Republicans’ day hasn’t come just yet despite success for Shinners
CALL me crazy – but I’m still not buying the argument almost one quarter of the electorate became republicans overnight.
And I doubt the 24% of voters who gave Sinn Fein their first preference are buying it either.
While we are at it, it also seems unlikely the Army Council of the IRA is going to be heavily involved in deciding if, say, Bantry Hospital is downgraded or a 13-storey apartment block on Dublin’s docks gets planning.
And while a lot of Shinners seem unable to shut the feck up about a United Ireland for five minutes (here’s a tip lads, give it a couple of weeks, wha?) as far as priorities go, for most people, that’s surely a little down the list after health, housing and a stable government.
Yes, we have just had one of the most dramatic elections in the history of the State.
But that’s no reason for everybody to start raving about republicans under the beds, Trump, Nazi-style rallies (seriously?) and calling the Army out to ensure Eoin O Broin doesn’t turn Aras an Uachtarain into social housing.
Ireland’s political and punditry class appear to have a bizarrely low opinion of the folk who work, vote and generally keep the lights on and the wheels rolling in this country.
What was partly a much-deserved kick up the well-upholstered arses of our main political parties is being portrayed by a lot of people as some sort of collective stupidity on the part of the dumb eejits who didn’t dutifully vote Fine Gael or Fianna Fail like they’re supposed to.
It’s insulting and it’s also crazy, because the average Irish man or woman in the street is usually among the most informed and engaged you will meet anywhere in the world.
We read newspapers, we watch the news, we stay informed and we have our views on what’s wrong and what needs to be done.
We lived in London through Brexit and would regularly meet English people of all walks of life who hadn’t a big baldy notion about any of the issues around Europe.
They made the biggest political decision of a generation largely based on emotion, nostalgia and – it has to be said – staggering levels of misinformation and ignorance.
I came home and had a 45-minute talk about the complexities of concluding a trade deal in a globalised environment with some random lad I met in the local (and he was already a couple of pints ahead of me).
You don’t have to tell your nan or your next door neighbour what the problems are in this country, they almost certainly know.
And they’ll have a very good idea on who to hold responsible.
You can call Irish voters a lot of things – but you should never make the mistake of calling them eejits.
Micheal, Leo and the rest can keep believing it’s the plain people’s fault for not being smart enough to vote Fianna Fail-fine Gael.
But I’ll tell you what lads, that’s not a road you’ll want to stay going down.
Never make the mistake of calling Irish voters eejits