WELL, it’s been quite the week. What, with Cillian Murphy landing an Oscar for Cork, and all kinds of rumours flying around about Britain’s Royal Family being aliens - or is that lizards?
But I really do feel that the truly seismic event that took place in this country a week ago deserves to be forensically parsed over before we move onto other distractions, like who will win Dancing With The Stars and Eurovision.
The results of the two referendums were political earthquakes that may well be an indication of what is to come as we face into a year of frenzied electioneering and voting.
The local and European elections are looming, and a General Election and a ballot for a new President are just around the corner.
And if you took the temperature of the electorate based on last week’s actions in the polling booths, you would have to say that the people are snippy, volatile, and possibly in the market for some big changes around the place.
At the very least, it proved that politicians and Official Ireland are very much out of step with the large majority of the population.
Some of us warned the Government in advance it had dropped the ball on these referendums. A month ago, I wrote here: “This referendum should be an open goal... what an epic fail!”
All they had to do was delete that offending line in the Constitution which insinuates (but doesn’t actually state) that a woman’s place is in the home. Or just de-gendering it would have surely achieved a similarly overwhelming vote.
But no, they had to consult a Citizens’ Assembly, listen to the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), then add lines of waffle.
They say a camel is a horse designed by a committee, and that’s what the proposed referendum amendments amounted to - a weird hybrid of legalese and aspiration which gave the people the hump.
In the immediate aftermath of the results, some of those very people who had shot themselves in the foot then raised both barrels at the No voters and tried to imply they were a confused bunch.
Well, all I can say to that gaslighting is that there must have been a hell of a lot of confused people who voted Yes in the booths as well!
The poor messaging from the parties, and the apathy towards the referendums from many politicians, left voters on all sides confused.
The suspicion that passing the amendments would lead to all kinds of work for m’learned friends in law down the road only added to the alarm and sense of disconnect.
While many confused people did vote No, other confused people voted Yes, perhaps because they wanted that offending line about women in the home deleted by any means possible.
I spoke to several people on voting day who didn’t cast a vote at all because they were so confused - surely the default position for most of those who hadn’t a clue what they were voting for or against.
Having said that, fears the turn-out would be as low as 30% didn’t materialise - one and a half million people exercised their right to vote, even on an issue that failed to spark the imagination anything like those before on abortion and gay marriage.
What also struck me was how the Irish people spoke with one voice. The percentage of Nos was within a very narrow range of around the two-thirds mark, with a few outliers, across the entire nation, from Cork to Carlow to Donegal, and almost all points in between.
We may have our own county characteristics, but we are truly a united nation when it comes to the mood of the day.
On March 8, the nation was fed up - but why? What happened that day, particularly as regards the million-plus No voters who gave politicians of almost all hues a bloody nose?
I believe the referendums raised four important questions about Ireland as we approach some crucial elections. If you voted No, perhaps these will chime with you.
1. Does Ireland need a new political party?
The disconnect between almost all our politicians and the people they purport to represent is a vast gulf - and politics abhors a vacuum.
The terms ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ are banded about in politics, the media, and social media on a daily basis, but it is my belief that the large majority of voters do not see themselves and the world that way.
Undoubtedly, all three major parties have pivoted to the left in recent years, and voters agree with them on many of these issues, such as gay marriage, and caring for the poor and homeless.
But many voters have concerns which could be classed as right-wing - such as immigration - and many are also not entirely wedded to the increasingly extreme socially progressive agendas of recent times, such as issues around multiple genders and trans rights.
Many in middle Ireland, for instance, who do not class themselves as religious or right-wing, believe marriage is a fine tried and tested institution in which to raise a family, and that such traditions risk being downgraded.
There are fears a far-right party may step up to fill this void - but I genuinely believe the political threat from this is overstated. What’s far more likely, and there have been signs of this in recent days, is that formerly centrist parties may seek to recover lost ground on the right and try to woo the No voters who feel their voices aren’t being heard.
If so, voters may get more choice in the elections ahead.
2. Do we really need all those NGOs?
The sheer number of taxpayer-funded so-called non-governmental bodies calling for a Yes/Yes in the referendums was staggering.
Nobody can deny their hearts are in the right place, but are they all strictly necessary, and should they all be funded from the public purse? Especially if they are merely viewed as a paid mouthpiece for the government, and not representative of the people they purport to represent.
3. Also, do we need a Citizens’ Assembly?
It is said that a good politician only has to look into their heart to see what the people are thinking. Do present-day politicians need a representative group to do this for them?
Surely, the representative group they need to consult regularly is, er, the people at their doors and in the streets - you know, the voters.
We have a Dáil and we have a Senate. We are a small country. Surely the entire population can be a de facto Citizens’ Assembly too?
4. Can we ever trust a poll again?
In the lead-up to the referendums, we were reliably informed that the Yes side would prevail twice.
At the very least, the polling companies need to do some serious thinking about how they arrived at their statistics.
Admittedly, we live in a more volatile political world than in previous eras, but if the pollsters perform badly in the coming months, we will need to start asking if they are fit for purpose.
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