Irish Times

[Discordant Resonance]

You forget, TT, that 18-34s are notoriously poor for voting in pretty much every European country, and 2020 was no exception here:



In any case, getting to 50% would be counter-productive if the Soc Dems and Sol-PBP, among others, lost TDs as a consequence.

[DCI Harry Batt]

You forget, TT, that 18-34s are notoriously poor for voting in pretty much every European country, and 2020 was no exception here:



In any case, getting to 50% would be counter-productive if the Soc Dems and Sol-PBP, among others, lost TDs as a consequence.

I was in a hurry, tbh, and just responding to a headline.

But mostly I'm just curious about support, rather than thinking about an election outcome.

[Discordant Resonance]

An Rabharta Glas, the new green fundamentalist party, has just elected Cork councillor Lorna Bogue as its first leader - unlikely to make any impression midst the plethora of left groupings, but one never knows:

https://twitter.com/AnRabhartaGlas/status/1462057188839596036

[DCI Harry Batt]

They have a cool website. And sound ok.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Yeah, I would have thought it would be a natural home for tonton. Will they still be on the go in six months time?

[Discordant Resonance]

I suspect most Irish people are content with the current degree of EU integration, rather than wanting to vote for a federalist party, but all additions to the political spectrum are welcome:

https://twitter.com/NextIrishGE/status/1464260741087825921

[john the revelator]

An Rabharta Glas - just what we don't need, more green vote fragmentation

If only they would stay in the GP and get Ryan out then they would achieve something

The split is the curse of left wing politics in Ireland - remarkable that Sinn Fein managed to stay intact after Good Friday agreement, FG and FF guys to independent from time to time but they have a big base and deep establishment support. The left can't afford that luxury.

[DCI Harry Batt]

You couldn't really be in the Green Party though, could you? I mean, not really.

[Lang Spoon]

Spike that lanky cunt Tub's nosebag this Christmas so I never have to suffer that again.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Some people couldn't be in any party.

There's always going to be splits in the greens, because the green movement and the green party aren't the same thing One is a subset of the other. The green party itself is the subset of the green movement that is prepared to go into electoral politics. And a subset of those are prepared to go into govt if the opportunity arises. There's a lot of people in the wider green movement who are not into that sort of thing. For a wide variety of reasons, some I respect, most I don't.

Someone like Lorna bogue was always going to leave and set up a splinter party. She wants green things, but she also wants to end capitalism, and someone like that is always going to struggle with being part of a coalition governing well anything really.

[Discordant Resonance]

FG now consistently in the low twenties across the various polling companies, while Martin appears to have stabilised FF's position:

https://twitter.com/ToghannEire/status/1464705833514713090

[Discordant Resonance]

What adult SF members privately think, but won't openly admit:

https://twitter.com/Ogra_SF/status/1480675262165573638

[Discordant Resonance]

Granted, Peadar O'Donnell was a socialist, but whether Ógra's definition of Irishness would be as generous as his is debatable.

[Lang Spoon]

How generous was O'Donnell's? A few hundred miles away Keir Hardie was both a socialist and a massive racist.

[Discordant Resonance]

He did die long before any significant immigration happened, so whether he would have restricted the definition to ethnic Irish is debatable, he did set up the Republican Congress, which took a more Connollyite, rather than sectarian, perspective.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Granted, Peadar O'Donnell was a socialist, but whether Ógra's definition of Irishness would be as generous as his is debatable.

He was a full blown public communist, when that was neither popular nor profitable, and he first broke completely from any manifestation of sinn fein in the early 30's. His comments can't be divorced from the context that he's demanding the full state ownership of private assets, because if you do use it in other contexts, then all the neighbourhood dogs start barking

Tbh I don't know about how broadly he defined irish people but it definitely included protestants. He rather famously marched a bunch of Shankill road communists to Wolfe tone's grave in dublin. He died just as ireland went bankrupt for the first time and for the entirety of his life net emigration rates fluctuated between 1 and 4% so the idea that people would move to Ireland from abroad was a theoretical possibility, but not one that anyone ever really considered

[elguapo4]

He was a full blown public communist, when that was neither popular nor profitable, and he first broke completely from any manifestation of sinn fein in the early 30's. His comments can't be divorced from the context that he's demanding the full state ownership of private assets, because if you do use it in other contexts, then all the neighbourhood dogs start barking

Tbh I don't know about how broadly he defined irish people but it definitely included protestants. He rather famously marched a bunch of Shankill road communists to Wolfe tone's grave in dublin. He died just as ireland went bankrupt for the first time and for the entirety of his life net emigration rates fluctuated between 1 and 4% so the idea that people would move to Ireland from abroad was a theoretical possibility, but not one that anyone ever really considered

When was it ever profitable or popular to be an Irish Communist ?

It always strikes me as funny that the Irish Communist Party has its headquarters in Temple Bar, in a building that's worth a fortune. There used to be some great ballad sessions in the Norseman pub in the 80 and early 90s, organised by a couple of lads from the Communist Party.

Before Covid, one of the current lads used to drink in the Porterhouse on Parliament Street. He was a big horse racing fan, which I could never quite square with his politics.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

When was it ever profitable or popular to be an Irish Communist ?

on irish twitter, right now.

Don't be looking for logical consistency in irish communists. You're not going to get it.

[elguapo4]

I don't do Twitter so I'll remain in the dark.

Another episode of logical inconsistencies was one New Years eve in the 80s, when I found myself out on the piss with some friends who were in Militant. With us was a party colleague of theirs from Belfast. All solidarity amongst the Brothers and Sisters went out the window at the end of the night, when she was drunkenly deposited in the base of the Christmas tree in College Green. You could then hear us all being called " Fucking Fenian bastards " all the way to the border.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's a great time to be young and marxist, and opposed to taxes on property.

[ursus arctos]

Are the headquarters mortgaged to the hilt?

The French Communists, who were historically rather more successful, have had to turn their Oscar Niemeyer-designed futurist HQ into an events and co-working space.

https://espace-niemeyer.fr/

[Lang Spoon]

Is that the "Connolly Books"/new theatre place?

[Lang Spoon]

Maybe they own it from back in the day when Temple Bar was all warehouses and robberies at syringe point.

[DCI Harry Batt]

The Small Party of Good Boys over here owns a house / shop in Clapham which is probably worth a fair old whack now.

(Well strictly I think there are two SPGBs, both of which claim to be the SPGB. But one of them owns the Clapham gaff anyway )

[elguapo4]

Maybe they own it from back in the day when Temple Bar was all warehouses and robberies at syringe point.

Yeah it's Connolly books. They've owned it at least since the 50s, and if you've ever wondered how Rory's fishing shop can operate in such a prime location, he bought it in the 60s when they were giving places like that away.