The Parish Hall Empire: Unpicking the origin myth of middle class Ireland, so we can build a future.
The “parish pump politics” the young educated class decry is how a century of power has been built. It’s how they became the young educated class in the first place, because, as their auldlad might say “My father voted for his father, & by god you’ll vote for his son.” It is a microcosm of how global empires build “soft power”. It’s the empire of the parish halls,

