I’ve been catching up on some reading, recently. Most pleasantly surprised by John Drennan’s latest opus from Gill and Macmillan, Cute Hoors and Pious Protestors…
It’s early days yet, but I was struck by this paragraph, part of a dissection of Fianna Fail near the beginning:
One of the more fatal consequences of our colonial experience was the warping of Irish political development. Since the rise of O’Connell Irish politics has been clominated by the big tent school of politics, where a monolithic party, led by an authoritarian great national leader devoted itself to the single objective of securing Irish independence.
The long term consequence of this was the evolution of a school of politics where vices like graft were accepted – for you were taking from the British – and virtues such as dissent or ideas about the structure of the state were not tolerated for they were a distraction from the great national objective.
Indeed… You can buy a copy from the Slugger Book Store…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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