One Man's Opinion
Fianna Fail - The Republican Party is also known as the Soldiers of Destiny and descend from the anti-treaty faction in the Irish Civil War, led by future Irish President Eamon de Valera. This is the largest and by far most dominant political party in the Republic of Ireland and has held power for so long one could almost worry about the country becoming a one-party-state (notice I said, "almost" -there is no danger of that ever happening). Fianna Fail has always been a republican party, favors Irish unity and although more conservative in the past has been somewhat more liberal in recent years at least when it comes to economic issues. They associate with the liberals in the European parliament and have had some problems with corruption which are almost inevitable for a party so long in power. When the party has associated with conservative parties on the continent they are often criticized for not being 'conservative enough'. I can admire the foundation of Fianna Fail for their stand on principle, but they did eventually have to come around to at least a temporary acceptance of the Irish Free State which made their earlier position seem rather wasteful. On the whole, as with most European political parties, they are a bit too vague if not liberal for my liking. They have been accused many times of being purposely vague so as to be able to change their platform to fit popular trends.
Fine Gael - The United Ireland Party is also known as Irish Kin, is descended from the pro-treaty faction led by General Michael Collins in the Irish Civil War. The formal party was later formed by a coalition between Cumann na nGaedhael, the Centre Party and the Army Comrades Association (the Blueshirts) and is often regarded as the more conservative opposition party to those outside of Ireland. Although they state that they are committed to a united Ireland they have, from the outset, opposed all violent methods of bringing it about. They have also been hard to categorize as they have gone along with some liberal social and economic policies though Fine Gael is usually regarded as the more pro-capitalist party. That said, there are those who will point to pro-capitalist policies in Fianna Fail so, as said, it is hard to nail them down on such things. On the continent they usually associate more with the center-right Christian Democrat parties and, being more conservative myself, I would tend to have more sympathy for Fine Gael. However, I do have some serious problems with them. One being that they are very pro-EU. Fianna Fail is as well though perhaps not always quite so openly as Fine Gael. This I cannot go along with no matter how widespread it is as I cannot agree with Ireland exchanging rule from London with rule from Brussels. Fine Gael has also not been as strong as I would like in pushing for a united Ireland. Although I tend to agree with them on moral issues they have weakened on these over the years and were the party to legalize divorce in Ireland, so I could not give them my whole-hearted support either.
Sinn Fein - The only party to hold seats in Dublin and Belfast, the name translates from "we ourselves" and was originally a monarchist party (talk about getting away from your roots!) and was founded by Arthur Griffeth to push for independence as a dual monarchy alongside Great Britain. Today Sinn Fein is mostly known for having connections with the IRA (or to be more exact the PIRA) and being the most active in pushing for the return of the 6 counties. They have, however, renounced violent methods toward this aim and has entered into a power-sharing government in Belfast which led one Irishman to refer to them as "the SDLP for slow learners". It is, however, their zeal toward a united Ireland that I most admire about Sinn Fein and I was also very pleasantly surprised that Sinn Fein was the only major Irish political party to oppose the Lisbon Treaty for a more centralized European Union. It is their nationalism that I most admire and their liberalism which I have the greatest problem with. Sinn Fein is rather openly liberal and favors some liberal policies that I could, perhaps, overlook. However, they have some positions and associations on the left which go much too far for me to ever see eye-to-eye with them on. These include their support for the Basque seperatists in Spain (odd for a party devoted to unity in their own country), their opposition to the continued U.S. embargo on Communist Cuba and their support for gay "marriage" in Ireland. I would hope that some of their more radical associations will die out as the party becomes more mainstream and recognized as a peaceful party devoted to the political process to effect change. That said, I can also see this as possibly troublesome as they may fall into the apathy of the other major parties on the issue of unification which is the one thing I admire most about them along with their defense of the Gaelic language.
There are other political parties of course, but most of the more well known ones are too far left or restricted in their outlook for me to ever give serious consideration to. I probably should at least mention the Labour Party as it is currently the third most popular party in the Republic of Ireland but I hold them in little regard. I do not support the Labour Party in the UK and see no reason or possibility that I would ever support its alter-ego in Ireland. On the whole, I am probably too conservative for any of the mainstream political parties in modern Europe, just as I have almost become too conservative for the mainstream parties in America for that matter. However, if there is ever a party that is strongly conservative, Catholic and nationalist equally in Ireland they could count on my sincere support.
