Ireland faces the biggest crisis in world capitalism since the 1930’s and for that reason there’s never been more need for a socialist response to solve the problems workers face. With that in mind, how do the Labour leadership stand up to scrutiny? 

While no doubt Eamon Gilmore will be satisfied by the latest polls that give him a 54% per cent poll rating and Labour 29% of the Dublin vote, it seems that Labour’s support has fallen to around 19% lagging behind the Fianna Fáil on 27%. The Fine Gael are well ahead of both and it seems likely that Labour will end up as the junior partner in a coalition lead by Enda Kenny.

However we have heard this all before so you will have to forgive my pessimism. The problems that the Good Friday agreement sought to eradicate from Irish society were signed and agreed upon by all major parties in Northern Ireland on the 10^th April 1998. There was the promise of a lasting peace in Ireland, backed up by a slice of the 90’s economic boom for the North with a small amount of American investment into the province. However the Good Friday/Belfast agreement wrote mandatory coalition (sectarianism and tribal politics) into the statute books and is now established as an acceptable form of governance in Northern Ireland. But how can a state which by its very premise is built on sectarian principles have any sort of moral legitimacy or claim to govern equally regardless of creed? Take also into consideration the joint ministerial leadership of Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson; one a former provisional IRA commander, the other a member of the sectarian secret society the ‘Orange Order.’