In a way I’m surprised that ICTU eventually said no. And here’s the thing. I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t either. But the mood music was such that even Stephen Collins in the Irish Times on Saturday was complimenting the ‘constructive’ role the unions had played. How nice. How good. How patriotic. And this [...]

During the unkind years of the neo-liberal consensus, which were dominated by the free-market/small-government/low-tax/eat-what-you-kill/greed-is-good mentality that pretty well everyone now recognises to have been a failure, it was exceptionally difficult for the Labour party in Ireland to promote itself as anything more than ever-so-slightly left-of-centre without fear of electoral annihilation.  Though it battled away manfully, [...]