Irish Voters Rebuff Their Political Establishment

Last weekend, the Irish government suffered an unforeseen and humiliating defeat by its electorate. The two amendments to the Irish constitution that it had proposed were rejected by large majorities in both referendums. To paraphrase Lady Bracknell from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, “To lose one referendum may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

However, it was not only the three parties in Ireland’s coalition government that got these issues spectacularly wrong. It was the whole political establishment, supported by a small army of state-funded NGOs.

BO

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Barry O’Halloran

Barry O’Halloran is an author and journalist.

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Last weekend, the Irish government suffered an unforeseen and humiliating defeat by its electorate. The two amendments to the Irish constitution that it had proposed were rejected by large majorities in both referendums. To paraphrase Lady Bracknell from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, “To lose one referendum may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

However, it was not only the three parties in Ireland’s coalition government that got these issues spectacularly wrong. It was the whole political establishment, supported by a small army of state-funded NGOs.