies in their primes by either constant propaganda to pursue careers and now, God forgive us, with Abortion tempting them. We. Don't. Have. Time.

Despite this black pill I am hopeful because disruption does not necessarily need to come in the form of a party or a secular saviour (I have never advocated for this, I asked only for disruption, which the NP definitely would provide if they got serious support), sooner or later the housing bubble is Dublin is going to pop and Brexit will disrupt us economically even further (and yes in the long term this is going to be a good thing, it's just going to suck hard in the short term), and put the absolute lie to the economic improvement our government has been shovelling us to keep us pacified and to quell our growing angr. When it becomes clear that all of our suffering in the past decade has been for nought, less then nothing even, resulting in the very land being stolen out from under us, we will see anger in this country like we have never seen before. And Irishmen will don the Yellow Vests.

The victory of liberalism in Ireland is now total and I am hoping that will be its ultimate undoing-- there is nowhere left to go and the philosophy does not satisfy in itself, having no vision of ultimate meaning besides more shattering of taboos and quests for personal fulfilment. Is this wishful thinking? I don't know. I certainly don't make it as a prediction. Hope for the best and plan (and pray) for the worst...

If the new party at least stood for two fundamental things, being pro-life and being for national sovereignty, then that would be a positive starting platform.

I saw on their facebook page an argument developing between those who are anti all abortions and those who are against abortion but with some exceptions. The party therefore would need to give as much clarity as possible on this issue from the outset.

Peadar Toibin has clarified the new party will insist its deputies support the pro life position and that it will campaign to reform and eventually get rid of the Harris abortion act.

It is interesting to see Minister Harris now burn up all the liberal credits he gained by ruthlessly pushing the abortion agenda. His incompetent management of the National Children's Hospital budget may see his downfall. The cervical cancer debacle hasn't gone away and he also has a growing nurses strike on his hands. If he survives it will be mainly due to his role in striking down the 8th ammendment.