A few Ireland Questions

How would Ireland be different-
1 Had Fine Gael been the major party of power instead Of Fianna Fail since independence
2 No militant Irish Republicanism since the ceasefire in the 50s
3 Irish America is as powerful today as ever instead of dying effectively probably due to time and the Irish population not being replenished there.
4 genuine right-left politics instead of the 2.5 party system.
5 No proportional representaion in use either a list of FPTP system
6 less stronger church influence in The Republic since its foundation
7 Any possibility of there ever having been a successful coup here.
8 A united Independent Ireland emerged post a civil war.
Yes it's a complex piece of land.
 

Thande

Donor
Some of your questions are related to each other. For example, the best way to get normal left/right politics in the Republic is for Fine Gael to become more dominant, because then Fine Gael would be the default right-wing party and Fianna Fail would probably move to the left more, and this would be especially true if FPTP was used instead of the other systems because it favours two-party politics.
 
3 Irish America is as powerful today as ever instead of dying effectively probably due to time and the Irish population not being replenished there.
From the way you've stated it seems the solution to this is to have the Irish economy not develop and take off like it did so that emigrants continue to be the country's largest export. The problem with that is it might clash with number six, more developed/wealthier countries generally being more liberal as a rule of thumb, well at least in the West.


8 A united Independent Ireland emerged post a civil war.
That's... going to be difficult. Unless you can somehow guarantee the Protestants of Northern Ireland that they'll have effectively complete domestic independence as a kind of devolved region, and even then they'd be worried about it being taken away at a future date, they're likely to rebel violently. Could possibly see a Unilateral Declaration of Independence fifty years or so early.
 
One way to get a better left-right split would be a Labour-Fianna Fail coalition in 1927 (which they nearly got). That way Fianna Fail stays more left-wing, and Cumann na nGaedhal doesn't get damged by the Great Depression.
 
Perhaps if you could somehow avoid the civil war that occurred in the south shortly after 'home rule' was granted,with Michael Collins therefore surviving, that might help on the political side?
 
If Ireland had an FPTP system I imagine the electoral geography would be similar to the UK with the rural areas largely supporting FG/or whatever centre right party emerged, the inner cities voting Labour and the suburbs and market towns being marginal seats.
 
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