Political Parties of Ireland
Major Parties:
Alliance for the People - a broad political party uniting majority of Irish political forces from center to right-wing of the Irish political scene. The party although not exactly ideologically homogeneous can non the less be described as conservative and at least somewhat nationalist. There are currently three major factions inside the Alliance and these are as follows:
Patriotic Conservative Caucus - standing for civic nationalism, cultural conservatism and economic protectionism; they are currently the dominant faction inside the Alliance with their leader - Mona Mac Niall - currently serving as the Prime Minister.
People and Land Caucus - standing for agrarianism, regionalism and isolationism, they are the remnant of the former political establishment inside the Alliance which was sidelined after the corruption scandals of early 1990s;
Christian Tradition Caucus - standing for social conservatism, political Catholicism and mixed economy (i.e. they don't care all that much for economy) the Christian Traditionalists consists of these Alliance politicians who formerly belonged to variety of Catholic right-wing parties which merged with AP over the last two decades.
Equalist Party of Ireland - the main opposition to the Alliance, the Equalist Party can be placed between left and center-left of the Irish political scene. The party unites vast majority of equalists in the country. However the party experiences strong region-based ideological division. The four major factions are as follows:
Cork faction - standing for statist, internationalist and secularist version of the equalist ideology, they are currently tied in the struggle for party leadership with the Dublin faction;
Dublin faction - similarly to the Cork faction the Dubliners also call for strong central state apparatus and a secular society but they differ from their southern comrades by embracing Irish nationalism;
Belfast faction - the bigger of the two devolutionist factions which oppose the statist establishment of the Party, they are also internationalist as well as the most anti-religious of all the equalist factions;
Limerick faction - by far the smallest of all the factions, the Limerick faction also stands for devolution of power to the regional and local level but the main feature of their ideology is Christian equalism which is a belief that Christian values and equalism are completely compatible. Many of Limerick faction members are also somewhat nationalistic.
Minor Parties:
Liberal Party - once a major party the Liberals lost most of their support in the second half of the 20th c. They stand for classical liberalism and secularism. The Liberals are the usual suspects when one of the major parties needs to form a coalition.
Workers' Democracy Party - the party representing the weak laborist movement in Ireland; They stand for reformist and internationalist laborism; WDP has very little support outside of Dublin and Belfast.
Gaelic Nation - a far-right Irish nationalist and traditionalist party; They call for complete replacement of English and Scots by Irish Gaelic as the only national language of Ireland; They are also the only party which calls for transforming Ireland into an unitary state.
Protestant Action Party of Ulster -party representing the interests of Irish Protestants (but mainly those living in Ulster); They call for greater autonomy for the majority protestant counties as well as closer ties with the British states; on other issues they are more divided but overall they can be placed somewhere on the right side of the political spectrum.
