Once, years ago, I met an agriculture minister in the grounds of Leinster House and took the opportunity to ask about the opposition’s allegations that he was frontloading farm grants to “buy votes” in advance of local and European Parliament elections.
The EU’s radical right politicians have proved skilful at blaming other grievances – such as housing shortages, problems accessing public services such as health and housing, and rising prices – on immigrants.
It started without any formal declaration of war and ended without a negotiated peace. But Ireland’s Civil War – deemed to have run from June 28, 1922, until May 24, 1923 – left us a legacy of deeply entrenched bitterness and framed this nation’s politics across the 20th century.
Emmanuel Macron has returned to the scene of one of his early triumphs, soon after his election in 2017, when he argued the EU was “too weak, too slow and too ineffective”.