As the curtain falls on the 31st Dáil, the government have fallen drastically out of favour, something that is hard to believe if we cast our minds back just a few years to 2011 when they rode a wave of populist sentiment all the way to Dáil Eireann. No Irish government has ever enjoyed a larger majority – and none has ever so comprehensively squandered its mandate. How did they fall so far so fast?
Written with the unique insight of one of the most original observers of Irish politics, The Great Betrayal provides an entertaining and enlightening narrative of a government that, in the eyes of many, betrayed the hopes of the Irish electorate for a democratic revolution, almost immediately after being elected with a thumping majority.
The Great Betrayal is required reading for anyone wondering how it all went wrong and where we might go from here.
No Irish government has ever enjoyed a larger majority, but equally, no administration has ever so comprehensively squandered its mandate. From penalty points to water charges, funding cuts to tax hikes, The Great Betrayal is a cutting assessment of the upheavals, egos and scraps that helped this most unlikely of scenarios came to pass.
