If you’re looking for seminal television moments from 2025 where better to start than that infamous RTÉ Six One interview of Maria Steen by David McCullagh on September 23rd.
To refresh readers’ memories – Steen was scrambling to get twenty Oireachtas signatures to enable her to contest the Presidential election. Her appearance on RTÉs Six One on the 23rd. was a last-ditch attempt to get the remaining two or three signatures she needed for that nomination.
However, it would appear that even the attempt by a known conservative to get on the ballot was viewed by some as being akin to throwing down the gauntlet to the ideological certainties of liberal Ireland.
This was perfectly captured by RTÉ news presenter David McCullagh. When pressed about her election pitch, Steen explained that she felt that families in Ireland did not feel prioritised. McCullagh immediately shot back with the immortal line: ‘So back to the 1930s?’
The thing is McCullagh is no random RTÉ cub news presenter. He is, of course, an historian and published author in his own rite. His quip revealed a deeper institutional bias not just at RTÉ but within the political establishment that has held sway in Ireland now over the last few decades.
The quip ‘so back to the 1930s (or the 1950s)’ is a favourite trope of Irish liberals. It has one purpose only – to close down any debate that raises questions about the state of Ireland today by demanding that people compare it to an Ireland from 80 or 90 years ago.
It’s an intellectual fool’s errand and is intended to be so. Europe had a deeply traumatic 20th century yet no serious commentator would be allowed to get away with trying to do likewise in a discussion about the state of Europe today. However, that is now standard practice for many Irish liberals.
Consider for one moment that the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 which is still within living memory for many Germans. Just in case anyone is under any illusions, the DDR was an utterly toxic entity.
With an estimated 250,000 Stasi spies spying on their neighbours, the DDR gave a new meaning to the term ‘confessional state’. However, most Germans today are able to draw a line under this without continually resorting to childish ‘so back to the 1980s’ comments.
That said, it is worth delving a little deeper into that same 1930s Ireland which liberals would appear to insist was such a terrible place. Certainly, things were difficult for a new state that was just ten years old and fighting for its very survival at times. However, that 1930s Ireland was impressive on many levels.
No one needs reminding about the political pressure cooker that was Europe in the 1930s. Yet, it is to the credit of everyone concerned that Ireland remained a constitutional democracy throughout this time.
This was especially evident in the peaceful transfer of power following the 1932 general election when Cumann na nGaedheal – the effective predecessors of Fine Gael – led by WT Cosgrave handed over power to the incoming Fianna Fáil led by Eamon de Valera. This peaceful transfer of power was not always replicated in all European countries at the time.
Consider the comparable political scene in Ireland today. Fine Gael are now approaching their 15th year in government. This remarkable feat has been accomplished despite Fine Gael having effectively lost the last three general elections managing to get little more than about 20% of the vote on each occasion. In 1932, Cumann na nGaedheal handed over power having lost the election with an impressive 35% electoral support.
The Fine Gael trick for staying on in power these days appears to hinge around the practice of doing post-election deals with all and sundry including even Fianna Fáil, their one-time political rivals. An integral part of this political horse trading now involves the ubiquitous Programme for Government, invariably the product of febrile behind the scenes negotiations by backroom teams tasked with keeping their political bosses in power.
Equally, Ireland in the 1930’s was characterised by ambition and a sense of urgency on a number of fronts. Housing is very much a hot button topic today but it’s interesting to note that between 1932 and 1939, local authorities in Ireland built more than 23,000 homes. This was in a country with a population of about half that of today’s Ireland. It was also a country with far fewer financial resources than an Ireland awash with FDI corporation taxes.
The scale of that 1930s ambition was well demonstrated by the landmark project that was the construction of the Ardnacrusha hydro electric scheme which was a pioneering engineering project of its age. Constructed between 1926 and 1929, Ardnacrusha was providing 80% of Ireland’s electricity needs in 1935.
It’s worth comparing this with one of modern Ireland’s own landmark projects – namely, the National Children’s Hospital. Not alone is this building project still ongoing nine years after construction began but the original budget of €600m has now hit an eye watering €2.25 bn and counting.
For all of its faults, the Ireland of the so-called terrible thirties could probably teach today’s preening liberal Ireland a thing or two. At the very least, there are lessons to be learned about ambition, a performance ethic, practical patriotism and indeed, the basic principles of democracy.
So just to reassure David McCullagh and a pearl-clutching liberal Ireland – there is no magic switch that, if flicked, could suddenly send us all hurtling back in time. Neither is there any evidence to suggest that anyone is interested in returning Ireland to the 20th century.
Today, Ireland is a bloated, inefficient and somewhat undemocratic country largely under the thumb of its self-serving NGOs. That might well help explain the near obsession in Ireland these days of using the past to close down debate about the present.
Meanwhile, it really does look like it’s a case of back to the shambles that increasingly is 2020’s Ireland.
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