IT'S true that Irish politics was always characterised by the ‘cute hoor’ and the nod and the wink.
They’re still there. That’s still there. We might no longer have a finance minister without a bank account or a former Taoiseach explaining bank lodgements by referring to winnings on the horses, but that sentiment hasn’t vanished. Yet, still, Irish politics is not something we should be ashamed of.
As the midterm elections approach in America, who would have thought that we would be looking at them in terms of concerns about democracy?
With the Republicans facing the prospect of bad results, commentators are not just talking about the shift in power and the consequences for the American government.
They are talking in worried tones about how the President of the USA will react.
Such is the state of American politics that serious questions are being asked about whether he will accept the results. How will he react to defeat? What will he do if his power wanes?
All of these things are being seriously asked by serious political commentators simply in light of the normal workings of democracy. Just look how far we’ve sunk.
As for our nearest neighbours, well, they’ve still yet to recover from the great divide that was Brexit. An ill-advised venture carried out by the arrogance of one Eton old boy and exploited by the arrogance of another Eton old boy has left a modern country’s politics looking like a shoddy version of what it once was.
The fact that a party like Reform UK managed to get so high in the polls can only point to a deep degradation in British politics. The racist and sexist remarks recorded by undercover ITV reporters among some of its councillors and candidates make grim viewing.
To see such ugliness exposed is grimly satisfying. This politics appears mean and hateful and prejudicial, appears nothing but a shoddy Anglo imitation of Trump politics.
And then there’s us. We’re far from perfect, but in comparison we now look quite extraordinary. Extraordinary in our ordinariness. Micheál Martin and Simon Harris are, between them, unlikely to set any political hearts racing, but at this time it is the comparison that matters.
In comparison, they are decent and ordinary. Whether you disagree with them politically or not — and, for the record, I disagree with both of them — they strike me as honest.
Honest in comparison to what is happening in America.
Honest in comparison to the stories that got Brexit done.
And that is no trivial thing. It is easy for us all to take democracy for granted. Indeed, the simple activities and concerns of day-to-day living mean that the state of our politics is not a daily thought.
There is a lot to be said, though, for living in a country where politics is still conducted in a way that is not hard to stomach.
When the Taoiseach went to Washington earlier this year, his literal hand-wringing was highly uncomfortable, and I still believe he shouldn’t have gone. But the squirming discomfort of the decent shouldn’t be criticised too much.
Compared to our bigger neighbours on either side of us, our politics looks by far the healthiest and, again, that’s no small thing.
Last week, I was coming down the empty stairs in the local supermarket and one of our local TDs, whom I disagree with too, was coming up, and we exchanged a quick hello. He doesn’t know me at all, but saying hello was just common decency.
It made me a little glad to be living with politics like this. Nothing special, but in the current moment that will do.
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