Editorial: ​Republic of Ireland's general election could reflect another discontented society

It’s been a busy and significant year where elections are concerned. In July, the general election ended 14 years of Conservative leadership of the UK.

In foreign jurisdictions, we saw this week’s titanic struggle in the US and an ill-tempered contest in France, while Germany is on the brink of voting and before the end of the month, the Republic of Ireland goes to the polls.

The taoiseach, Simon Harris, announced that this vote would take place on Friday, November 29. That means scarcely three weeks of campaigning, with the Fine Gael leader clearly convinced that his party is in good shape.

In NI, many of us will have ambivalent feelings about this election. From the pro-Union perspective, we would like a Dublin government that interfered less in our internal affairs, took a less partial attitude to disagreements between unionists and nationalists, and challenged Sinn Fein properly. This last aspiration is perhaps the most likely to be realised, given that republicans will be scrutinised closely during the campaign. Viewed from NI, that is one of the election’s more interesting themes.

Many of the polls this year featured electorates that seemed disillusioned with establishments or ‘elites’. The Republic will be no exception, as Leo Varadkar’s departure after two bruising referendum defeats proved.

Sinn Fein harnessed anti-establishment feeling last time, but the new wave of populists in the South, who are more likely to be ‘anti-woke’ and concerned about unchecked immigration, is dispersed across a range of independents and local groups.

That is good news for the traditional mainstream parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, but it certainly does not mean that the Republic is a contented or settled society.