Irish Politics: Collectivist and Divided

Editor’s note: This article resonated with me because it fits well with the material on differences in family structure within Western Europe described in Chapter 4 of my Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition.  As described there, Ireland is outside the famous Hajnal line marking off the individualist family patterns of northwest Europe from family patterns in eastern and southern Europe and “suggests that the northwest European family pattern is fundamentally an ethnic creation of the Germanic peoples.” Ireland thus does not fit the family pattern of the rest of northwest Europe, being more prone to collectivism, as also described in a previous article by Seaghan Breathnach, “The Irish Psyche: Against Democracy and Republicanism.” The present article shows that the relative collectivism of the Irish influences their politics. One of the most amazing things to come out of research on the history of families is the persistence of family tendencies over long stretches of history despite vast changes in other areas, such as the characteristics of the ruling elite (Ireland, for example, was dominated by the English for centuries but did not thereby adopt their individualism). Thus we cannot expect the relatively collectivist tendencies of Jewish and other Middle Eastern-derived peoples to change despite being exposed to Western individualism for very long periods, as in the ancient world when the Middle East was dominated by Greece and Rome but never relinquished its tendencies toward kinship-based collectivism.

A feature of Irish politics is the propensity of political parties to have splits usually resulting in resignations or expulsions. This is a feature of the Irish tendency towards hierarchy and collectivism. In order to function a political party requires a minority faction to accept the will of the majority; and for a majority faction to tolerate the presence of the minority.

Similarly, functional democracies – which are usually only found in Germanic countries – require Governments to allow for an opposition which will oppose them and may replace them, and for oppositions to accept being out of power with the potential to replace the government. The opposite dispensation is where a majority faction does not tolerate a minority and expels them, or where the minority faction is not willing to be powerless and secedes in order to establish its own monolithic party. The greater the tendency for collectivism the greater likelihood of a split.

In Ireland political parties are generally organised on hierarchical and collectivist lines, and therefore majority factions are impelled to expel minority factions or minority factions are impelled to resign. The trend can be seen from Parnell’s “party pledge”, the authoritarian leadership styles of Éamon de Valera, Charles Haughey, and Micheál Martin, and in Sinn Féin’s explicit practice of “democratic centralism”. It can also be observed in the heavy use of the whip across all parties and the regular occurrence of leadership challenges.

This hierarchical and collectivist nature of Irish parties could be seen during the recent Presidential election with both Micheál Martin hand-picking his own candidate and Simon Harris instructing Fine Gael councillors not to nominate another candidate. Fine Gael are unusual in generally tolerating factional differences such as on social policy differences in 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, avoiding resignations and expulsions, and having leadership contests rather than inaugurations, which could be as a result of their having a disproportionate Anglo-Irish and Ulster-Scot membership, though factionalism does expresses itself in the instigation of leadership challenges.

Herein follows a catalogue of splits in Irish parties. The first in modern electoral history can be observed from the first representative party, the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) which was one of the first parties to introduce a party whip whereby members were required to sit, vote, and act with the party. This collectivism required loyalty to the leadership and because of the scandal that resulted in the fall of Parnell, the IPP split into as many as four factions.

It was next seen during the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty wherein the minority anti-Treaty Sinn Féin walked out of the Mansion House rather than accept the majority decision. Sinn Fin split again when, following a failed attempt to get the party to end abstentionism, de Valera broke from Sinn Féin to found Fianna Fáil. In 1940 a faction resigned from the Labour Party claiming it was being infiltrated with Communists; they then founded National Labour.

In 1946 Seán MacBride, with Sinn Féin then a moribund entity, formed Clann na Poblachta. In 1970 Sinn Féin split again when a majority voted to become a constitutional party but this did not have the required two-thirds majority. The dissident majority then founded what became the Workers’ Party.

Further splits across various parties have continued, as when in 1972 Neil Blaney was expelled from Fianna Fáil following the Arms trial and founded Independent Fianna Fáil. In 1985 Desmond O’Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil for voting for the liberalisation of contraception and founded the Progressive Democrats. In 1986 Sinn Fein abandoned its policy of abstention from Dail Eireann which caused Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and others to resign and form Republican Sinn Féin.

In 1989 Dick Spring expelled the Militant Tendency from the Labour Party who then founded their own party, later called the Socialist Party. In 1992, a majority of members of the Workers’ Party voted to reform their party but as they did not have the requisite two-thirds majority, they broke away and founded the Democratic Left.

In 1997 following Sinn Féin agreeing to a ceasefire leading to decommissioning, a minority faction led by Michael McKevitt left and formed “the Real IRA” and its political arm, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement. In 2006 more members of Sinn Féin broke away and founded Eirigí claiming that Sinn Féin were not adequately socialist.

In 2013 Lucinda Creighton and others were expelled from Fine Gael for voting against an abortion bill and subsequently founded Renua. In 2018, Peadar Tobin was suspended from Sinn Féin for six months for voting against abortion legislation and because of which he resigned from the party and founded Aontú.

In 2019 Paul Murphy resigned from the Socialist Party in order to promote a broader left alliance and founded the Rise party. In 2021, members of the Green Party led by Lorna Bogue resigned in opposition to the policies of the Green party in government and formed Rabharta Glas. Also in 2021 the Workers’ Party split into two rival entities – one now calling itself the Workers Party – Republican Clubs.  In 2022 the Communist Party of Ireland saw the resignation of a faction who have founded the Irish Communist Party.

In 2023 the National Party removed Justin Barrett as its leader though there followed two years of rival factions claiming the leadership. Justin Barrett has since founded Clann Eireann. Within the last year the Irish Freedom Party has had a disputed leadership with a majority but not the requisite two-thirds majority seeking to replace Herman Kelly. This led to two factions simultaneously claiming the leadership of the party.

In 2025 a group of members resigned from People Before Profit in protest at it being open to going into government with Sinn Féin. They then founded calling themselves the Red Network. The latest split is in Aontú whereby Aisling Considine has resigned after being suspended after allegations that she dissented from party positions, and her claims that the party is too centralised and hierarchical.

It is therefore clear that Irish political parties’ need for collectivism and hierarchy does not allow them to function with various factions and this therefore has led to situation of constant splits within every political party.