In 1977 Fianna Fáil Minister for Industry and Commerce, Desmond O’Malley, announced the government’s intention to build a nuclear power reactor at Carnsore Point, where the Irish Sea meets the southern Atlantic. Members of Cork Friends of the Earth, along with other groups and individuals, decided to oppose the idea.
Four rallies by opponents of nuclear power took place each August at Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford from 1978 until 1981. I attended each rally and helped to write reports and observations in a fringe peace magazine that I helped to produce, called DAWN – an Irish Journal of Nonviolence. I won’t attempt to write a comprehensive account of the anti-nuclear campaign. I recommend Simon Dalby’s pamphlet as a good starting point for anybody researching the matter.
I want to mention about half a dozen names: Mary Phelan, Eoin Dinan, Adi and Sean Roche, Christy Moore, American scientist Keith Haight and his South African born wife Maureen Kip Sing (Chinese ethnicity), Petra Kelly (German Green Party MEP), some of whom I encountered.
Simon Dalby studied at Trinity College Dublin for his first degree and subsequently did a Masters at what is now the University of Limerick. He wrote an account of the Carnsore anti-nuclear rallies and the national campaigning of various anti-nuclear groups. This was published in A4 pamphlet form by DAWN magazine. A comprehensive history of the antinuclear movement remains to be written, outlining the pro- and anti- arguments put forward in public meetings and radio-tv discussions during those years.
Simon Dalby’s article, ‘The Nuclear Syndrome. Victory for the Irish Anti-Nuclear Movement’ was first published in Dawn Train No. 3 Winter 1984-85 and is now lodged in the University of Limerick archives. The U.L. description begins: The collection comprises published and unpublished material collected by Simon Dalby for the preparation of his MA thesis, Political Ecology: A Study of the Irish Anti-Nuclear Movement, for the University of Victoria (Canada) in 1982. Published material includes articles; books, booklets and pamphlets; conference proceedings, speeches and public lectures; EEC communiqués; newsletters; periodicals; press cuttings; reports; and treaties and acts.
German MEP Petra Kelly 1947-1992.
First Rally
The first Carnsore rally was held in August 1978. Attractive posters listing ballad and rock groups that had agreed to perform were circulated around Dublin, Cork and other towns. Get to the Point was the slogan. Right from the start free music was on offer to protesters. I am not sure if a chartered diesel train termed The Anti-Nuclear Express was arranged by Mary Phelan that year, but I took the train from Westland Row station down to Rosslare with Mary Condren. Passengers brought drinks and sandwiches for the trip and were ferried by buses to the rally site. There they were greeted by volunteers directing them to a huge marquee on which they could place sleeping bags and groundsheets. Information about toilets, a concert and public discussion venue, and food. Another area was available for people who had brought their own tents.
Mary Phelan was originally from Waterford City and had lived in West Germany for a few years, where she befriended German Green Party MEP Petra Kelly (whose Irish-sounding name came from her stepfather, a U.S. army officer stationed in Germany). Mary Condren was a Dubliner who had studied in Hull University and became interested in feminist theology and journalism. She obtained seed money from feminist contacts in the USA, notably New York, and asked Mary Phelan to co-run a Resources Centre in Rathgar Road.
The resources centre was supposed to earn rent from groups using the facilities and gradually become self-financing. That aim was not fulfilled alas. Many anti-nuclear activists visited the Resources Centre, even though it was not intended as a central contact point. The downstairs office was used to cut stencils and roll off on a Gestetner inky duplicator copies of their magazine called Contaminated Crow.
I worked in a basement office with Mary Condren honing my journalistic skills by producing a student magazine called Movement. Every other month with half a dozen people I also used the basement and the resources centre to produce a cut-and-paste periodical called DAWN.
We had a Smith-Corona electric typewriter with disposable carbon ribbon cartridges – a laborious process that took 2 or 3 days to complete. On alternate months we met at Rob Fairmichael’s home in Ormeau Road Belfast. From early morning we could hear the rumbling of machinery in the Ormeau Bakery behind the house as daily bread was being baked for delivery around the city. A small backstreet business in the Lower Ormeau called The Print Workshop printed issues of DAWN at reasonable rates. Some of our pamphlets were prepared with typeset, after special fundraising, and laid out mainly by Rob. He was a good self-taught layout artist.
The first rally drew everal thousand, including Sunday afternoon visitors from Wexford and other counties. There had been light rain on Saturday, but Sunday was glorious sunshine. On Monday morning an aerial photograph appeared on the front page of the Irish Times, making a great impression. The next day an eminent Professor of Jurisprudence at UCD, John Kelly, also a top politician in Fine Gael, issued a statement warning the government of the day, Fianna Fail, not to treat the protesters like children. He mentioned huge sit-down protests by antinuclear activists in Tokyo. The professor’s warning may have been somewhat exaggerated, but the publicity was gleefully welcomed by rallyists.
On Sunday many individuals spoke from an open-air stage about their nuclear concerns. Visitors from France, Germany and Italy spoke of their vehement opposition. A continental European contribution to an Irish protest movement undoubtedly worried mainstream Irish politicians – they envisaged co-operation in the EEC with governments, bureaucrats and captains of industry. Instead they encountered opposition from unmoneyed, ad-hoc, uncontrollable protest groups.
Free music concerts, headlined by Christy Moore and others, entertained crowds in the evenings. People sitting near the stage enjoyed free music. Others listened in other locations to amplifiers.
Christy Moore
Post-Rally Clean-Up
After the crowds went home a lot of detritus had to be collected and carefully tidied away by voluntary workers. The latrines were maintained with copious shovels of sand and sprinklings of Jeyes Fluid during each rally. Then they were filled in. Recyclable bottles and drinks cans were brought to wherever money could be received. Paper was buried in pits for eventual decomposition. My colleague Eoin Dinan worked the latrines and supervised other maintenance activity. Ordinarily, he drove a taxi in Dublin. During the years of the Carnsore protests he made friends with people and went on to help found the Dublin Food Co-Op.
Eoin Dinan was a quiet individual who didn’t give platform speeches, but he contributed constructive suggestions at committee meetings. His taxi experience came into play when the Children of Chernobyl project was set up by Adi Roche and her husband Sean Dunne after the 1986 accident which released huge doses of radiation, connected to a host of diseases.
Eoin helped with transport convoys carrying medical supplies, food and bottled water from Rosslare through France, Germany and elsewhere to hospitals in Belarus. It would be interesting to see maps of the routes taken. People in the UK, Germany and North America soon began to emulate the Cork project. Adi Roche published her book The Children of Chernobyl about the work, badly interrupted by the Covid lockdown of 2019-20.
Adi Roche in 2024.
Friendly Internal Criticism
Some friendly criticism of Carnsore appeared in issues of DAWN. For instance, in number 51, probably from September 1980, Auveen Byrne of Cork Friends of the Earth remarked in a personal capacity: ‘…it involves en masse camping and thus mainly attracts ‘young trendies’ and passes up the opportunity to influence the greater portion of public opinion.’
Also, in 1980 an unsigned article by a trade unionist said: ‘The third Carnsore anti-nuclear rally simply marked time for the movement to stop nuclear power and uranium mining. He added that ‘the six-pack brigade were bored’ by the dragging on of the event and the resort to recorded muzak on amplifiers when live concerts were finished.
In DAWN 73 in the autumn of 1981 I signed a personal article with the headline ‘Labouring the Point – Which Way from Carnsore?’ in which I noted the declining numbers attending. I finished up with a suggestion that instead of being anti-whatever, interested activists might positively organise an Ecology Festival at a different venue and stress positive living.
I met Maureen Kim Sing, an ethnic Chinese in exile from apartheid South Africa, and her academic freelance journalist husband Keith Haight from the U.S.. They spoke with detailed knowledge of nuclear power and radiation releases at Carnsore and meetings of groups at various venues throughout the year. Keith sold a couple of articles to the Irish Times and contributed many others to U.S. publications. They also spent time campaigning against apartheid.
At Carnsore and elsewhere they conducted nonviolence workshops. Later they went to France and had a baby girl called Kim. She had automatic French citizenship, was brought to America when Keith resumed academic life, and has lived in continental Europe since Keith died in March 2005 and Maureen died in January 2006.
Mary Phelan’s friendship with German Green Party MEP Petra Kelly, and Mary’s fluency in German, were important for forging links with anti-nuclear activists on the Continent.
Although Petra Kelly visited Dublin for antinuclear conferences, I don’t think she visited Carnsore, but she did develop a strong rapport with the head of the ITGWU (today known as Siptu) John F. Carroll. They produced a pamphlet called ‘A Nuclear Ireland?’ in 1978, which was highly influential and came as a shock to government decision-makers.
Mary Phelan presented on RTE radio programme on ecological and environmental matters. Later she worked on a Dublin FM channel called Radio Liffey, I think. After that she went west of the Shannon and lived in Galway from where she drove a campervan turned into a mobile studio. As a freelance radio documentary producer she interviewed the travel writer Dervla Murphy at her home in Lismore Co. Waterford. A 4-part series was broadcast by the national radio.
In the early 1970s Mary helped produce a 12-page feminist magazine called Wicca in Dublin. She had a daughter who as a young adult went to India and was profoundly affected by chemical damage done by multinational companies. She remained in India promoting non-polluting energy systems and lifestyles. Mary Phelan died suddenly in March 2015. Her passing and key role in the anti-nuclear campaign was not noted in the national newspapers.
Adi Roche was nominated by the Labour Party to contest the Presidential election of 1997. Eoin Dinan became her driver during the campaign and was described thus in an Irish Independent report: ‘Eoin Dinan, a Project director, former taxi-driver and quiet, supportive presence, is acting as her driver and personal support. Joe Noonan, a poker-faced Cork solicitor, veteran of the [Raymond] Crotty legal challenge to the SEA and friend of 15 years, is on hand for legal expertise.’
It was a bruising campaign with five candidates, Mary McAleese eventually received 45.2 percent of the votes after the first count. Roche limped in with a mere 6.9 percent. She was later awarded the Tipperary Prize and other honours for her Chernobyl work.
Dervla Murphy.
Reminiscences
Full Tilt: from Ireland to India with a bicycle, was the travel book that launched Dervla Murphy as a major travel writer. In 1981 she published a book in London called Race to the Finish? – the nuclear stakes.
She was unimpressed by the Carnsore protests, which apparently she attended but did not speak at. On page 55 she caustically noted: ‘In 1979, at the Carnsore Point demonstration in county Wexford, I was aghast to find myself surrounded by Women’s Libbers, IRA representatives, Abortion for All, Hari Krishna and Co., the Communist Party of Ireland and sundry other enthusiasts for whom I feel little or no sympathy. In a rigidly conservative society like Ireland’s such hangers-on make it more difficult for the embryonic anti-nuke movement to gain support.’
So what did the Carnsore anti-nuclear movement achieve? Firstly, it was an independently run, decentralised movement of Irish citizens and supporters from other countries. That cosmopolitan protest initiative caught mainstream politicians off guard.
Moreover, Carnsore brought many individuals together who, after 1981, promoted environmental and non-consumerist lifestyles. Organic vegetable growing was promoted in Dublin and other areas. It is likely to have brought support to the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas. Some of the protesters eventually left the city for the countryside and contributed to wholesome rural alternatives. Major political figures today visit, in muddy wellingtons and raincoats, youth-oriented musical events like the Electric Picnic to pay tribute to The Youth, also called the yoof.
Now that the ‘six-pack brigade’ are a lot older I wonder do they ponder the moon and the stars, and wonder about the meaning of it all? Do they reminisce about Carnsore and tell children and grandchildren about the good old days of free music?
The first are financial measures assisting those affected, protecting living standards, and maintaining spending in the economy. The second aspect concerns laws permitting agents of the State to shut down mass gatherings and to order people to stay in their homes. Also, there are regulations allowing for the detention of a person, on foot of a medical recommendation, if they refuse to self-isolate.
The rapid spread of the pandemic temporarily hands necessary draconian powers to a State that has already acquired other wide-ranging powers in response to subversive activity relating to the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and, more recently, violent gangland criminality. These have long been subjected to criticism by civil liberties activists in Ireland, including Mary Robinson, as well as external bodies, concerned by the unwarranted erosion of the rule of law.
In particular, the Offences Against the State Act 1939 permits trial without jury before the Special Criminal Court. Subsequent Offences Against the State legislation created a number of special evidential provisions in response to the unique situation then at play in Ireland, including the use of ‘belief evidence’ of a Chief Superintendent before the Court and the drawing of ‘adverse inferences’ from the silence of a suspect in custody.
Interestingly, the Special Criminal Court became the focus of a lengthy exchange during the leaders’ debate on RTÉ prior to February’s election, with Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald repeatedly being asked to clarify her party’s position on the issue.
Indeed, Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar went so far as to rule out a coalition with Sinn Féin based on its purported view on the Court; his Fianna Fáil counterpart Micheál Martin then claimed that Sinn Féin always votes against the renewal of the Offences Against the State legislation on instruction from ‘their IRA old comrades.’[1]
The problem with handing over such powers to the State is that once granted they are not easily relinquished, as the police and judiciary grow accustomed to their exercise. This has been the case with the Special Criminal Court that now sits in the impressive and imposing Criminal Courts of Justice building on Parkgate Street in Dublin.
Protecting civil liberties, such as the right to jury trial, may seem less important as long as extraordinary powers are not abused. However, the existence of special powers poses the ongoing risk that they may be exploited by unscrupulous, or even tyrannical, politicians or agents of the state.
This article provides background on the emergence of the Special Criminal Court, and the general criticisms that have been directed against the use of a non-jury trial, followed by an assessment of its use against organised crime. It also posits potential alternative practices that could be used to protect endangered juries. As we enter a prolonged period of draconian measures restricting our conduct it is salutary to consider the powers already at the disposal of the State.
General Criticisms in the Use of a Non-jury Court
The current Special Criminal Court has been subject to general criticism since its establishment in 1972. The justification for the existence of a non-jury court centred on the potential for juror intimidation and the fear that jurors could be coerced in their decision-making. In announcing the establishment of the Special Criminal Court, the then Minister for Justice, Desmond O’Malley, referred to the prevalent atmosphere of intimidation in courthouses and the threat of retaliation.[2]
In response, a statement from the ‘Citizens for Civil Liberties’ on 26 May 1972 expressed the concern that the establishment of the Court would deprive citizens of the right to jury trial.[3] The introduction of belief evidence later that year[4] also sparked criticism from members of the academic community. Writing in 1974, Mary Robinson stated that, ‘in effect, this would not even be a case of one man’s word against another, but a case of belief which was based on undivulged facts and derived from undivulged sources – which could only be at second or third hand – being set against another man’s assertions’.[5]
While the workload of the Special Criminal Court declined noticeably over the following decade, this appears to have been the result of a decline in subversive activity rather than the result of a policy change on behalf of the DPP.[6]
Writing in 1989, Hogan and Walker noted the lack of political pressure to have the court disbanded and posited that this might be a tribute to the fairness and impartiality of the operation of the Special Criminal Court since 1972. However, they wrote that this also provided ‘disquieting evidence of the “seepage” of emergency legislation into the ordinary law of the State. What was once seen as a radical (and purely temporary) departure from standard norms has now become an accepted feature of the criminal justice system’.[7]
While in 1996 the Supreme Court indicated the necessity that the Special Criminal Court be kept under constant review, it refused to find that the system was unconstitutional.[8]
Human Rights Committee
The use of the Special Criminal Court was criticised by the Human Rights Committee in 2001, which found that the State was in breach of the right to equal treatment, espoused by Article 26 of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, given the power of the DPP to certify trial in the Special Criminal Court.[9]
The Committee found the State to be in breach of the obligations under Article 26 and stated that it was critical to its conclusion that the DPP was under no obligation to provide reasons and that judicial review of his decision was ‘restricted to the most exceptional and virtually undemonstrable circumstances’.[10]
In its 2002 report, the minority of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998, which consisted of Hederman J. and Professor Dermot Walsh, focused on the primacy of the right to trial by jury, which they described as ‘a cornerstone of the criminal law system’ which ‘ensures that the innocence or guilt of a person charged with an offence is determined by twelve randomly chosen members of the community, each of whom brings to the process the benefit of his or her life-experience and individual perspective.’[11]
They noted that the risk of possible jury intimidation is reduced, that the members of the Court can be relied on not to be swayed by political views from convicting where the offence was politically inspired and that the prospects of conviction may be considered more likely, ‘not because the members of the Court are unfair but because studies have consistently shown that non-jury courts have a higher conviction rate than courts with trial by jury’.[12]
Furthermore, Professor Dermot Walsh in his dissenting comments in the Report of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 argued that such exceptional criminal justice measures would, under the guise of combating terrorism, cause more lasting damage to basic democratic values and the rule of law than ‘the terrorists could ever hope to have achieved,’ and suggested the replacement of the standards underpinning the Offences Against the State legislation with ‘standards that are more firmly rooted in due process, civil liberties and human rights’.[13]
In contrast the majority of the Committee stated that ‘as long as there is in existence a paramilitary threat to public peace and order, the need for the Special Criminal Court will probably remain.’
In light of the majority recommendations, the operation of the Special Criminal Court has been maintained, despite on-going controversy in the context of organised crime, which is discussed below.
Meanwhile, most of the recommendations made by the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 intended to align the legislative provisions with human rights norms have not been implemented and have largely been ignored by the State.
In its 2014 report on Ireland, the United Nations Human Rights Committee highlighted its continued concern ‘at the lack of a definition of terrorism under domestic legislation and the continuing operation of the Special Criminal Court’.[14]
The UNHR Committee called on the State to ‘introduce a definition of “terrorist acts” in its domestic legislation, limited to offences which can justifiably be equated with terrorism and its serious consequences’ and to consider the abolition of the Special Criminal Court completely.[15]
Trial of Organised Crime in the Special Criminal Court
In 2002, the majority of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 reported that juries in Ireland are ‘distinctly uncomfortable’ in cases involving organised crime and that attempts have been made to tamper with juries in high profile criminal trials in the ordinary courts. The Committee felt that the threat posed by organised crime was sufficiently serious to justify the continuation of the Special Criminal Court on that ground alone.[16] In DPP v Special Criminal Court & Ward,[17] Carney J stated:
Those engaged in [organised] crime require a wall of silence to surround their activities and believe that its maintenance is necessary for their protection. They have at their disposal the resources, including money and firearms, to maintain this wall of silence and will resort to any necessary means, including murder, in furtherance of this objective.[18]
It has been suggested that organised criminality is not ‘ordinary’ crime as such and measures akin to those used against suspected terrorists are warranted.[19]
Criminal Justice Act 2009
Despite the foregoing, the use of the Special Criminal Court for the purposes of non-subversive and organised crime has sparked heated debate in recent years. For example, the Criminal Justice Act 2009 was urgently passed through the Dáil against a background of increasing gangland violence and it evoked great controversy, with many lawyers publicly opposing it.
A large group of lawyers penned a letter to The Irish Times expressing their dissatisfaction with the content of the Act and the manner in which it was rushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas. Among the complaints was the fact that the Act had been:
… introduced without any research to support its desirability and without canvassing expert opinion or inviting contribution from interested parties on the issues. It appears now that it will be passed without proper debate in the Dáil because such debate has been guillotined by the Government. It is quite simply astounding that we as a society would jettison ancient rights and rules of evidence in such a manner and seemingly without regard to the effect such impetuous legislating might ultimately have on the respect for the rule of law in this country.[20]
It was further argued, in relation to the Act’s provision for applications to extend time in detention to ‘be heard otherwise than in public’ and to the possible exclusion of the accused and his legal representatives,[21] that ‘the provision for secret hearings to extend detentions without the presence of the suspect or their lawyer’, was a stark departure from the principle that justice should be administered in public. The letter set out that:
Secret hearings should be anathema to a system based on the rule of law. From the manner in which detention hearings are currently conducted, there is nothing to suggest that investigations would be compromised. In the main the court hears generalised evidence about the necessity for further time to carry out interrogations, forensic testing or assessment of evidence.[22]
[T]his provision fundamentally alters the nature of criminal justice in Ireland. It allows for the judge to hear evidence of a Garda of any rank, in private, and without legal representation, in order to justify the continuing detention of a person … In essence what this means is that a person can be held without knowledge of the grounds on which the judge is justifying their continued detention. This detention can be justified by the secret information from any member of the Garda Síochána, regardless of his or her expertise or experience.
In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed particular concern ‘at the expansion of the remit of the Special Criminal Court to include organized crime’.[23]
Flouting Human Rights
With the announcement of the second Special Criminal Court in 2015, the debate regarding the justification and role, if any, of the Special Criminal Court, resurfaced. In June 2015, the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, informed the Seanad that:
Organised crime continues to present a significant law enforcement issue, with a number of criminal gangs continuing to engage in serious crimes. There is, unfortunately, stark evidence of the willingness of these gangs to engage in murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, drug smuggling, counterfeiting and other serious offences. We are also faced with the reality that there are growing links between paramilitary groups and organised crime. Given the nature of organised crime, the investigation and prosecution process can be lengthy and difficult.[24]
In October 2015, the Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties shared an alternate view:
The Special Criminal Court was created as an extraordinary court in extraordinary times; however, no reasonable person could today claim that there is a public emergency threatening the life of the nation. It is therefore unjustified that this Court’s procedures suspend fundamental fair trial guarantees, including the right to trial by jury. The UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly identified the Special Criminal Court as being in violation of Ireland’s legal obligations under international human rights treaties and called for its abolition. In 2014 the Committee expressed particular concern ‘at the expansion of the remit of the Special Criminal Court to include organised crime’.
The continuation, much less the expansion, of such a court in peacetime flouts Ireland’s human rights obligations and is not necessary in a democratic society. Crime, particularly violent and gang crime, are a legitimate concern for our legislators. Tackling such crime must not rely, however, on chipping away at the right to a fair trial, but on a commitment to adequately resourcing An Garda Síochána and the regular Courts.[25]
More recently, in November 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, commented on the Special Criminal Court regime.
At a lecture hosted by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the International Network of Civil Liberties Organisations (INCLO), she stated that ‘the Island of Ireland, more so than many parts of the world has experienced emergency law, emergency practice and the seepage of the exceptional into the ordinary in ways that has not served the rule of law nor the protection of human rights well.’ She pointed out that there had been ‘consistent and trenchant concerns about the use of the Special Criminal Court and the Offences Against the State Act as a “work-around” the ordinary protection of the law’.[26]
The Future
There is a genuine risk that the use of non-jury trial, originally an emergency measure, is becoming normalised. It is disappointing that the debate and dialogue in Ireland surrounding the Special Criminal Court have primarily revolved around two poles; jury or non-jury trial. There has been little political discussion of intermediate alternatives for protecting jurors, which, in modern times, might include the use of technological solutions to some of the problems posed by potential jury intimidation.
One possibility would be to allow the jury to observe proceedings from a remote location, though it must be acknowledged that such protective measures may have a prejudicial effect and may invite the jury to draw negative connotations about the culpability of the accused. Options such as transporting the jury to their homes or taking steps to anonymise the jury[27] may not be as feasible in Ireland given the small size of the country and would again involve the risk of prejudice towards the accused where the jury members are aware of the protective measures taken. A more realistic option to prevent juror intimidation would be to limit the right to inspect the panel from which the jury is drawn, as has been done in Northern Ireland.[28]
If the Special Criminal Court is to remain in being, it would be preferable that the decision regarding form of trial should lie with the courts rather than the DPP or the legislature.[29] Instead of using a system of scheduling a vast number of offences which are presumptively tried before the Special Criminal Court, each case should be considered on an individual basis.[30]
The right to jury trial was described by Thomas Jefferson as ‘the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.’[31] One would have thought that in light of the high status formally accorded to trial by jury in the Irish Constitution, these alternatives would merit serious consideration.
Conclusion
The current Special Criminal Court was established in 1972 as an emergency measure in response to a unique set of circumstances then at play in Ireland. It would appear, however, that the court now has de-facto permanency in our criminal justice system. While the majority of trials in the Special Criminal Court continue to involve subversive activity, prosecution of organised crime in the court is increasing and a situation has now arisen where emergency powers have become normalised.
Now, as the Government responds to an unusual situation for Ireland with emergency legislation, it is worthwhile to bear in mind the earlier response to subversive activity in Ireland and – in the words of Hogan and Walker – the ‘disquieting evidence of the “seepage” of emergency legislation into the ordinary law of the State.’
[1] Ceimin Burke, ‘Explainer: What is the Special Criminal Court and what is Sinn Féin’s stance on it?’, The Journal, February 6th, 2020, https://www.thejournal.ie/special-criminal-court-explainer-4993281-Feb2020/
[2]Davis, The History and Development of the Special Criminal Court 1922–2014 (Bloomsbury Professional, 2014) 169, citing 261 Dáil Debates (15 June 1972), col 1765.
[3]McInerney, ‘Special Courts Introduced’ (1972) The Irish Times, 27 May, 9.
[4]‘Belief evidence’ was introduced by the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1972, s 3(2), which was passed on 3 December 1972. The provision is discussed in detail in Ch 6.
[5]Robinson, The Special Criminal Court (Dublin University Press, 1974) 31.
[6]Hogan and Walker, Political Violence and the Law in Ireland (Manchester University Press, 1989) 237.
[7]Hogan and Walker, Political Violence and the Law in Ireland (Manchester University Press, 1989) 239.
[9]The powers of the DPP in this regard are discussed in detail in Ch 2.
[10]Kavanagh v Ireland, Decision of the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/71/D/819/1998, 4 April 2001), at para 10.2.
[11]Hederman et al, Report of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 (2002), at paras 9.88–9.
[12]Hederman et al, Report of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 (2002), at para 9.90.
[13]Hederman et al, Report of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts 1939–1998 (2002), 255–261.
[14]United Nations Human Rights Committee, ‘Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Ireland’, CCPR/C/IRL/CO/4 (19 August 2014). The Committee had previously expressed concern in 1993 (Comments of the Human Rights Committee, CCPR/C/79/Add 21 (3 August 1993)); 2000 (Report of the Human Rights Committee, Vol I, Gen Ass, 55th Sess, Supp No 40, A/55/40 (10 Oct 2000)); 2008 (Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Ireland’, CCPR/C/IRL/CO/3 (30 July 2008)); and 2013 (‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya: Addendum to Ireland’ A/HRC/22/47/Add.3 (26 February 2013)).
[15]United Nations Human Rights Committee, ‘Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Ireland’, CCPR/C/IRL/CO/4 (19 August 2014).
[16]Hederman et al, Report of the Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Act 1939–1998 (2002), at paras 9.33–9.36.
[17]DPP v Special Criminal Court & Ward [1999] 1 IR 60.
[18]DPP v Special Criminal Court & Ward [1999] 1 IR 60, 63.
[19]Campbell, Organised Crime and the Law: A Comparative Analysis (Hart Publishing, 2013) 128.
[20]Undersigned Solicitors and Barristers, ‘Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill’, (Letter to the Editor) (2009) The Irish Times, 8 July.
[21]Pursuant the Criminal Justice Act 2007, s 50(4A).
[22]Undersigned Solicitors and Barristers, ‘Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill’, (Letter to the Editor) (2009) The Irish Times, 8 July.
[23]United Nations Human Rights Committee, ‘Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Ireland’, CCPR/C/IRL/CO/4 (19 August 2014).
[24]Seanad Debates, Vol 240 No 9 (11 June 2015). The Minister was speaking to the Seanad in support of a resolution to continue in operation s 8 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009, which adds certain ‘organised crimes’ to the schedule of offences that can be tried before the Special Criminal Court.
[25]‘Special Criminal Court Decision ‘Flouts Rule of Law’, says ICCL’, ICCL Press Release (29 October 2015). https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/special-criminal-court-decision-flouts-rule-of-law-says-iccl/ accessed 20 January 2019.
[26]‘UN expert criticises the Special Criminal Court and the Offences Against the State Act’, ICCL Press Release (21 November 2018).
[27]These steps include referring to them by number only, housing them in a secret location and monitoring their calls, as occurred in United States v Gotti 777 F Supp 224 (EDNY 1991).
[28] Juries (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (SI 1996/1141 (NI 6)), Art 26A, as inserted by the Northern Ireland Act 2007, s 10. This was found not to breach the Art 6 right to a fair trial in Re McParland [2008] NIQB 1. See Campbell, ‘The prosecution of organised crime: removing the jury’, (2014) 18(2) IJEP 83, 97. See also, the recent recommendations of Seymour CB in relation to non-jury trials in Northern Ireland (Seymour CB, Report of the Independent Reviewer Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007, Tenth Report 1 August 2016 – 31 July 2017 (Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, April 2018), at para 23.2).
[29]As suggested by Campbell (Campbell, ‘The Prosecution of Organised Crime: Removing the Jury’ (2014) 18(2) IJEP 83, 100).
[30]This proposal was suggested by Dr Liz Campbell in her article, ‘The Prosecution of Organised Crime: Removing the Jury’, (2014) 18(2) IJEP 83, 100. It may be noted that, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Criminal Justice Act 2003, Pt VII, which was commenced in January 2007, provides that trials on indictment may be held without a jury in cases where there is a risk of jury tampering. Under s 45 of the 2003 Act, the parties will attend a preparatory hearing prior to the decision to hold a non-jury trial and are given an opportunity to make representations with regard to the decision. This safeguard does not apply where non-jury trial is certified in relation to offences with a political or religious motivation in Northern Ireland under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 and is non-existent in Ireland. As Independent Reviewer of the powers under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007, David Seymour CB has proposed that the Public Prosecution Service could, once they have formed a view that a non-jury trial certificate should be issued but before the submission goes to the DPP, notify the defendant that they are minded to issue a certificate, specifying the condition or conditions and any other material which is in the public domain, and invite representations within a specified period. This would lead to increased transparency in the process, a reduction of the risk of judicial review and to circumstances where the final decision of the DPP would be fully informed, particularly if the defence made coherent and plausible representations that, for example, the conditions relied on were not met. (Seymour, Report of the Independent Reviewer Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007, Tenth Report 1 August 2016–31 July 2017 (Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, April 2018), at para 23.3).
[31]The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 15, 27 March 1789 – 30 November 1789, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958, pp. 266–270. ‘From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, 11 July 1789,’ Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-15-02-0259.
Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother’s womb
A fanatic heart.
W.B. Yeats, ‘Remorse for Intemperate Speech’ (1931)
With proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, Irish elections tend to be colourful affairs. Debate rarely rises above the clamour of claim and counter-claim as candidates seemingly festoon every available lamppost the length and breadth of the country with posters. In rural constituencies especially, local causes tend to trump national concerns, while questions of global import rarely register.
But times are changing as cosmopolitan younger voters gravitate towards parties from beyond the political establishment. Until the 1990s Fianna Fáil (‘soldiers of destiny’), Fine Gael (‘family of the Irish’), and Labour – which historically assumed the role of minor coalition partner to Fine Gael – enjoyed near total domination of Dáil Éireann, the national parliament. Today no single party expects to command an overall majority, and coalitions are the norm.
The ruling Fine Gael party, having spent four years in an unprecedented ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with its old foe Fianna Fáil, called a snap election on January 14th, seemingly hoping to be rewarded for its competent handling of Brexit negotiations, and to avoid losing a no confidence motion over the performance of the Minister for Health Simon Harris.[i]
Unexpectedly, however, a political earthquake is on the cards as an array of left-leaning parties, especially the increasingly popular Sinn Féin (‘ourselves’), the Green Party, Labour, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats, and even an unheralded socially conservative newcomer Aontú (‘consent’), have made social justice the central issue of the campaign.
For the moment opposition to the centre-right mainstream of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is coming from the left, responding in particular to an ongoing Housing Crisis. But Ireland is not immune from the wave of identity politics sweeping far-right Populists into power elsewhere.
Another recession might easily trigger far-right Populism within the existing framework, bringing together an unholy trinity, seen elsewhere, of xenophobia – including opposition to E.U. membership – climate change denial and opposition to abortion services.
Who me?
Identities are hotly contested on the island of Ireland. Thus the Fine Gael-led government’s recent proposal to rehabilitate the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) – the British Crown’s police force prior to independence in 1921 – brought a veritable Twitter storm of anger and bewilderment.
In its wake, the rousing Wolf Tone 1972 rebel song ‘Come out ye Black and Tans’ topped the iTunes charts in Ireland, and the U.K.,[ii] before being ripped off by Kerry independent candidate Michael Healy-Rae for his election campaign song.
The bizarre decision perhaps explains Fine Gael’s steep decline in support, as revealed in recent opinion polls. Although a wave of violent crime, including the horrifying murder of a Drogheda teenager,[iii] and the story of a homeless man receiving ‘life-changing’ injuries after a tent, with him inside, was forcibly removed by heavy machinery from the side of one of Dublin’s canals,[iv] contributed to widespread unease with the orientation of Irish society under the current administration.
Identity politics vary from country to country, and from epoch to epoch. In the U.S. race has long been a divisive issue. In the U.K. incipient (so-called ‘Little-Englander’) nationalism is the new clarion call, with the shattering of transnational working class identity emphasised by the implosion of the Labour Party in Scotland.
Historic cleavages in Ireland have tended to be religious rather than ethno-linguistic or racial, pitting Catholics against Protestants and Dissenters (or Presbyterians), at least since the failure of the United Irishman project in the 1790s; although, in the South at least, divisions have also recently emerged along familiar liberal versus conservative lines – especially over reproductive rights and marriage equality.
Identity politics tend to shred solidarities based on economic status both within countries and internationally, often involving deference to aristocracy or accumulated wealth. Developing a political movement based on social class, however, can also be problematic, as for example where a person’s ‘bourgeois’ speech or mannerism is stigmatised. The great diversity within any class formation is also easily overlooked.
The success of the Populist far-right in both the U.S. and U.K. has been achieved by combining working class disaffection – including resentment towards the kind of educated middle-class ‘elites’ generally at the helm of socialist parties – with ‘primordial’ racial or national identification.
As with the racism exhibited by poor Irish-Americans against former African-American slaves who migrated North after the U.S. Civil War (1860-65), the lowest income strata is often most resistant to new arrivals, who may be seen, and are often depicted in the media, as competitors for jobs, housing and other government services.
Brexit Effect
Whether, and for how long, Irish politics avoids the gravitational pull of far-right Populism is unclear. Certainly Brexit stoked identity politics in Ireland by amplifying latent anti-English prejudices.
Notably, over the course of protracted negotiations, the Irish media lampooned English nostalgia – emanating from ‘swivel-eyed loons’ – for a bygone, imperial age. The Irish Times leading columnist Fintan O’Toole even boasted that for the first time in history Ireland, with a population of under five million, was now a more powerful State than the U.K.,[v] which has a population of almost seventy million.
At least Irish nationalism tends to oppose unsavoury outlooks identified with English nationalism, including a xenophobia previously directed against Irish living there. Sinn Féin has also tempered historic anti-E.U. sentiment in the wake of Brexit, perhaps on the basis that ‘my enemies enemy is my friend.’
Moreover, Ireland’s openness to foreign investment, and low corporation taxation, means Steve Bannon – and presumably Donald Trump who owns a golf course and hotel in Doonbeg, County Clare – see little reason to interfere in Irish politics, with U.S. armed service personel permitted to use Shannon Airport as a stopover. But this might change if the rise of the left, especially Sinn Féin, continues unabated.
Arch-Imperialist Mike Pence was today greeting American troops in Shannon Airport
It is a continuing disgrace to the Irish people that American Imperialism should be allowed to use any part of Ireland as a military staging ground
— Anti Imperialist Action Ireland (@AIAIreland) January 25, 2020
Radical Redistribution
The absence of a legacy of heavy industry in the shape of rust-belt towns denies far-right Populists in Ireland the ‘blue-collar’ support base relied on by Trump, and Tory Brexiteers. On mainland Europe too, far-right Populists have successfully appealed to these working class former supporters of social democratic parties.
Most of what passes for a working class in Ireland, historically, are really petit-bourgeois pastoralists, many of whose sons became publicans, auctioneers and shopkeepers, selling commodities on the international market, and in recent times relying on grant aid from the European Union. These farmers have tended to vote overwhelmingly for one or other of the centre-right parties. But Irish society, and politics, is in a period of significant flux.
The two main centre-right parties are now struggling to retain the support of an aging, and shrinking, livestock farming cohort. That sector is in crisis owing to a slump in beef prices and existential fears around climate chaos and Brexit. Over the course of the past year, supermarkets and processing plants have been blockaded, as a schism grows between better-off dairy farmers and beef farmers, overwhelmingly reliant on subsidies.
Meanwhile, with a population approaching two million that dwarfs the other main urban centres of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway that barely register half a million between them, the capital Dublin is the economic engine of the country. But chronic under-investment in transport infrastructure and social housing has brought spiralling rents[viii] in the capital, affecting the young disproportionately. Therefore, calls for a radical redistribution of wealth, along with action on climate change, are growing louder.
Across the country, the rising cost of living, from property to health and childcare, since recovery from the Economic Crash of 2008 and subsequent EU/IMF bailout is disrupting the centre-right consensus, dominant since the state’s foundation.
Riding high in the polls, Sinn Féin only emerged after the end of the Northern Ireland Troubles in 1999 as a serious force in the South. It has successfully twinned the objective of achieving Irish unity with radical (at least for Ireland) redistribution, pledging to enshrine the right to a home in the Irish Constitution. Its manifesto also promises to pay back €1,500 to renters, a three-year rent freeze, and the largest public housing funding scheme the state has ever seen.[ix]
Sinn Féin MPs, MLAs & TDs gather ahead of the Dáil100 event.
On the centre-right Fianna Fáil appears to be regaining pre-eminence, after riding pillion passenger with the minority Fine Gael administration. A formal coalition of these two is the most likely outcome of the election. Nevertheless, for their combined share of the vote to drop significantly below 50% is unprecedented.
As in the last U.K. election, there is a huge divergence between the voting intentions of the young and the old, with the former despairing at the failure of successive administrations to deliver affordable housing, public transport, address the climate and biodiversity emergency or further the cause of Irish unity. Similarly to the U.K. too, the left in Ireland suffers from a factionalism that makes a grand coalition unlikely.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin said he is hopeful of a progressive alliance after the #GE2020. He said there are “very serious barriers” to working with Sinn Féin. He said, “There are fundamental issues of trust about who runs SF.” pic.twitter.com/0KvTLlmbdY
Over the course of Irish history neither of the two dominant centre-right parties have been over-burdened by ideology, although Fine Gael’s ‘Just Society’-wing endeavoured to forge a social democratic party in the late 1960s.[x] Today, predictably, Fianna Fáil lays claim to more centrist policies with campaign literature proclaiming ‘an Ireland for all.’
Extended periods in opposition have tended to witness greater emphasis on left-wing causes by both parties. Once a government is formed, however, the ‘realities’ of power, often enunciated by a stubborn legion of Sir Humphreys in the civil service, brings business as usual.
Famously, in 1987 after hounding Fine Gael for its attempts to curb government expenditure in order to reduce the national debt, Fianna Fáil under Charlie Haughey introduced a series of its own swingeing cut backs.
In Ireland, substantive reforms arrive pitifully slowly as manifold Quangos, persistent Nimbyism and entrenched property interests inhibit infrastructural schemes, with the notable exception of motorways in a car-centric country. Tellingly, Dublin is the third worst city in the world for traffic congestion[xi] due to long term failures in delivering public transport, and historic corruption in land rezoning that brought a judicial tribunal lasting for fifteen years due to constant legal challenges.
On the other hand, the Irish economy has grown exponentially since the mid-1990s – reversing long-term emigration trends and attracting signification immigration for the first time – notwithstanding the catastrophic EU/IMF Bailout of 2010.
The Progressive Democrats (popularly referred to as the PDs), a breakaway party from Fianna Fáil that first enjoyed success in the 1987 election, played an important role in laying the foundations for the sustained economic growth and high employment that ensued from the mid-1990s.
Under the leadership of Desmond O’Malley, Mary Harney and Michael McDowell, the party sought to modernise the country, preferring the private sector to assume the role of an often inefficient (and corrupt) State. Despite its Fianna Fáil origins, the PD’s economically liberal agenda appealed to business-minded Fine Gael supporters, despairing at that party’s handling of the economy.
Although the party reached a high water mark in the 1987 election and steadily declined thereafter, before disappearing entirely in 2009, it left an indelible mark on successive governments. This helped created the so-called Celtic Tiger, with Ireland moving ‘closer to Boston than Berlin’, in the words of Mary Harney in 2000.[xii]
The PDs were coalition partner to Fianna Fáil over the course of four administrations (1989-92, 1997-2002, 2002-2007, and 2007-2009), securing Ireland’s position as a low tax haven for foreign multinationals. But the delivery of social and affordable housing was left in the hands of the private sector, which yielded insufficient units throughout the boom years. Moreover, the State, including local authorities, lost its capacity to construct social housing, from which it has been slow to recover.
Not only did PD ideology influence Fianna Fáil – with Minister for Finance (1997-2004) Charlie McCreevy once flirting with membership – but also Fine Gael. Thus, the former leader and Minister for Health (2004-11) Mary Harney is recorded as a confidant of Taoiseach Varadkar, who rose to prominence as a staunch critic of his own party’s social democratic tendencies.[xiii]
Under neo-liberal policies, in particular the low corporation tax regime of 12.5%, Ireland attracted significant foreign direct investment, with global technology giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple establishing European headquarters, along with pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer.
Google HQ, Dublin, Ireland
Low interest rates after joining the euro also contributed to runaway inflation in house prices until the bubble burst after 2008, leading to negative equity that ruined hundreds of thousands. Many workers, especially in the construction sector, were forced to leave Ireland for good. But consistent tax returns from the employees of multinationals in particular, allowed the exchequer finances to recover more rapidly than expected.
The EU/IMF Bailout stabilised property values, and the low taxation regime continued to attract investment into the Irish market, resulting in a bonanza for the surviving indigenous landlords. But the restoration is now working to the detriment of much of the indigenous population, with salaries failing to keep pace with rental costs.[xiv]
New Ireland
Away from the economy, over the course of the last decade, a new species of identity politics took centre stage, dividing upholders of ‘traditional’ Catholic values and ‘modern’ liberals, mainly of a younger vintage. Battles lines were drawn over marriage equality and reproductive rights, with liberal values emerging triumphant in two referendums.
Dublin Castle after 8th Referendum results declared.
Similar to ‘One Nation’ Tories led by David Cameron, Fine Gael under first Enda Kenny and then Leo Varadkar embraced a liberal social agenda, with the gay half-Indian Varadkar’s accession to power a symbol of widespread tolerance, and acceptance of diversity.
Indeed, although the country has experienced an unprecedented surge in immigration since the turn of the millennium, with the number of non-national inhabitants now almost 13% of the total,[xv] there is little sing of a far-right Populist insurgency.
Brexit also provided the Irish government with an opportunity to play a card generally monopolised by more nationalistic political rivals – with Varadkar speculating on the possibility of a united Ireland in his lifetime[xvi] – although the bizarre decision to commemorate the RIC seems to have used up that political capital.
The other side of Fine Gael’s liberal coin has been a conservative reluctance to interfere in the economy, particularly where provision of social housing has been concerned. In part at least, this stems from Leo Varadkar’s apparent aversion to anything hinting at socialism. Thus he complained in a 2018 speech about those who wanted ‘to divide our society into people who live in different areas, with some people paying for everything.’[xvii]
Real Estate Investment Trusts
The scale of an unfolding Housing Crisis, however, of unaffordable rents, homelessness and under-supply is now even attracting criticism from former PD leader, Michael McDowell, who recently wrote:
There is an ideological problem here. The private sector cannot solve the issue. The State must intervene to boost housing supply – social and owner-occupied. Even the term “private sector” is mutating before our eyes. When Reits [real estate investment trusts] buy entire developments to let at high rents – a new phenomenon – that has become the new meaning of the “private sector”.
Allegiance to the centre-right has previously been secured by an expectation among property owners that mortgages will ultimately yield capital appreciation. This requires consistent economic growth, which without adequate rent control measures has brought the rental inflation driving younger voters into the arms of Sinn Féin, and other left-wing parties.
Younger buyers are still assisted by inter-generational transfers, but this is a single step on a steep ladder. Decades of mortgage repayments await, alongside spiralling childcare and healthcare costs. Although Leo Varadkar claims to represent early rising workers, in fact his government’s laissez faire policies are to the advantage of substantial rentier property owners.
I am a champion for the self-employed & people who get up early in the morning and nobody gets up earlier than the Irish farmer! As long as I am around self employed people will never be taken for granted #IFAAGM
As the 2008 Crash proved, a fairy tale of Irish economic growth-without-end cannot endure – quite aside from ecological constraints – given the inherent volatility of the capitalist system itself. As David Graeber explains: ‘Capitalism is a system that enshrines the gambler as an essential part of its operation, in a way that no other ever has, yet at the same time, capitalism seems to be uniquely incapable of conceiving of its own eternity.’[xxiii]
With steady U.S. economic growth the Irish economy is likely to continue to grow in tandem, as has been the case since the 1990s, but another U.S. recession could see a Populist far-right emerge from out of the long grass in Ireland.
Direct Provision
September’s well-organised protests in the small town of Oughterard in County Galway,[xxiv] along with demonstrations against other proposed Direct Provision accommodation centres for refugee and asylum seekers, indicates a new anti-immigrant mood in rural Ireland. But unless, or until, one of the three main nationalists parties embraces such an outlook it is likely to remain marginal.
The Irish ‘Blueshirts’
With origins in the ‘Blueshirt’ fascist movement of the 1930s, Fine Gael has occasionally accommodated far-right views throughout its history. One prominent anti-Semite of the 1940s was Oliver J. Flanagan, ironically the late father of the current Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, who has promised to introduce anti-hate crime legislation; much to the chagrin of far-right vloggers, such as the journalist-turned-far-right-politician Gemma O’Doherty.
Varadkar appears to assume that a half-Indian background insulates him from accusations of racism. Thus, in response to People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith’s criticism in the Dáil of Fine Gael’s recent by-election candidate Verona Murphy – who had claimed asylum seekers as young as three years-of-age could be influenced by ISIS – he claimed to know ‘a little more about experiencing racism than perhaps you do.’[xxvii]
Fine Gael has since de-selected the Wexford woman, who is standing as an independent in the forthcoming election. Yet even Danny Healy-Rae (the brother of the aforementioned Michael) was able to expose the hypocrisy of Varadkar’s criticism of Noel Grealish’s inflammatory (and erroneous) Dáil speech on Nigerians sending home remittances.[xxviii]
Fine Gael’s overriding focus, however, is to deliver the elixir of economic growth, rising rents, and well-remunerated jobs, through foreign direct investment, while embracing further integration with the European Union. Anti-immigration rhetoric jeopardises that political and economic formula.
Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Aontú
Given a nationalist background in Northern Irish politics, and historic advocacy of protectionist economic policies outside the E.U., Sinn Féin might seem a likely candidate for adopting a nativist agenda. But the Party has remained faithful to its anti-colonial principles and avoids Populist anti-immigrant messaging. Moreover, many of Sinn Féin’s new cohort of young supporters would be alienated by such an approach.
Under the steadying hand of Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil stands on the brink of power, either in coalition with Fine Gael or perhaps a combination of other parties. Under his guidance the party is highly unlikely to embrace any form of far-right Populism. But another recession, and a further leftward surge, could tear up that playbook, with a different outlook emerging under new leadership.
Although Martin advocated for a ‘Yes’ vote in the abortion referendum, a majority within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party opposed repeal of the Eighth Amendment.[xxix] Notwithstanding its crushing defeat in the 2018 referendum, there exists in Ireland a substantial and well-organised anti-abortion movement, prompted by journalists and vloggers,[xxx] which might easily fall in behind a large party such as Fianna Fáil, as occurred with the Brexiter takeover of the Tories in the U.K..
Opposition to abortion services does not necessarily connote adherence to a broad spectrum of far-right ideas, but nor is it a stand-alone issue. Far-right ideologues around the world, including in Ireland, speak of a Great Replacement conspiracy theory wherein the native population is replaced by immigrants. Abortion is considered a means of diminishing the indigenous population.
Undeniably, Peader Tóibín, the leader of the newcomer Aontú represents the views of many in ‘middle’ or ‘forgotten’ Ireland. It will be intriguing to see how this conservative party performs in the forthcoming election.
There is no doubt there is a growing unease and concern among many people in Ireland around the issue of immigration. Our view is very simple, there needs to be sustainable levels of immigration in this country, it needs to be managed. There needs to be some link between the capacity of the country and the numbers of people coming in if there’s not there’s going to be hardship for indigenous and newcomers alike.[xxxi]
Should Aontú achieve electoral success on the issue of immigration in a future election, it would not require a great leap of imagination to envision ‘soul-searching’ in Fianna Fáil that leads to a ‘harder line’ being taken on immigration, and perhaps the embrace of other far-right platforms. Aontú may not survive long, but like PDs they could leave an indelible imprint on Irish politics.
Climate change denial would also appeal to farmers under pressure to reduce emissions from a sector contributing 34% of the national total; as well as a motor car-lobby resistant to carbon taxes and public transport.
Cognitive Dissonance
Thankfully, it requires a degree of cognitive dissonance for the far-right in Ireland to adopt the anti-immigrant rhetoric employed in the U.S. and U.K..
First and foremost, Irish people have emigrated in extraordinary numbers over the course of the past two centuries. Secondly, it can hardly be argued that the country lacks space given the population density was greater in the 1840s than today. Indeed, stemming a decline in rural Ireland’s population is an ongoing challenge.
The furore over Direct Provision is better assessed in terms of a housing crisis in the greater Dublin region. This led to the State securing cheap properties elsewhere; perhaps in an attempt to avoid the accusation that it looks after refugees, while failing to provide accommodation for homeless in the capital.
Finally, anyone appraised of Irish history will be aware that the Irish ‘nation’ is a composite of many waves of migration and conquests. The medieval Book of Invasion (Lebor Gabála Érenn) tells of the land being taken over six times by six different peoples. Thus James Joyce argued: ‘What race or language … can nowadays claim to be pure? No race has less right to make such a boast than the one presently inhabiting Ireland.’[xxxii]
James Joyce: ‘What race or language … can nowadays claim to be pure?’
With the institutions of the Irish state ill-equipped for a significant influx, however, friction with an indigenous population confronting a housing and homelessness crisis, if unchecked, seems inevitable.
Island Nation
Operating as an offshore member of the European Union, located between the two most populous (and powerful!) English-speaking nations brings significant advantages to an Irish State that struggled to hold its people for the first eighty years of independence. The Industrial Development Authority, established in the late 1940s, has played a crucial role in attracting some of the largest companies in the world, providing secure employment for indigenous and foreign workers under a low corporation taxation regime that infuriates many of Ireland’s E.U. partners.
The EU/IMF Bailout, however – through which the State consented to take on the debts owing to unsecured bond holders – is a Faustian Pact mandating economic-growth-without-end to prevent another debt crisis. It has restored the price of property, and rents, to levels seen during the Celtic Tiger era.
A low corporation taxation regime and lack of significant property taxes attracted the interest real estate investment trusts (Reits) that have brought the boom back with a vengeance. This works to the benefit of an ever-shrinking proportion of the population, with the young in particular struggling to live in a capital ill-served by public transport.
Long term, to address the extraordinary wealth tied-up in property meaningful land taxes ought to be introduced. Here, unfortunately, Sinn Féin has evinced reluctance to introduce what might prove unpopular measures in the short term; proposing instead to phase out unpopular local property taxes, and only to tax the earnings of Reits.[xxxiii]
But land taxes[xxxiv] could bring more land into productive use by penalising land-hording, permitting young people to buy homes at more affordable prices from empty-nesting elders, who should be accommodated in smaller, climate-friendly units. A reduction in the cost of agricultural would also encourage the development of alternative, climate-friendly, agriculture.
In the wake of Brexit, Ireland may re-assess its relationship with an E.U. (including the euro) struggling to contain atavistic forces in many countries. In the event of another global recession, the Stability and Growth Pact, requiring deficits to stay within 3%, should not impede the State from responding with Keynesian measures. Otherwise austerity policies could lead to a Populist far-right gaining traction.
The Irish general election of 2020 may prove a watershed, with the duopoly of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being knocked off their seemingly unassailable perch, and a more conventional left-right division developing. But the politics of identity may derail ambitious social programmes, with the question of the border unresolved.
A ongoing challenge for the left, and Irish progressives more broadly, is to develop a fair distribution of resources, and sustainability, in a State still bearing the wounds of colonisation.
Featured Image (c) Daniele Idini.
[i] Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, ‘TD calling for no-confidence vote in Simon Harris’, RTÉ, January 9th, 2020, https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2020/0109/1105248-politics-no-confidence-motion/
[ii] Michael Staines, ‘Come Out Ye Black and Tans tops Charts in the UK and Ireland after RIC controversy’, Newstalk, January 9th, 2020, https://www.newstalk.com/news/wolfe-tones-come-out-black-and-tans-947680
[iii] Paul Reynolds, ‘Drogheda feud reaches new level of barbarity with teenager’s murder’, RTÉ, 18th of January, 2020, https://www.rte.ie/news/crime/2020/0117/1108136-mulready-woods-drogheda/
[iv] Conrad Duncan, ‘‘Absolutely disgusting’: Homeless man suffers ‘life-changing’ injuries after tent cleared away by Dublin city council’, Independent, January 15th, 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/homeless-man-life-changing-injuries-dublin-city-council-ireland-varadkar-a9284936.html
[v] Fintan O’Toole, ‘Fintan O’Toole: For the first time since 1171, Ireland is more powerful than Britain’, September 14th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-for-the-first-time-since-1171-ireland-is-more-powerful-than-britain-1.4014922?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Ffintan-o-toole-for-the-first-time-since-1171-ireland-is-more-powerful-than-britain-1.4014922
[vi] Finn McRedmond, ‘Finn McRedmond: Like Tories, Corbyn has failed Ireland’, August 24th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/finn-mcredmond-like-tories-corbyn-has-failed-ireland-1.3995334
[vii] Press Association, ‘Sinn Féin pledges to secure border poll within five years’, Breaking News¸ January 28th, 2020, https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/sinn-fein-pledges-to-secure-border-poll-within-five-years-978299.html
[viii] Sorcha Pollak, ‘Dublin rents to rise 17% by 2021 due to lack of supply, report finds’, Irish Times April 8th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/dublin-rents-to-rise-17-by-2021-due-to-lack-of-supply-report-finds-1.3853074?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fdublin-rents-to-rise-17-by-2021-due-to-lack-of-supply-report-finds-1.3853074
[ix] Roisin Agnew, ‘Can Sinn Féin’s young voters finally pull Ireland to the left?’ The Guardian, January 31st, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/31/sinn-fein-ireland-left-election-ira
[x] Rhona McCord, ‘Book Review, ‘A Just Society for Ireland?’’ The Irish Story, December 16th, 2013, https://www.theirishstory.com/2013/12/16/book-review-a-just-society-for-ireland/#.Xjg8giPLdPY
[xi] Fergal O’Brien, Dublin third worst city for time spent sitting in traffic – survey, RTÉ, February `13th, 2019, https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2019/0213/1029375-dublin-traffic-survey/.
[xii] Dan White, ‘Dan White: Harney was right — we are closer to Boston than Berlin’, Herald.ie, May 24th, 2011, https://www.herald.ie/opinion/columnists/dan-white/dan-white-harney-was-right-we-are-closer-to-boston-than-berlin-27980646.html
[xiii] Frank Armstrong, ‘Leo-Liberal’, Cassandra Voices, October 5th, 2019, https://cassandravoices.com/current-affairs/politics/leo-liberal/
[xiv] Sean Murray, ‘Dublin now in top 5 most expensive places to rent in Europe, research finds’, The Journal, March 13th, 2019, https://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-rent-europe-4538856-Mar2019/
[xv] Kevin O’Neill, ‘Irish Population rises by 64,500 bringing it to almost 5m’, Irish Examiner, August 28th, 2019, https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/irish-population-rises-by-64500-bringing-it-to-almost-5m-946672.html
[xvi] Untitled, ‘Varadkar says he would like to see a united Ireland in his lifetime’, Irish Times, October 25th, 2018, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/varadkar-says-he-would-like-to-see-a-united-ireland-in-his-lifetime-1.4062543
[xviii] Untitled, ‘The Irish Times view on property investment funds: Doing the Reit thing’, October 10th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-property-investment-funds-doing-the-reit-thing-1.4045602?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorial%2Fthe-irish-times-view-on-property-investment-funds-doing-the-reit-thing-1.4045602
[xix] Untitled, ‘Bibby: Irish SMEs struggling with rising costs’, Shelf Life, October 15th, 2019, https://www.shelflife.ie/bibby-irish-smes-struggling-with-rising-costs/
[xx] Untitled, ‘Massive IKEA store approved for Dublin’, BreakingNews.ie, June 13th, 2007, https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/massive-ikea-store-approved-for-dublin-314846.html
[xxi] Brian Mahon ‘Show Vendors, ‘Election 2020: Fine Gael promises end to ‘boom and bust’’, The Times, January 17th, 2020, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/election-2020-fine-gael-promises-end-to-boom-and-bust-9dk70kjdj
[xxii] Dan Mitchell, ‘These Were the 6 Major American Economic Crises of the Last Century’, Time Magazine, July 16, 2015, https://time.com/3957499/american-economic-crises-history/
[xxiii] David Graeber, Debt: The First Five Thousand Years, Melville, London, 2011, p.357
[xxiv] Eileen Magnier, ‘Protest in Oughterard over possible direct provision centre’, RTÉ, September 28th, 2019, https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2019/0928/1078800-oughterard-direct-provision/
[xxv] Kevin Doyle, ‘Taoiseach says direct provision ‘better than using tents’’ Irish Independent, October 31st, 2019, https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-says-direct-provision-better-than-using-tents-38647784.html
[xxvi] Untitled, ‘Leo Varadkar says Georgia and Albania driving rise in asylum-seeker numbers’, BreakingNews.ie, November 3rd, 2019, https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/leo-varadkar-says-georgia-and-albania-driving-rise-in-asylum-seeker-numbers-961488.html
[xxvii] Pat Leahy, ‘Taoiseach stands by Verona Murphy despite further controversial remarks’, November 19th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/taoiseach-stands-by-verona-murphy-despite-further-controversial-remarks-1.4088124?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Ftaoiseach-stands-by-verona-murphy-despite-further-controversial-remarks-1.4088124
[xxviii] Vivienne Clarke, ‘Danny Healy-Rae defends Noel Grealish for comments about Nigeria’, Irish Examiner, November 13th, 2019, https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/danny-healy-rae-defends-noel-grealish-for-comments-about-nigeria-963665.html
[xxix] Philip Ryan, ‘More than half of Fianna Fáil parliamentary party backing ‘no’ vote in referendum’, Irish Independent, May 3rd, 2018, https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abortion-referendum/more-than-half-of-fianna-fail-parliamentary-party-backing-no-vote-in-referendum-36870462.html
[xxx] For example: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT9D87j5W7PtE7NHOR5DUOQ
[xxxi] Fiach Kelly, ‘Peadar Tóibín’s immigration remarks spark heavy criticism’, Irish Times, April 8th, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/peadar-t%C3%B3ib%C3%ADn-s-immigration-remarks-spark-heavy-criticism-1.3853813
[xxxii] James Joyce, ‘Ireland: Island of Saints and Sages’, Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.118.
[xxxiii] Pat Leahy, ‘Sinn Féin unveils plans for dramatic increase in public spending’, Irish Times, January 29th, 2020, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-unveils-plans-for-dramatic-increase-in-public-spending-1.4154513?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fsinn-f%25C3%25A9in-unveils-plans-for-dramatic-increase-in-public-spending-1.4154513
[xxxiv] Dr Frank Crowley, ‘How a land value tax could solve many economic headaches’, RTÉ Brainstorm, October 18th, 2017, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2017/1017/912913-how-a-land-value-tax-could-solve-many-economic-headaches/.
