The Irish general election happens on Friday. In times past, observers would be marking the rise of Sinn Fein; now the interest has shifted to the parties that are challenging the political consensus. Irish politics can seem weirdly homogenous – with the main parties, in terms of culture, roughly equivalent to the Lib Dems and the wetter end of the Tory party, though in some respects (when it comes to wokery) similarities with the SNP spring to mind.
Sinn Fein is on the progressive end of the spectrum on social issues
The two big legacy parties from the Civil War, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’, manifestly have more in common than not. In the main leaders’ TV debate on Tuesday night between Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, the Taoiseach, Mary Lou identified the other two as TweedleDee and TweedleDum to make just that point about them being indistinguishable.
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