Voters stage their historic revolution at the ballot box

‘Quiet rebellion of 2011 is only the first step in restoring fairness to the process’

I’VE been waiting for someone to use the phrase “the risen people” to describe what has just happened. We’ve just had out own little Egyptian or Libyan revolution. No guns, no violence, no deaths. Just a quiet and determined people making their point.

And it produced a moment to savour. We still can’t be sure if, in years to come, historians will write that this was the election that changed the shape of Irish politics. That might take another election — or it might be determined by how the next government shapes up.