By Ken Carty University of British Columbia In a recent post I suggested that the evolution of the party system, and the dynamics of local constituency competition, had deprived Irish voters of any realistic capacity to choose their governments. Recent Dála have been full of politically insecure TDs, many at electoral odds with fellow partisans in…
Election 2020 has resulted in seismic shifts in the Irish political landscape. The outgoing minority government has seen significant losses, and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have achieved their lowest combined share of votes and seats ever. Sinn Fein has surged and is now the most popular party in the state, while the Greens have…
The likely sharp uptick in support for Sinn Féin and the possible decline in support for both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should pose a few questions for Irish political scientists, not least… Why did no one see the Sinn Féin rise come? The bad answer is that we’re not in the business of prediction.…
Election 2020 has been called for February 8th. It’s a winter election, and called to preempt what would have been a likely government defeat in a confidence motion on minister for health, Simon Harris. The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, hardly wanted to do his ‘Let’s take our case to the country!’ speech in the aftermath of…
Guest post by Dr Rory Costello, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick. There is a natural tendency to interpret European election results in terms of national politics.
Guest post by Dr Anthony Costello, lecturer in EU Politics and Comparative Government at the Department of Government, University College Cork. Following the recent General Election in the United Kingdom, the prospect of a soft Brexit now appears to be more achievable than previously anticipated; albeit under the most unlikely and controversial circumstances.
Guest post by Dr Rory Costello, Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick. Ireland now has a decidedly fragmented party system, which brings a number of challenges but also potential benefits. Party fragmentation can make effective government difficult, as we have seen in Ireland over the past year. On the plus…
Guest post by Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan, Lecturer in Comparative European Government, French Politics, and Policy-making in the European Union at the Department of Government, University College Cork.
Yesterday, Northern Ireland’s voters went to the polls to elect a new assembly. Counting is now underway in early elections that were sparked by a row between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme. The scandal, however, revealed much wider differences between the partners in the North’s compulsory…
Guest post by Dr Deirdre Tinney (independent researcher) and Dr Stephen Quinlan (GESIS Leibniz Institute, Mannheim) Immigration…Populism…Brexit…Trump… These words had become clarion calls by the end of 2016.
Irish Politics Forum 