Ireland Joins The Countries Pushing Back Against Top Down Oligarchic Rule

This is another older story that I’ve been sitting on, dating back to March 9. Many readers will be aware that a double referendum that would have dramatically changed the legal standing of families and of normal women was overwhelmingly voted down. This came as a bit of a surprise to those who have followed Irish affairs, as Ireland has for quite a while seemed to be racing for the bottom of the slippery slide of Wokism.

American Greatness featured a fairly good article on the referendum and its background. It mostly focuses on the surprise victory for normal human nature but does make a few remarks regarding features of Irish politics that are relatively unique. That includes the status of the Catholic Church which, for centuries, was the institution that stood for Irish identity against English domination and the effort to eradicate Irish ambitions to restore its national life and culture. With the attainment of an independent Irish Republic (minus Ulster) a gradual reevaluation of the unique role and features of Irish Catholicism began gradually, but has gained speed in the last few decades. Much of the success of Wokism in Irish life can probably be attributed to a public reaction against the role of an oppressive style of clericalism in Irish life. That raises the question—which I won’t claim to answer—whether the massive pushback against this referendum, one that was not expected, is a sign that the Irish are awakening to the dangers of mere reaction against the past. Or, put another way, of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Stung by Defeat, Irish Elites Double Down

Like their counterparts in America, Ireland’s grandees are failing to come to terms with the revolt of the public.

This article was written within a week of the referendum results. There have been further developments, which we’ll get to. As in so much of the West the Irish ruling class seemed to regard governance as the movement of cultural war against normal human nature. The mechanisms of rule were all stacked against ordinary human life—and that was what made the defeat so stunning. The author selects a comparison that will ring American bells:

The referenda were scheduled symbolically on International Women’s Day, and the celebration at the Castle was intended as a victory lap for “inclusion” and anti-sexism. An American onlooker might have recalled Hillary Clinton’s Election Night party beneath a glass ceiling in 2016.

The Irish result mirrored Clinton’s loss in the degree of shock it inflicted on the political class. Ireland’s government ministers, establishment journalists, and bloated NGO ecosystem had seemed invincible.

As in most woke initiatives, the “victory lap” was intended—under the cover of code words—as a beatdown of normality. Instead, the referenda were comprehensively voted down, in spite of the massive (and publicly funded) campaign against a grass roots opposition that polls said would be overwhelmed:

Nearly 68 percent of voters rejected the 39th Amendment, which would have redefined families to include “durable relationships” outside marriage; the wealthy Dún Laoghaire in suburban Dublin was the only constituency to vote in favor. Nearly 74 percent rejected the 40th Amendment, which would have nixed references to motherhood; all constituencies voted “No.” Polls consistently showed both proposals would pass.

By contrast, the successful referenda to legalize same-sex marriage (62 percent for, in 2015) and abortion (66 percent for, in 2018) reflected the establishment forces’ untrammeled power.

Two obvious questions arise. How could the polls have been so far off—almost the reverse of the actual lopsided results? What did the Irish think they were voting for in the earlier referenda? Did they really think they could go only so far down the slippery slide without efforts and the Woke class wouldn’t try to grease the slide further? The answers to those questions gets us to the heart of democratic rule and its problems—the imponderable, seemingly irrational, nature of the decisions people make. As in other European countries, we are also left to ask just how real an awakening this may be—how far will it extend?

The Ruling Class is definitely asking that question. The initial reaction was denial. The public had somehow failed to understand the wording of the referenda, so let’s double down. For example:

One might expect government figures, for all their defiant talk, to internalize this humiliating defeat. Early indications suggest the opposite. Finance Minister Michael McGrath declared the government would proceed with its controversial “hate-speech” legislation, which stalled in the Senate last year. It would entail prison sentences for those merely possessing “hate” material (a meme saved to a phone, for example). Intent to distribute would carry a heavier penalty, and for this the burden of proof would fall on the accused.

The concluding paragraphs address the social changes that have brought Ireland to this point. These are relevant because similar factors—not identical, because each culture is unique to one degree or another, but similar in these respects—have been at play. The Irish experience has a lot to do with the dominant role of the Catholic Church in Irish society, and so it is perhaps most relevant to other countries that share that religious and cultural framework. The author rightly notes that what has occurred in Ireland took generations to develop, but has been the result of decades of campaigning by the Left—as well as the corruption of the ruling institutions, including much of the Church. Will those institutions listen to the public’s voice?

Though the fruits of its labor have only recently become obvious to the outside world, Ireland’s globalist Left began accumulating power decades ago, when the country was outwardly still traditionalist and Catholic. 

“From the late 1960s…a derivative establishment—counter-revolutionary and increasingly anti-Catholic—worked to eradicate any vestige of stirring of autonomous Irish thinking, action or behaviour,” wrote Irish philosopher Desmond Fennell. “And the recommended [policy direction] was always some kind of conformity with the current New York-London mores, or further subjection to dictates from Brussels. …”

John O’Sullivan observed that “an Irish identity built on the Catholic Church had collapsed, and the nation—or, rather, its cultural elite—was looking for a new identity in which Catholicism was treated as something between an embarrassment and a threat.” 

This new identity has suffered its first notable setback. How will Irish society—now altered demographically, socially, and politically—respond?

The American experience is very different from the Irish experience. And yet, there is the similarity to the MAGA movement that Trump conjured up, as well as to the reaction of the ruling oligarchy.

An article today at TGP draws some of those comparisons, referring to the rise of populist parties across much of Europe, as well as populist unrest in those countries that still lack organized parties that reflect such sentiments. Most of Europe is affected by these winds of unrest and change:

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar Announces Resignation After Crushing Referendum Defeat

Among a continental shift to the right, that sees populist and conservative parties making big gains all through Europe, the ‘progressive center’ (a.k.a. Liberal/Globalist) has suffered another severe blow.

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar will step down as party leader immediately, and resign as taoiseach as soon as his Fine Gael [party] successor is selected.

The unexpected exit sent shockwaves through the political system, and raises expectations of an early election.

The cultural devastation that has accompanied the rise of a global ruling class and two world wars has been almost incalculable. The West is on the verge of a full scale third world war—in a very real sense the American Empire is in a multi-front war to subjugate the rest of the world to the western Globalist elite. How far the reaction, inchoate as it is, can go remains to be seen. There are still months to go before most of the looming elections are held. There are good reasons to expect the economic and societal conditions of the West to worsen over the months leading up to the elections. It could be a bumpy ride. The ruling oligarchies show no signs of giving up the reins of power willingly.