Changing politics - Diversity brings huge challenges

This week’s European and local elections will, if the polls are reliable, return a diverse range of representatives and mark another milestone in what seems the inevitable decline of the two parties which dominated Irish political life since the foundation of the State.

This is not a particularly Irish problem as right across Europe voters seem ready to turn away from the centrist, moderate, or conservative parties that dominated Europe for decades and support extremes of right or left. This may show democracy at its inclusive best but it also moves us a step towards the chaos that made Italy ungovernable more or less since the end of the Second World War.

We can see an early indication of that great sea change in the composition of the Dáil. Fianna Fáil, once an almost omnipotent force, has been reduced to a bit part while a growing number of independents, united by no more than their opposition to the Government, watch almost impotently as Sinn Féin grows ever stronger. Whether that strength ever reaches the point that Sinn Féin can secure a place in government remains to be seen. There is of course the possibility, however remote, that when that moment arrives the two oldest, most conservative parties — Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael — will put their by now irrational Civil War enmity aside and unite to stave off their worst fears: Sinn Féin in office.