A culture war is defined by Collins Dictionary as “a conflict between two groups within a society, each of which seeks to establish the pre-eminence of its own beliefs, values and practices”. The term came into common use in the US during the late 1980s and 1990s in the disputes between liberals and religious conservatives over the direction of society – around issues such as abortion, gay rights and so on. Now the culture wars are everywhere and the middle ground is under pressure. The immigration debate, the environment, gender, the economy, Ukraine and Gaza are all issues where people are pushed to be on one “side” or the other. Arguing out solutions via the political system, imperfect as that can always be, can still happen, but is much more politically difficult in the midst of polarised debate.
The burning of the hotel in Rosscahill in Co Galway last weekend showed how this move to extremes can lead to violent and dangerous action. As did the Dublin riots. Both events have challenged politicians, national and local. It is entirely reasonable to say that the issue of immigration needs to be debated, that proper controls are important and that local communities must be consulted. But, in the immediate aftermath of the fire in Galway, it is all too easy for these arguments to appear like implicit justifications for the violent and dangerous action taken.
We can already see how the debate on immigration has changed in recent months, both here and internationally. This is how culture wars work. It is like a giant tug of war and the objective is to get as many people as possible over on to your side of the line. The goal of the far right is to muddy the middle ground and to slowly but surely change the terms of the debate. Language and actions that would have been unthinkable slowly become acceptable. Last weekend, for example, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak attended a right-wing festival with Giorgia Meloni in Italy that was characterised by the BBC – to Tory outrage – as a far-right event. And look how the climate debate is polarising, with the acceptance that common action is needed – if not what it should be – breaking down in many countries.
The economic struggle of many people, particularly low and middle earners, has been seen as a key enabler of the culture wars, a creation of a significant group of people who feel they have been “losing out” and are thus willing to believe that elites are running the show for their own benefit. The year 2016 was a turning point, with Donald Trump’s election as US president and the Brexit referendum both seeing this vote mobilised. This was seen to be driven in part by dissatisfaction among blue-collar workers and other low- to middle-income employees who felt their economic lot was being damaged by globalisation. And the data shows that in many countries the rich did, indeed, hoover up the gains.
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Does Ireland have the same economic conditions – a large disadvantaged section of the population who feels left behind by economic performance? New research by the Central Bank this week gave an interesting perspective on this, showing real gains in living standards since 2002 for all the main income groups in Irish society. Helped by welfare transfers, those in the lowest-income fifth of the population saw real – inflation-adjusted – gains of 2.6 per cent annually on average, it found, while those in the top fifth saw gains averaging 1.4 per cent annually. All groups lost out during the financial crash, with the lower-income group doing worse over those few years. And this group has also been hit harder by the cost-of-living crisis, as a higher proportion of their income is spent on energy and food, where prices soared.
Economic progress, and the division of the spoils, are of course their very own culture wars, in Ireland as elsewhere. The Central Bank research is interesting because it shows significant gains over a long period of time. But it does deal with averages and we know some have been left behind. Successive governments, for example, have failed to address the scourge of homelessness, blighting the lives of many families.
Ireland may not have the dissatisfied blue-collar workers common in other countries – we missed the heavy industry phase of economic development, after all – but it has its own economic divides. The most notable, of course, is that caused by the housing crisis, which has created an economic line between the older, largely homeowning section of the population and the younger generation struggling to get on the ladder. A rural-urban divide is also evident, fuelled by the uncertainties facing agriculture and the concentration of economic gains from the tech sector in big cities.
Just as politicians here try to walk the line on issues such as immigration, they do the same on the economy. Sinn Féin, for example, promises a new approach to housing, but wants to safeguard industrial policy and the attraction of multinational investment. In contrast, many parties attracting the protest vote elsewhere in Europe are more radical – for example the right-wing AfD in Germany, now attracting one in five voters, is strongly anti-immigration, nationalist and virulently Eurosceptic, to the horror of German business.
So while Ireland is not immune to the culture wars, so far they have been different here. Sinn Féin loses no opportunity to shift the focus to housing, seeing that as its winning card as the key economic divide. There is, so far, a broad acceptance that the basis of the Irish economic model needs to be retained – it is in the division and use of the spoils where the arguments rage. And a key part of this economic model is being open to immigration.
Whether we are starting to see a change here in the wider attitude to immigration – as seen elsewhere – is one of the questions in advance of an important series of elections over the next year or so. Or perhaps we will keep fighting our Irish culture wars around our own particular Irish problems? Ireland has thrived from its openness, in all respects, and if this changes it will be hugely costly. It is good, this week, to see some Irish politicians making this point.