The following article by Eoin Ó Murchú was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
MIXED results for the Left in the by-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West underscore the need, in the North as well as in the south, for the industrial organisations of the working class, the trade unions, to step up and take their place in initiating policy and campaigning for change.
Our class needs change. North and South we are being crushed by a cost of living crisis, heaped on housing and health crises, for which the government in the South has no solution, and for which the Northern Executive is exposed as powerless.
In the South the government blatantly acts in the interests of investors, speculators and vulture funds, with all supports geared to the business sector while workers, pensioners and similar sections of the population are left to suck it up.
The North is battered by a continual underfunding of the area by the Westminster government, exacerbated by the inability of the main political parties to set aside sectarian differences and unite to fight for a change in the funding of essential services that would benefit us all.
In the Dublin Central by-election, the Left swept the board, with a combined 61.5% of votes cast. There was also an important element of transfer within the Left, though noticeable that Sinn Féin got fewer transfers from Labour than Fine Gael, Labour’s old partner in government.
This transfer averse factor in relation to Sinn Féin ensured that the Social Democrats Daniel Ennis comfortably took the seat, but, more importantly, the government parties suffered a double humiliation, reflecting their rejection by the working class.
Fianna Fáil, once dominant in the constituency, fell from the 44% it won in 2007 to a paltry 4%, while Fine Gael – who previously held the seat in contention – dropped from 17% in 2024 to 10% now.
The Left’s victory and the government’s failure are very much to be welcomed. But, there is a fly in the ointment. Far right and racist or quasi-racist candidates scored 20% of the vote.
On the figures of this election, the government parties would win no seats here in a general election, the Left would take three out of four, but the last seat would go to the far right, mainly to the alleged gangster Gerry Hutch.
While Hutch and more directly Malachy Steenson, a former member of the Workers’ Party, openly flirted with racist anti-immigrant rhetoric, it would be wrong – and simplistic – to assume that racism was the overwhelming motivation of those who voted for them.
On the contrary, these votes reveal the anger of a frustrated and alienated section of the community who answer their rejection by the Establishment with their own rejection of the Establishment – and who could epitomise two fingers to the state better than a local criminal with a strong record of supporting local social initiatives.
The North Inner City, which gave Hutch and Steenson their votes is the same North Inner City which elected Tony Gregory.
The lesson to be learned is that the current Left has failed to motivate this element behind them. This does not mean they should be written off, but that more work needs to be done to win them over.
In this the role of trade union and community organisations is critical. These organisations must be involved in deciding policy orientation and producing the candidates of the future who will represent our class and not the interests of big business.
The challenge of the Far Right was seen also in Galway West, where the quasi-racist Noel Thomas, of Independent Ireland, topped the poll on the first count, only to be squeezed out by Fine Gael at the very end; but with Fianna Fáil, previously dominant here, driven way down the list.