Government’s budget spending shows priorities of President now mainstream
On the face of it, these are halcyon days for the people in Irish politics whom their opponents call the “liberal left”.
If there’s a personification of the Irish liberal left, it’s Michael D Higgins. A leftist since the heady days of the 1960s, he fought decades of political and parliamentary street battles against the conservative and often reactionary forces which dominated Irish politics and society since the foundation of the State.
He was drawn to political activism and he hungered for political power because he knew in the crucible of politics it is possible to make more of a difference, to deliver more change for the better, to do more good for the greater number, than in perhaps any other field of human endeavour.
He took to ministerial office with aplomb, accepting compromises, cutting deals and working its levers with determination and shrewdness to deliver an enduring legacy. To put the tin hat on it, he was a darling of the cultural left, creating a bridge to politics that has enlightened both the cultural and political worlds.
In a world where the tide is moving towards authoritarian strongmen and demagogues Ireland has twice elected a man who stands for the exact opposite of all that
In most countries the leftist cultural elite disdains the sordid business of politics and government with its mundanity, its shopkeeperiness, its unheroic, quotidian accommodations. In Ireland Michael D co-opted them into his project to bring culture to the centre of politics, and vice versa.
True, the presidency has no real power; perhaps many voters are content to let Michael D warble away about ethics and equality up in the Áras, while the Government gets on with the real business of juggling budgets, deciding priorities and so on. Talk left, vote right, as people have often observed of Irish politics. And yet, and yet.
As Fintan O’Toole insisted last weekend, in a world where the tide is moving towards authoritarian strongmen and demagogues, content to thrash the wretched for political gain, Ireland has twice elected – this time by an enormous, thumping majority – a man who stands for the exact opposite of all that.
Whatever way you look at it, Michael…
