Party should rule out discrimination

The Progressive Democrats would describe itself as a “liberal party” which, when it was formed in 1985 by Des O’Malley and Mary Harney, aimed to “break the moulds of Irish politics”.

It is not quite so liberal when it comes to membership of the party which likes to believe it occupies the high moral ground. At least, not if an aspiring member is neither a citizen of Ireland nor of one of our fellow EU states.

Incredibly, when it was founded, into the party’s constitution was written an exclusionary clause which protected the membership from being contaminated by associating with non-Irish or non-EU citizens.