By virtue of being the only competent anti-immigration voice on the panel, the big winner once again was Peadar Tóibín, following on from his successful performance in the big leaders’ debate last week. It can be fairly argued that Tóibín and Aontú are benefitting from a system that seems to intentionally exclude more radical anti-immigration parties and candidates but they have made the absolute most of their platform and will carry that momentum onwards to the election this Friday.
Presented with the opportunity to flesh out his policy platform on an issue he has been oft criticised for being overcautious and tetchy on, Tóibín put on a performance that whether we care to admit it or not will have won him favour with more moderate, immigration-skeptic voters.
Although Independent Ireland’s Michael Fitzmaurice was also presented as an immigration-skeptical voice, he fared little better than his leader Michael Collins’s performance the week before. Aontú’s social media went on a brutal line of attack against Independent Ireland during the debate, citing from Independent Ireland’s own manifesto its policy of allowing legal immigrants with a tax number to work upon arrival during a housing crisis. With the wheels falling off Independent Ireland’s campaign following the unceremonious resignation of Cllr. Phil Sutcliffe Sr and already struggling to win back the favour it lost with MEP Ciarán Mullooly’s decision to join the same European Parliamentary group as Fianna Fáil, their expectations for a significant breakthrough this cycle are likely to have been further tempered by Fitzmaurice’s performance.
Roderic O’Gorman and Helen McEntee both came across as unlikable as they ever have been, with the former especially defiantly standing over his record as Minister of Integration during the worst immigration crisis in the history of the State. Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy seemed to be caught in a lose-lose situation, struggling to reconcile his party’s left-wing credentials with a reformulation of an immigration strategy that they hope will win them back at least some of their advantage that evaporated since the start of the year. Fianna Fáil’s James Browne also cut a fairly lacklustre figure all things considering.
The main takeaway however is this: immigration is now a national issue and one that a great proportion of the Irish people feel disillusioned with. For a significant number of Irish voters, nobody who featured on that debate stage spoke for them on this issue. That could very well be the catalyst for an electoral earthquake unlike anything that has occurred before in Irish politics.
“Electoral earthquake”…I like the sound of that! Let’s take all precautions we can to minimise the chance of a switcheroo on the ballot boxes, ma thuigeann tu me.
If the polls are true (big if) and if FG continue to drop like they’ve dropped the last week, it’s quite possible they could get humiliated – total wipeout, zero seats.
Can Simon Harris really get a quarter of Wicklow people to give him a vote? I haven’t been there and I don’t know, but it seems unlikely to me.
We need to maximise turnout – one third of us couldn’t be bothered to vote last time. We need to observe every step of the collection, storage and counting of the ballots. As Comrade Stalin said: It doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes.
If you’re in Sligo-Leitrim, please vote MacConville and Kelly 1 and 2, and continue preferences for other honest candidates… Be careful: it’s remarkable the number of well funded pro-migration fake independents running in this area….
Beir bua!