Where have all the Republicans gone?
A simple solution for a country in need of a lodestar
Jacques Seomra
Since putting aside their differences in 2016, Fine Gael (The United Ireland Party) and Fianna Fáil (The Republican Party) have managed to cling on to power for another decade through exploiting the complacency and apathy of the electorate. They have not done so by governing as republicans. The government parties do not enjoy support from a majority of the population, but the failures of the opposition to provide an exciting alternative have allowed them to stay in power. In this moment Republicanism is the only organizing principle that can garner the enthusiasm necessary to oust the government. This is because no other issue has successfully pushed the public to remove our permanent government, and because the leading opposition party has a unique ability to claim the Republican movement.
I say Republicanism rather than nationalism, as there is no shortage of 26-county shallow patriotism – which is not the kind of galvanising force needed. Instead I speak of Republicanism as a movement to unite Ireland as one republic and towards the national renewal that unification can bring about.
Since the confidence and supply agreement, Sinn Féin have fought two general elections in the south as the true leaders of the opposition. Both campaigns have mainly been fought on economic lines, with the government being criticised for their handling of the housing crisis and being blamed for inefficiencies in the health system. These elections cemented Sinn Féin as the largest opposition party, but failed to entice the extra support needed to oust the government. Other than some greater co-operation with the less popular parties of the opposition, Sinn Féin seem to be on track to run a third consecutive campaign along these lines at the next election. I don’t think it is sound strategy to hope that the government fail so profoundly that enough people trust Sinn Féin to fix these chronic issues. Clearly, the alternatives that Sinn Féin offer on housing and other economic issues are simply not enticing enough for the electorate. It doesn’t help that Sinn Féin don’t have a successful track record on these issues in the north, where they do some governing from time to time.
We also cannot rely on the other parties of opposition to gather enough support to deny the government another majority. Labour and the Greens have a history of going into government with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with the Social Democrats and Independent Ireland making clear that they would do so as well. The remaining parties of the far-left, PBP and Solidarity, are feuding Trotskyite projects that will never gain significant support from outside their bubble. Without making a judgment of their ability to enact change, from an electoral perspective Sinn Féin are the only party powerful enough to finally break the Irish political duopoly.
They cannot accomplish this by running the same playbook that led to failure in the last two elections. I also don’t believe it can be done by making immigration the centre of the case to the voters. Ireland’s immigration issue is nowhere near dire enough to unite the electorate in any way, and for now remains incredibly polarizing. Mr. Monlárfi is correct when he calls out the far-left parties for their refusal to engage in “nationalism”, but a rebuke of the IPAS system is not enough to rally support that can take down the government. Just because many working class communities have taken to the streets in protest of the system does not mean its replacement with something else (a return to direct provision, a new ad hoc housing scheme for refugees or simply putting centres in wealthy areas as Sinn Féin proposed) would be a mobilizing force for much of the public. If you want to convince the people that Ireland can change for the better, you must pitch them something bigger than immigration reform and a different plan for housing. Unification can be opportunity for national renewal, reforming and rebuilding the country from the ground up.
Despite their full title Fine Gael (The United Ireland Party) are mostly opposed to unification, despite Leo Varadkar’s attempts to promote the idea – only after he left office of course. It is clearly not a priority of any other opposition parties, barring Aontú who are simply too fringe and undefined to lead a national movement. Fianna Fáil could pivot towards Republicanism and take some of the spotlight from Sinn Féin, but this would necessitate change of leadership in the party. Micheál Martin’s leadership has been actively hostile towards any kind of planning for a unity referendum. So, Sinn Féin alone are the party best positioned to fill this gap in our politics. Despite this, their last critique of Martin’s de-facto Unionism is to be found buried in their propaganda rag An Phoblacht. Sinn Féin is choosing not to lead with this message, and the slack is being picked up by other publications and commentators. The toughest questioning that the Taoiseach has received in a long time on the unification issue was from the hosts of the How To Gael podcast last week.
The electorate have suffered through consecutive governments without purpose and it is showing. The kind of subsistence politics practiced by Micheál Martin are even wearing thin on The Irish Times, who recently published a surprisingly scathing editorial in response to the Taoiseach’s White House visit. The piece claimed the government is yet to convey “any coherent sense of what they are for”. We must ask the same question of the opposition. Sinn Féin, a party with a baked-in purpose and destiny, refuse to fully commit to the vision of Republicanism. They look to exit polls where unity fails to register as an issue and as a consequence shy away from Republican rhetoric, especially in the south. But in order to energise people on the issue of unity you must make the case to them.
In An Clogán (a new socialist publication), Jack Sheehan writes about the three main types of anti-Republicanism. He labels them as Anglophilia, Europhilia and Nihilism. While I don’t disagree that these three beliefs exist in Irish society, I think the vast majority of anti-Republican thought originates from a place of pessimism and apathy (closest to how Sheehan describes the Nihilists). No one is successfully making the Republican case to the public, and so they don’t believe it’s possible.
It would be a tragedy for Sinn Féin to repeat the mistakes of the last two elections. They need to offer the electorate a greater vision than “We are angry about everything just like you” or they risk subjecting the nation to another term of rudderless governance. Republicanism, even when used as a mere rhetorical device to whip up furore, can bring about the necessary enthusiasm. Cast your minds back to January 2020, when outrage over a planned commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary caused the event to be cancelled. This was seen as the last straw for an already unstable minority government and days later a general election was called. An appeal to Republicanism has helped topple a government in this decade, why not commit to it as a serious political project? A pessimistic, beleaguered public is crying out for purpose – let us give it to them.