Craic, Compromise, and Centrism: Analyzing the Harmonious Irish Political Climate

By: Colleen Creeden

October 5, 2012

As America is currently engaged in a debate over the merits of Big Bird, I decided that now would be an appropriate time to share my insights into the Irish political system and what the United States could stand to learn from it. Americans live in a black and white world, defining ourselves according to the blue and red and forgetting the sea of purple between them. European political systems are dominated by multiparty factions that are often depicted as equally contentious to interest groups in the United States, if not more so.

Within the European Union, austerity versus aid ends up sounding a lot like Republican versus Democrat. Given Ireland’s conflict-ridden history, I expected its political culture to have the same kind of belligerent tone that characterizes most of its continental neighbors and the United States. I, an Irish American Government major, could not have been more wrong. As I admit my former ignorance, and continue to learn and observe more about the Irish attitude toward political affairs, I have to say that living in such a comparatively hospitable nation during the American election season has been incredibly refreshing. Craic means “fun,” by the way. It’s my favorite bit of slang that I’ve picked up so far.

For such a small state, Ireland doesn’t fit so easily into an ideological mold. It is socially more conservative than its European neighbors, largely because of the heavy influence that the Catholic Church held over politics, education, and morality until the 1960s. It is a fiscal mix of tax breaks for multinational corporations—which have rapidly made Irish society more diverse and affluent—and state interference in the economy when and where necessary. Ireland, still healing from its years of internal strife, steers clear of external military conflicts. Perhaps as a consequence of their nation’s violent past, the Irish police never carry guns, and civilians don’t understand or agree with Americans’ attachment to firearms. Ireland, then, could be categorized as socially right, fiscally center, and diplomatically left. But that is hardly a “category” at all.

In a recent "Irish Politics" lecture, my professor commented that the majority of the Irish Parliament would, “Proceed from the assumption that political culture is consensual.” When I say the “majority,” I mean that in the general sense, not Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil, or Sinn Féin specifically. I am not going to go into what each of these parties has on their platforms, because frankly they still perplex me, and not just because most of them have Gaelic names.

You could say that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are on the “right” and the Labour Party and Sinn Féin are on the “left,” but such a categorization would only reflect my Americanized understanding of a political spectrum. According to my professor, most Irish ministers of parliament think that they can actually agree with each other to get what is pragmatically responsible done. Rather than seeing compromise as a sign of weakness, they strive to put their party labels aside for the sake of the common good. I heard much the same thing when I visited the Oireachtas na Éireann, or parliament building. All of the Americans looked thoroughly confused when the tour guide said that the parties were “basically the same.”

This “consensual” political environment may seem like a romanticized ideal, especially in the mind of an American who stayed up to watch the presidential debate. Of course a class on the Irish government at Trinity College in Dublin would paint Ireland in a light of rainbows and leprechauns. I can offer only evidentiary support for my claim that Ireland truly does have a harmonious political climate. Trinity has its own versions of College Democrats and College Republicans for the Irish parties, but their memberships don’t constitute half of the student body. Students here aren’t at all apathetic, but politics doesn’t take over their conversations like it tends to at Georgetown, at least in my experience.

America has the much more diverse society, larger geographical area, and more prominent standing in global affairs. Yet we are all ultimately lumped into one political party or the other come November, no matter how staunchly independent we might claim to be. The Irish multiparty system would theoretically encourage greater divisiveness, but there is some kind of understood cultural norm that keeps it all together. A politician who went too far off of the center would be a much greater danger to his or her party than one who reached across the very narrow aisle.

There is one thing that Americans and the Irish have in common. We both really love our countries. Anyone who has attended a Gaelic football or hurling match, walked down the main streets to listen to the live performers, or gone to an Abbey Theatre production knows that. Irish political parties don’t need to compete to be the “most Irish” the way that Democrats and Republicans discount each other’s patriotism. Everything and everyone in Ireland is “grand,” which loosely translates into “fine,” “wonderful,” or “awful, but I’m putting on a brave face.” The Irish rarely complain, and this temperate social culture translates into the political one. I do miss the excitement of Washington, DC, but for now, I am greatly enjoying the calm, welcoming, and beautiful city that Dublin has turned out to be.

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