Terry Prone: Coalition parties may fear ‘populism’ but they dismiss it at their peril

The word means nothing to the people being warned off voting, particularly for Sinn Féin and People before Profit

TDs Joan Collins (Independents 4 Change), Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit-Solidarity), Catherine Murphy (Social Democrats), and Paul Donnelly (Sinn Féin) publicising the recent cost of living and housing protest. Despite what some in the Coalition feel, no one in Ireland is afraid of ‘populists’. File Picture: Leah Farrell/Rolling News

A current condemnation deployed by the larger political parties is “populist”. It’s an interesting dismissal because it means nothing to the people being warned off voting, particularly for Sinn Féin and People before Profit. It’s not that clear, it would appear, to the people who use it, either. The general intent seems to be to suggest that populists are shallow, unqualified panderers to public opinion.

Nobody in Ireland is afraid of populists. Lots of people are afraid of Sinn Féin for being Sinn Féin, but not particularly as populists. Rich people are very afraid of Sinn Féin, despite recent charm offensives, and quite like Eoin Ó Broin withdrawing his public approval of the visual of gardaí at a Famine eviction.