More than an election on Europe

By Mark Little

I have just finished my trip down the Shannon, arriving Thursday at the Limerick Institute of Technology, meeting a group of unemployed workers being eased back into education and towards new skills. 

The purpose of the trip – from Carrick-on-Shannon to Limerick - was to find out what issues are shaping the European elections in three of the four Irish constituencies. I expected to find scepticism about Europe, anger at the Government and a whole host of local concerns, and they all were certainly present in some form at every stop. But I also discovered links between European politics and parochial Irish realities that I never expected to find, like the EU funds that will help retrain those Limerick workers.

What really sticks with me is the profound alienation of so many people in this country from the political establishment. I’m not just talking about the Government, but the way power is exercised in Ireland. It struck me on Thursday as I chugged along the Shannon between the twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe - one town is Tipperary and the other is Clare. Two towns but one community, divided between two local authorities with different attitudes to planning, spending and development, much to the frustration of the people who live there.

From businesspeople along the banks of the Shannon I heard frustration about the failure of the state agencies set up to help them.  From farmers I heard anger about the manner in which our state implements European directives. From innovators I have heard criticism of the parochialism of our political system, with its obsessive focus on all things local. From citizens at every stop I have heard despair about the failure of the political class. And from pretty much everybody, I have heard polite but firm complaints about the negativity of the media.

These elections may be a referendum on the Government but I get the sense that, for many people, this will be a broader judgement on the way the country is run. And that could be very good news for the new faces, the independents, the dissidents and the sceptics who are contesting these elections.