A chara, – Barry Walsh writes that the election of Holly Cairns as leader of the Social Democrats marks the first time that none of the parties of the left in Dáil Éireann have a leader from a working-class background, as if this were some sort of exceptional or anomalous event (Letters, March 7th).
The truth is that social democrat parties, the world over, have become progressively more middle class ever since the end of the cold war, which marked the end of the “red scare” as a means of scaring the respectable classes away from voting left. Social democrat parties have become part of the governing elite in many countries, often supported by increasing numbers of public sector workers benefiting from their focus on public expenditure and employment.
Working-class voters, on the other hand, and particularly those unemployed or employed in the private sector, have increasingly moved far right, supporting Trump, Brexit, and an assortment of anti-establishment or far-right parties parties throughout Europe. Ireland is merely falling in line with a trend in democracies worldwide where the left is become part of the establishment and most protest comes from the right.
Let us hope that the political establishment here never becomes so smug that far-right parties start to gain real traction in Ireland. – Is mise,
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FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Barry Walsh states that “none of the parties of the left in Dáil Éireann have a leader from a working-class background”. I wonder what Mr Walsh’s definition of working-class is, particularly as pertains to Ireland. If a person works, does that not, by definition, make them working class?
To help his argument, he notes that Fine Gael is led by “the son of an immigrant” as if the immigrant status denotes what appears to be his definition of “working class”. In fact, what he fails to mention is that the Taoiseach’s father was a doctor, a role that more likely equates to “hailing from middle-class or very well-off backgrounds”.
Rather than reaching for convenient labels that serve to “other” different “categories” of people along class lines – lines that the Irish should not adopt from British culture given the differences in both histories – perhaps it is time we recognise in political discourse that the vast majority of Irish people are from “working-class backgrounds”. That some have managed to navigate a way for themselves or their family to be better-off, for the most part through hard work, does not lessen their “working-class” sensibilities. Quite the opposite in fact. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT COOPER,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Barry Walsh draws attention to the fact that the leaders of the main left-wing parties in the Dáil come from middle-class families and that most were educated in fee-paying schools. He also states that the leader of Fine Gael is the son of an immigrant, as if this were proof of humble origin.
Leo Varadkar is the son of a successful medical practitioner. He is a medical graduate from Trinity College and a past pupil of the King’s Hospital School.
Surely this should permit him to be placed in the same social category as his left-wing opponents. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Dublin 9.