The Year of Elections continues. Ireland’s general parliamentary election was yesterday. Polls closed at 10 p.m. local time and counting has been happening all day.
As is the case everywhere in democracies these days, Ireland has a crop of blood-gargling reactionary right-wingers running for office. These parties have deeply ironic names like “Liberty Republic” and “Irish Freedom Party”, and basically they want all the immigrants out.
I thought you would all like to know that the count so far suggests that these parties are dying on their asses when it comes to winning parliamentary seats. Ireland has a form of ranked-choice voting, specifically “proportional representation with a single transferable vote,” or PR-STV. There was a worry that some of these right-wing candidates would get in as second choices in a runoff situation, but Irish journalist Stephen McDermott has been reporting on Bluesky that many of them are being eliminated on the first ballot. So that’s nice.
Aside from the fact that it’s reassuring to know the far right isn’t ascendant everywhere, it’s entertaining to ponder how things could be different with ranked-choice voting. We might have coalitions running Congress. (Though this can be tricky—Sinn Féin, the left-wing party, will take [edit: looked like it was going to take] most of the seats but possibly not a total majority; the center-right Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties had been pretty clear they had no intention of forming a coalition led by Sinn Féin. Immediately after I published the first draft of this, however, I saw a projection which suggests Fianna Fáil will take most of the seats and go into coalition with Fine Gael.)
We might also be treated to some truly psychedelic infographics. Behold:
I do enjoy how the Irish defy stereotypes by producing the most insane election graphics known to man
— Chris Terry-Enescu (@cjterry.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:42 AM
Our common American data-fondling Nates could never begin to comprehend such majesty. Open thread.
Rose Judson
P.S.: If for whatever reason you can’t see the Bluesky embed above, here’s a screen grab:
Anonymous At Work
Looking at the exit polling “infographic,” I feel physically ill. Too much graphic, almost zero information that can be processed.
And if there’s no majority coalition possible, or if one is put together but doesn’t produce legislation because any legislation would result in a VONC, what happens?
Layer8Problem
Welp, for the first time you’ve induced me to override my NoScript to allow a Bluesky image.
ETA And I ultimately didn’t even need to. Phooey. Not phooey on you, Rose Judson.
Quaker in a BasementThi
That’s what ranked choice looks like in graphic form. That should scare the pants off ranked choice opponents.Baud
Erin Go Bragh!
ETA: I think it’s only fair that Ireland open its doors to Americans starving for freedom.
Rose Judson
@Layer8Problem: Ha, sorry. I’ll pop a note in the post so others don’t have to override.
scav
I’m just in awe of trying to make an Aran or Celtic Knot kind of knitting pattern out of that graphic. I don’t know why. Or maybe some sort of tweed.
People are brilliantly complex. Look at that splintering!
Baud
Maybe strange women lying in ponds distributing swords should be a basis for a system of government.
VFX Lurker
Ranked choice voting gave us New York City Mayor Eric Adams in an election with 23.3% voter turnout.
I trust that this system works well for Ireland. However, I don’t think ranked choice voting would fix our apathetic, uninformed, incurious, Rogan-riddled American electorate.
NotMax
Put in mind of Spaghetti Junction.
;)
@mistermix.bsky.social
Data “visualization” LOL.
Anyway
Find it deeply ironic that the Irish who sent zillions of their populations crossing the oceans and emigrating to multiple countries in search of a better life are so hostile to immigrants who are doing the same thing
ETA – same thing about Italians
Rose Judson
@Baud: Strange women with swords generally; that’s where my head’s at these days.
Rose Judson
@NotMax: Oh, that’s just a few miles north of where I’m sitting! Have to navigate it if I want to go to the nearest IKEA.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Anyway:
Ireland rejected the far-right, though?
Anyway
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): In this election, yes. But in general there’s a lot of hostility to immigrants (my impression)
JetsamPool
I would like to think that America will now serve as an example of what not to do for other countries. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.
trollhattan
Will I need to decipher that graph for the midterm?
Splitting Image
@Anyway:
Even more ironic is the fact that many of the worst anti-immigrant Irish people are the ones who emigrated and their descendents.
A lot of Irish-Americans and Irish-Canadians are fully behind the idea that everybody but the Irish ought to be sent back where they came from.
scav
@JetsamPool: Oh, in terms of messing things up, everywhere’s pretty much got their own way down pat. Let’s not get above ourselves.
Spanky
That graph is an absolute failure at communicating whatever it’s trying to communicate, unless the message is “everything’s a fookin’ mess!”
Harrison Wesley
I’d like to see approval voting somewhere besides Fargo and St.Louis. Not going to happen here in Florida, though.
scav
@Spanky: And that’s not a valid and valuable message to get across? Things are complicated.
Eta For example, beware of the person confidently announcing that someone who voted for party X will necessarily prefer party Y next. (switching time in for ranking.)
Barney
The wild story in these elections seems, to me, that a mob boss has a reasonable chance of getting elected to parliament:
Dublin Central General Election 2024 updates: ‘Gerard Hutch came in and he got a lot of media’ – Gary Gannon | Irish Independent
Barney
Gerard Hutch, mob boss out on bail (but not guilty of murder, honest), has a reasonable chance of getting elected in the Dublin Central constituency. I’d give a link, but my last post was blocked, presumably for having too many (three) in it, so Google it.
Prescott Cactus
After the Easter Rising and eventually all the fighting was done (with England) Ireland became a free state. The problem was with the treaty that they signed with England. It included that even know they were free they (politicians) would have to pledge alliance to the Queen in their oath of office.
This among other things (Northern 6 Counties) split the country horribly. almost half the country was against the treaty and felt it reneged on the promises of a free state that were made during the Rising. This was Fianna Fáil (FF). Close to the other half (Fine Gael) felt something is better than nothing and let’s keep what we’ve bargained for and got. A minority (Sinn Féin- SF) didn’t like the treaty, but wasn’t going to war over it. . .
This was the start of Irelands Civil War, which lasted less than a year. The Brits want to keep the treaty intact so sided with and armed the pro treat FG. Cannons, personnel carriers and lots of rifles made it easy.
It created a deep, deep rift throughout the country. The government didn’t release documents related to the civil war for 50 years and then only to serious historians.
P.S. I’m in the middle of reading a book about this and not an Irish historian.
Geminid
@VFX Lurker: That was one of the weird things about New York City’s last Mayoral elections. In theory, Ranked-choice Voting should have brought out more voters. It might brought more candidates out, but this was still considered a low turnout primary.
I happen to be a Ranked-choice Voting sceptic, but I wouldn’t judge the system by that one election. I’ll wait to see the result in next year’s Mayoral race. If someone beats Andrew Cuomo, RCV will be hailed as a wondrous innovation.
But if Cuomo wins, people will be hollering for RCV to be thrown onto the Ashpit of History, and then for the Ashpit to launched into the sun.
I’ll just be glad it’s those New Yorkers who are getting the chance to work out the Ranked-choice Voting bugs, and not me.
Chief Oshkosh
@Prescott Cactus: I read a lot of the statements that were released during the atonement hearings (or whatever they called them – a get-out-of-jail-free process in which everyone was allowed to confess their sins without fear of prosecution) after the last part of what I think of as the modern “troubles.”
Basically, much of what the Irish Republicans said was being done to them turned out to be true. The UK very actively supported northern terrorists at a time that the UK was officially a neutral arbiter.
Nobody was blameless, but the UK lied about the various roles it played, which of course added to everyone’s misery and suspicions.
Prescott Cactus
@Chief Oshkosh:
I’m doing a ton of catching up on Ireland. In my 60’s, I become a citizen thru birthright (gramps) a couple of years ago. I’ve skipped the famine, to learn of The rising and civil war. Then the troubles and back to the bad potatoes.
If Ireland sends out Christmas cards I don’t think the Brit”s should be waiting by their mailbox…
kalakal
@NotMax: Or the Magic Roundabout
Quaker in a Basement
@Anyway: What’s your experience with Ireland? We’ve been several times over the last five years and found them to be quite welcoming to immigrants precisely because of Irish emigration history.
RevRick
Has Ireland ever recovered its pre Potato Famine population levels?