Irish president warns of 'creeping malaise'

[Idris2002]

Mary McAleese, the NI born president of the Republic, has come out againstthe rising culture of consumer complacency.

"It is simply unthinkable that our final destination could be the cul-de-sac of complacent consumerism when we are the first generation to have within our reach the great destination of an egalitarian Republic where the strong are driven by a restless and unselfish duty of care for the weak, and where every life is given the chance to fully blossom," Mrs McAleese said.

She says we should have a more equal society. And indeed we should. But reading her comments I immediately though of Michael D. ( a man I have a lot of time for) and his comments about the need for a more compassionate society.

What this sort of thing - and you find it in an acute form in the work of Fintan O'Toole - boils down to is an appeal to the better nature of the Irish bourgeoisie. Which is a mistake, 'cause they ain't got one.

Since Dan O'Connell's time, every successful political movement in Irish history has been a coalition of often disparate and contradictory forces. But they were able to go some way to their goals because they had some common interest around which they could mobilise. How can such a movement for an equal society for what Connolly described as 'the extension of democracy to the industrial and social life of the nation' be built in Ireland.

I can't, for example, really see the SP breaking out of their Dublin base, impressive (for a Trotskyist party) though it is.

 

[sovietpop]

creeping malaise.

what a concidence, I just changed my tag to malaise - I must be the zeigeist.

her quotes can be translated as such " there is an election coming up and our main battle will be with sinn fein in working class neighbourhoods so we better up the socialist rhetoric" - FF do this before every election - it is the secret of their success - they mange to be promise everything to everybody.

How can such a movement for an equal society for what Connolly described as 'the extension of democracy to the industrial and social life of the nation' be built in Ireland.

it by bit, very slowly, I don't know the answer but I know one of the first steps is to win Irish people away from the idea that someone else is going solve their problems for them.