I n Easter, 1916 , his epic poem about the failed Dublin rebellion that eventually led to Irish independence, William Butler Yeats declared: “A terrible beauty is born.” The same might be said about the marriage of convenience between Ireland’s old civil war enemies, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as they attempt to recreate their history-making coalition government. The two parties are now in power alongside the Greens, but this time round their mission is to stop the main opposition , Sinn Féin, entering government as part of a three-way coalition in the Republic after Friday’s general election.
Instead, their preference would be to coalesce with Labour, because of voter resistance to climate-change measures. This election is all about an uncertain future for a country that has changed dramatically since the turn of the millennium. Four new constituencies and 14 extra Dáil (lower house) seats have been created to accommodate the population growth from 3.
5 million in 1990 to 5.38 million today. Public infrastructure and services have failed to keep pace, despite full employment and billions of surplus euros sloshing around the exchequer, largely as a result of tax revenues from US multinationals such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Pfizer.
Once an economic horror show, Ireland is now, we are frequently reminded, one of the richest countries in the world. But is it happy? Certainly not. Official figures show 14,760 people – 4,561 of them children – are living in.