Mick Clifford: How ‘common sense’ is fuelling the rise of right-wing populism in Ireland

Recent controversies show how State missteps can provide powerful ammunition for a political movement increasingly gaining traction in Ireland

US president Donald Trump espouses right-wing populism Picture: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

This week a political defection sank without a trace. Michael Sheehan, a long-time councillor in Wexford, joined Independent Ireland. Sheehan had once been in Fianna Fáil, but went out on his own in recent years.

He told his local newspaper his former party was not the organisation he signed up for in 1997.

At that time, “it was the zeitgeist of the nation”, he said. “It represented who the nation was.” 

It did in its eye. Quite obviously though, Mr Sheehan has gone in search of the zeitgeist of the nation today in the form of Independent Ireland.

The councillor was reported as now championing the party’s “common sense” approach to politics. These days the term “common sense” translates easily as “right-wing populism”.

The term infers that politics as usual has lost the run of itself and only right-wing populists who are in touch with “ordinary people” can fix it by, well, applying their common sense.

Populism, particularly in its current guise, is driven by prioritising emotion over reason. If you feel something to be the case, then that is so. It doesn’t require evidence. All it needs is the application of some common sense. Today, views are most often formulated through that bastion of common sense: Social media. 

You go there to have your opinion confirmed and it does that in spades through algorithms to a point where you are absolutely convinced your opinion couldn’t but be imbued with the highest standards of common sense.

Apart from the bread and butter of politics, culture war issues like immigration, climate, free speech and the media, the operation of the State, gender are all viewed through this prism of common sense.

Instead of evidence, those who espouse these views use examples. These examples, irrespective of how representative, are then disseminated, distorted, and exaggerated on social media until they are elevated to the status of the gospel truth.

So it goes with right-wing populism. People can make up their own minds as to whether it is a positive or negative development, but it is gaining traction, belatedly, and so far incrementally, in the Republic. 

The common sense guys in Independent Ireland now have 26 councillors to supplement their four TDs. They also have an MEP, former RTÉ reporter, Ciaran Mullooly.

Their kindred spirit on the political spectrum, Aontú, is also holding its own. And there are among the considerable independent TDs sufficient numbers to swell the common-sense ranks even further. Beyond electoral politics, the tenets of this broad approach to public issues also appear to be growing, even if it’s difficult to quantify by how much.

Throwing red meat to the populists

In such a milieu there is a premium on anything that can be pounced on as evidence that the populists are on the right side of common sense while the State’s organs patently are not. In that respect, there were two items in recent weeks that made no sense at all and threw some red meat out to these populists.

A conference for a breastfeeding advisory group had to migrate online this week after a controversy over one of the speakers. Jacob Engelsman, described as an international board-certified lactation consultant, was due to give a talk on supporting “gender diverse families” in breastfeeding. There was an allegation, or suggestion, that his talk was to include advice for men who wished to breastfeed.

The Irish Examiner reported on Wednesday that Engelsman has written a book where he refers to “chest feeding rather than " breastfeeding ". In the book, he writes that straight or “cis” men have asked him about producing milk, which they want to do “for the same reasons as anyone else”.

“Which is to say usually to feed and bond with their baby and to a lesser extent, for curiosity, fun or sexual gratification”.

The Association of Lactation Consultants in Ireland, which organised the conference, claims things have been taken out of context. “The HSE has said it provides €9,000 in annual funding to ALCI. This is used for training and separate events,” Niamh Griffin reported in the Irish Examiner.

Did anybody think to Google this guy before he was invited? If it was felt necessary to include a talk about “gender diverse families” in this area surely red flags should have been raised?

Did any of this advance the cause for acceptance of gender dysphoria at a time when it is under attack from all manner of actors?

A few weeks ago, similarly silly stuff was on view when a document on misinformation published by the Department of Children warned about “tradwife influencers” seeking to promote “restrictive, stereotypical roles for women and girls”.

The tradwife movement is based largely in the USA and advocates a retro role for women dating from around the 1950s. It’s straight out of the right-wing populist palate that feeds on distorted nostalgia. 

But the idea grown women could be led down such a path against their better instincts is little short of ludicrous.

Apart from that, the publication was tone deaf to those women who choose — and who can afford — to work out of the home when they have young children.

Naturally, there was a response online and from some commentators presenting this faux pas as “evidence” the State and all its agencies have lost all reason in pursuit of some “woke” ideology.

There isn’t much evidence for this, but when stray examples surface, they are put through the ringer of social media until such point as they are all the proof that is needed.

How, in that context, ridiculous stuff gets out is, in some ways, baffling. There may well be individuals within State and societal agencies who want to promote the notion of men breastfeeding. 

There are quite possibly individuals in a Government department or non-government organisation who believe it is ok to wag fingers at women who can think for themselves or choose how they want to live, but it certainly doesn’t represent the bulk of society. 

Instead, it merely provides red meat to those who claim to be the only repository of “common sense”.

The rise of this brand of right-wing populism that is being espoused still in the margins of the body politic here has not served anybody very well. Those who have achieved power, like Donald Trump in the USA and Viktor Orban in Hungary, tend to leave their respective countries worse off than they found them.

Common sense, it turns out, in this respect, makes no sense at all, but it’s all about how the message is conveyed. In that regard, it would be better if everybody just had a little cop on, so there would be less opportunity to drag people down redundant rabbit holes.