nooooo… we have good PR and a lot of people are under the impression we’re some kind of nice ish euro socdems, but it’s not the case at all. I don’t have time to do a full effort post right now, but we have been ruled by an alternating pair of Tory parties since we achieved “independence” (island is still partitioned by the Brits). that’s Fine Gael (Nazi roots, look up the blue shirts) and Fianna Fáil (right wing republicans). first they were compradors to the Brits, more recently it’s the yanks reflecting the historical global shift in hegemony. we are at the bleeding edge of west EU neoliberalism, ruled by a cabal of landlords. the Tory parties which historically alternated for 100 years entered an exceptional coalition with each other in the 2020 election because Sinn Féin won the popular vote. it was essentially a soft coup. their ideological differences (based on opposition or acceptance of the Anglo-Irish treaty 1921 which partitioned the island) had been considered irreconcilable up to that point but suddenly when the republican socdems were about to take power for the first time ever they united. since then it’s just been intense decline with COVID in the mix too and the coalition won the elections again last year after SF blew their chance by being liberals. the Tory coalition has a radical atlanticist agenda and we’ve never been more overtly a loyal vassal of the empire. shitty single bed apartments in Dublin cost over €1500 in rent. over 13,000 people are homeless, an increase of 10k in the last 15 years or so. inflation has gone wildly out of control and more and more are struggling.

Irish people are by and large good on Palestine, which is nice. unfortunately our govt have been able to leverage this fact to do their own PR while more or less going out of their way not to punish Israel, they’ve been putting off the occupied territories bill (divestment) for years using arcane parliamentary measures because they don’t want to piss off the Yankee overlords. the current govt has also aided and abetted a significant rise in far-right support in the last decade by continuing a manufactured housing crisis and taking a “head in the sand” approach to the rise of actual fash. they are still relatively fringe for now but it’s still a big change from 10years ago. things have never been worse in my lifetime, our good decade was the 90s and since 2008 it’s just been decline, stagnation, austerity, inflation getting worse and worse by the year. i consider myself to live in the second least hospitable place in Western Europe, second only to the UK.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/08/15/more-than-two-thirds-of-young-adults-in-ireland-still-living-with-parents-figures-show/

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2024/10/25/homelessness-in-ireland-hits-record-high-of-14760-people/

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2023/07/20/ireland-has-one-of-lowest-rates-of-home-ownership-for-under-40s-esri-says/

https://www.ontheditch.com/donohoe-had-secret-call/

https://www.ontheditch.com/us-ambassador-warned/

corruption in politics is a fact of life here for decades and as a result a severe political apathy has set in. too many are still comfortable homeowner class (starkly divided by age) and nothing has changed for the better in many years with no indication it will as we just elected the same govt for 5 more.