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Post by cato on Jun 16, 2019 18:31:37 GMT
The political writer Eoin O Malley drew attention to the loss of Renua's one seat in today's Sunday Times.John Leahy the party's one local councillor has announced he is becoming an independent. The party still gets 250,000 a year based on its electoral performance at the last general election but has no elected officials.
I have remarked in other posts the Irish electorate , even those who are socially conservative seem to be remarkably conservative about sticking with parties that are now virtually all identical especially around left wing liberal social visions.
Why this is so is what we should investigate. Politically the Irish right is dead. The powerful conservative movement that inherited the Irish state is stone cold dead. The Conservative brand is dead. On the rare occasions I discuss politics I have been asked if I am serious or if I am far right? In the UK I wouldn't (normally) so far be asked these questions.
I have a few ideas I am contemplating around a future but I think it is a sign of our current desperation that we on the broad right were reduced to supporting well meaning cranks at the recent elections. Conservatism is more than the pro life cause too , as precious as that cause is.
I don't want to dishearten but it is no use pretending things are better than they are in this dark moment.
Irish Catholicism has often been linked to Irish conservativism in a close embrace for better or worse. Catholicism is undergoing a catastrophic meltdown at local level and a struggle for its future at the highest levels that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. This is not the only reason why conservatism has perished but it is a large factor.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jun 17, 2019 14:30:28 GMT
I don't want to dishearten but it is no use pretending things are better than they are in this dark moment. I could not agree more with this sentiment. Any serious Irish conservative thought, right now, needs to start out with the clear-eyed recognition that the vast majority of Irish people are more or less progressive. |
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Post by cato on Jun 17, 2019 20:27:27 GMT
Renua still has a website presence and tweets messages that are worth a read from time to time.
Maolsheachlann's previous point is worth pondering on. Conservatives often assume based on the Repeal referendum a third of Irish people are still socially conservative. I believe that one third also includes progressives who simply couldn't agree with the extreme measures being advocated .Pro life does not equal conservative even if that's what the establishment tells us.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jun 18, 2019 16:47:07 GMT
Renua still has a website presence and tweets messages that are worth a read from time to time. Maolsheachlann's previous point is worth pondering on. Conservatives often assume based on the Repeal referendum a third of Irish people are still socially conservative. I believe that one third also includes progressives who simply couldn't agree with the extreme measures being advocated .Pro life does not equal conservative even if that's what the establishment tells us. It's interesting to me (and relevant to this thread) that John Waters still refuses to call himself a conservative or right-wing. Come on, John, don't be ridiculous! It just shows how deep the stigma of being conservative runs in Ireland. |
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Post by cato on Jun 18, 2019 18:53:03 GMT
What is deeply bizarre about the utterly pathetic status of the conservative movement in Ireland is that journalists in the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Business Post have been running straight faced conspiratorial articles recently, claiming there is a foreign funded secret Irish alt right which is just waiting to unleash populism ,anti-emigrant and anti women policies on the Irish population.
In the 1930s the small Irish far left was labelled as pro-communist in an attempt to marginalise and isolate social critics of the New state. This new cynical attempt to find right wingers under the bed in 2019 is simply nuts.
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Post by cato on Aug 1, 2019 11:48:25 GMT
Fianna Fail traditionally was a nationalist socially conservative centre left leaning movement. There is a tedious current narrative that the church imposed itself and it's values on an innocent helpless Irish population up until the 1960s/70s/80s. Tick the appropriate dates. Fianna Fail cleverly mirrored the actual views of most Irish people and formed an impressive electoral programme that put it in government for most of the history of Independent Ireland.
A few weeks ago the new look Fianna proposed a citizens assembly discuss euthanasia/assisted suicide. The liberal wing of that party motivated purely by electoral advantage, are now espousing a practice that as far as we know was never practiced in our recorded history.
If an assembly does as is likely , approve of a euthanasia law it will not require a referendum but a government may seek one to let the people decide as political cover. It may be more controversial than people think given that our population is aging and many will have a vital stake in the outcome . Some no doubt will see this as further evidence of our growing up as a nation. Others will be alarmed at another step towards turning hospitals into killing centres.
I wonder does Fianna Fail still reflect the real views of middle Ireland?
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Aug 1, 2019 12:11:00 GMT
Fianna Fail traditionally was a nationalist socially conservative centre left leaning movement. There is a tedious current narrative that the church imposed itself and it's values on an innocent helpless Irish population up until the 1960s/70s/80s. Tick the appropriate dates. Fianna Fail cleverly mirrored the actual views of most Irish people and formed an impressive electoral programme that put it in government for most of the history of Independent Ireland. A few weeks ago the new look Fianna proposed a citizens assembly discuss euthanasia/assisted suicide. The liberal wing of that party motifitated purely by electoral advantage, are now espousing a practice that as far as we know was never practiced in our recorded history. If an assembly does as is likely , approve of a euthanasia law it will not require a referendum but a government may seek one to let the people decide as political cover. It may be more controversial than people think given that our population is aging and many will have a vital stake in the outcome . Some no doubt will see this as further evidence of our growing up as a nation. Others will be alarmed at another step towards turning hospitals into killing centres. I wonder does Fianna Fail still reflect the real views of middle Ireland? Sadly I suspect it does, and I'm not sure people really connect the dots when it comes to their own advancing age and euthanasia. For all our cynicism towards the Church, we have a strange faith in the State. I don't think people really believe the medical authorities might start knocking them off before their time to free up hospital beds. |
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