Inherited beliefs - The past will never be forgotten

THE funeral of 105-year-old Dan Keating took place in Castlemaine, Co Kerry, yesterday. He was believed to have been the last survivor of the Irish War of Independence.

We might like to think that the impact of those terrible times — especially our savage Civil War — slips deeper and deeper into the shadows of our daily lives, but any honest assessment would have to conclude that our political system is still dogged, stymied and undermined by battle lines drawn so long ago.

It is still in the dead-man’s grip of the events that made our great-grandfathers and grandfathers enemies for life.

Nearly all of our political parties concede that there are few profound differences between their policies, possibly more a difference of emphasis rather than of conviction.

Often the similarities between the major parties are praised, suggesting that a strong centre makes it impossible for extremism of any hue to have a destabilising impact in our country.

There are also profound cultural differences; personalities at ease in one might feel awkward in another.

It may be a bit more than the awkwardness a woman feels at a wedding when she sees another in the same outfit, but it is not a terrible lot more.

One party might look on another as being less than perfect, each absolutely convinced that they are right. Each is as wrong as the other.

The reality is that many of us are almost genetically programmed to vote the way we do, following the family line as it has been followed for nearly a century.

A present example of this can be seen when the issue of the Taoiseach’s finances are discussed. If you’re from a Fianna Fáil background it would be impossible to concede that Mr Ahern has questions to answer, but if you’re a Fine Gael it is impossible to accept that his record remains unblemished.

And ne’er the twain shall meet.

This polarisation has its roots in the struggle to establish the Republic and it is long past the time that it should have matured into an irrelevancy.

This set of inherited preferences and prejudices has limited the potential of nearly every cabinet since the foundation of the State.

Though Keating and his contemporaries might be disappointed with the finding of a recent survey which established that only 9% of Irish women thought politics important while 57% thought skin and hair care important they might not be surprised.

Any political process where divisions are vigorously sustained even though they are minimal is bound to lose credibility. Can it really be that the groupings that make up our political system are based on a position taken by a long-dead ancestor on a long-dead issue?

After all, if we are to live in what has effectively become a single party state then that party should have the benefit of all the talents, not just those of the descendants of one side of the argument.

Even Keating’s generation would struggle to understand that divisions so violently represented on an August day at Béal na mBláth 85 years ago would still be the primary fault lines in Irish politics today. Try explaining it to the New Irish. Or even to yourself.