Not even government wants to govern

The real divide in Irish politics is the artificial one, writes Michael Clifford.

At a recent commemoration for Michael Collins in Glasnevin Cemetery, the journalist Stephen Collins — no relation — spoke about politics in today’s Ireland.

He quoted a former Labour Party adviser, who had remarked that the left/right divide in politics was now meaningless: “the real divide is between parties and politicians prepared to take responsibility for governing and those who believe that politics is about expressing outrage and never taking responsibility for the difficult choices that holding power entails.”