So the USA is not the only place waking up to unsettling news after elections.
Ireland’s unfolding election results leave Mary Lou McDonald stuck in opposition — likely alongside criminal newcomer Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.
www.politico.eu
Ah, the media, the media.
Increasingly, I am becoming both profoundly irked and deeply depressed at the manner at which the western media glorifies, and romanticises, the actions and activities of some appalling individuals and perfectly dreadful people (yes, coverage of their activities does increase circulation and hence, revenue) - while simultaneously wringing their hands (and denying that their extensive exposure has - in any way - aided the campaigns of these appalling creatures, while wilfully averting their gaze from taking - or accepting - any responsibility for consequent and subsequent frightful electoral outcomes), and loudly deploring the state of the country.
Now, firstly, an update: Gerry "The Monk" Hutch (so-called on account of his personally abstemious and sober lifestyle - this is not an individual who gets high on his own supply), did not, in fact, succeed in obtaining election to a seat in the Irish parliament.
Instead, he was beaten to the final seat in that constituency by a very impressive female member of the outgoing parliament, Marie Sherlock, who represents the Labour Party (a classic, democratic, European, socialist party).
Yes, the constituency (Dublin Central) contains pockets of considerable deprivation, both socially deprived and economically disadvantaged and utterly neglected - a deprivation that has been in place for several decades with the collapse of the salaried blue collar world of work that gave identity, income, and meaning to lives of people, so that now, in some cases, you will have had two or three generations of permanent male unemployment - the women hold those families together, while Ireland also has a reasonably generous welfare system - that, and yes, there is an element of not just alienation and disaffection in such a vote - as well as delivering a two-fingered message to the political establishment (and the recent election in the US, resulting in the return to office of the loathsome Mr Trump has offered a lamentable example of an electorate delivering two-fingered messages to an imagined establishment), but, there is more to this than the headlines this story generated across the world.
What is interesting (under the complicated PR system of voting) is noting how very few transfers Hutch attracted as the election counts proceeded; in other words, he polled relatively well on the first count (and, apparently, had been actively encouraging last minute voter registration in the constituency according to a radio interview I heard), but attracted very few transfer votes from the candidates of almost every other party, or group, or - with one glaring exception, any other individual candidate.
Secondly, Mary-Lou McDonald, the leader of SF (who is from a very comfortable, affluent, south Dublin background), may well have topped the poll in her constituency, but, while gratifying, this doesn't have a wider significance; she is a party leader, and has a high profile, and I don't doubt that she works hard at nursing her constituency (in the UK and Ireland, parliamentarians - even high ranking ones, such as ministers, and prime ministers, - are expected to hold clinics, or surgeries, every week-end in order to meet with their constituents and address their problems; they are supposed to be accessible to their electorate).
I do not deny that she is bright, well-educated and articulate, and, also, I do not deny that SF have some very able individuals on their front bench, but, the truth is that SF have not done as well in this election - in fact, they have lost around a quarter of their percentage votes (falling from 25% to 19% of the national vote) in this election, - as they did the last time out. In 2020, the previous election, they polled close to 25% of the national vote; - however, through intelligent use of their resources (and candidate selection, nomination and distribution), they have managed to retain their political position re numbers of elected public representatives returned to the parliament.
In other words, for the most part, they have held their parliamentary seats (won a few extra, lost one or two), on a reduced percentage of the national vote. And, it is also worth noting that SF are not "transfer friendly" either. In other words, they fail to attract transfer votes in any sort of large numbers from the supporters of every other party, individual, or group in the country.
Many seats in the parliament have yet to be filled - at the time of writing only 85 seats - out of 174 - have been filled: Bear in mind, that the count - nation-wide - has been taking place since 09.00 on Saturday, and is continuing today - and will not conclude, fully and finally, before tomorrow at the earliest.
However, that media coverage doesn't really reflect the reality of what has been happening on the ground. The main thing to note from this election is that the centre has held, and the two main centre right parties have also - more or less - retained their positions, in terms of both seats and percentages of votes obtained.
Meanwhile, both the far left (mentioned in the article quoted) and the far right - who ran a number of anti-immigrant candidates - were both splintered, and both treated with disdain by the electorate (and rightly so, these are anti-system groups and parties, with a contempt for democracy, a nihilistic approach to government and - in the case of the far right - a grotesque appeal to the very worst instincts of crude nationalism, flying in the face of Ireland's own rich history as an emigrant nation that exported its people on account of economic dysfunction and idiocy at home).
The centre left - Labour and the Social Democrats - have actually both done reasonably well (though at the cost of the virtual annihilation of the Green Party, who had served in the outgoing administration along with FF and FG and had been very active on the policy front on environmental matters; in opinion polls, Irish voters say that they are very supportive of environmentally aware policies, but - in practice - tend to deeply dislike the practical application of such policies when they are implemented), and have both improved their respective positions - doubling their (admittedly quite limited) representation quite a bit since the last general election.
In actual fact, thus far, the percentage of votes obtained by the Sinn Féin party - 19%, is just a little behind of the two main centre right parties, with FF (Fianna Fáil) and FG (Fine Gael) on 21.9% and 20.8%, respectively. Under the (exceedingly complicated - yet exceptionally fair) - electoral system of PR that is used in Ireland, SF will receive a number of seats that is very close to the percentage of votes obtained by the party, as will every other party. In no way does that represent either a ringing endorsement, and, while SF may claim considerable support - they are currently the joint second largest party in terms of seats won, (on 19% of the votes), that is still nowhere near a mandate for government, especially as almost every other party refuses to share office and power with such an avowedly anti-system party that is run - not by its members, nor its visible 'public' leadership - but by a secretive, unaccountable, cabal operating out of backrooms somewhere in Belfast.
