Radical Left and Nationalist Responses in Ireland to the Financial Crisis

This paper examines Irish radical left responses to the austerity crisis. Electoral gains have been recorded by Irish Marxist parties that have engaged in aggressive anti-capitalist campaigning. But their impact has been blunted by internal divisions and an uncertain response to Sinn Féin, a radical nationalist party, which has benefitted most from a backlash against mainstream parties in Ireland, above all in the 2014 European elections. Sinn Féin’s membership of the European Parliament’s GUE/NGL group has allowed it to project itself as left-wing. However its ongoing prioritising of nationalism over socialism differentiates it from most European left parties. Its implementation of austerity cuts in coalition government in Northern Ireland and its strategic pursuit of coalition participation in the Republic of Ireland, weaken the emergence of a coherent radical left response to austerity, and may sabotage attempts to really transform the Irish party system in a left direction.