THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
The referenda on marriage equality and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, in the last 10 years, saw young people turn out in their droves, even hastening home from abroad – on borrowed money – to exercise their democratic right.
Those referenda outcomes were not a vote for party politics nor political posturing but rather the resounding swell of a grassroots gathering, predominantly young, educated and engaged,
Since then, in elections, national and otherwise, young people went back to low turnouts at the polls. According to pollsters Red C, 46% of those 18 to 24 registered in the last 10 years to vote in European and local elections did not do so.
However, the general election in 2020 saw young voters return in numbers akin to the polls on marriage equality and repeal of the Eighth, despite the overall low turnout among those of the older voter. (Figures for last year have not yet been fully calculated). Now, with the presidential race upon us – largely seen as a race between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and one, perhaps whose outcome is relatively unimportant given that the president is president in name only and lacks any political clout – one wonders will our young turn out in large numbers? Turn out at all?
Hannah, coming up to 23 and a graduate in biopharmacy, tells me that to remain oblivious and indifferent to the politics of the everyday no longer holds with our young people: climate change threatens their existence, the exacerbation of income inequality reduces the promise of their economic mobility and government budgets drafted in the Dáil affect the quality of education, healthcare and infrastructure that will be available to them in the future.
Perhaps the reason why research, by The Institute for Conflict Research in the UK on Ireland and Northern Ireland, suggests young people lack faith in their political institutions, is not an unwavering rebelliousness inherent in the young, but rather a desperate reaction to constantly being denied their place in political parlance.
The generation now eligible to vote became young adults during the Covid lockdown – for some their first year at college was from their box-room at home. No mingling on campus, exchanging ideas. The isolation had a profound effect on them: no night at the debs, a rise in mental health conditions, self-harm, suicide ideation. Loneliness. Then, there are those living in abject poverty.
That said, young people are astute enough to know there is the need for them to step up to the plate and prove wrong those who doubt their competence in the political arena. (To that effect, witness the number of young people who ran for election in 2020 and won seats that time around).
Young people remaining immobilised and politically disengaged only allows elected officials the opportunity to turn their backs on their responsibilities to their younger constituents – in the main, the crisis in accommodation and access to a mortgage and rights to a decent wage.
The young votes for Sinn Fein, and others of the Left, was a radical vote in 2020 for change. A cry for help. When a homeless man suffers “life-changing injuries” after his tent is removed by a council vehicle and Ireland is reported having the fifth-largest number of billionaires per capita in the world, it is small wonder so many people were angry.
But are they still angry enough this time around? Sinn Fein are not contesting the run for the Park nor are the Left in any way a collective. And, anyway, it seems we are losing our young in hordes to Dubai and Australia and beyond because they have given up on any chance, ever, of housing affordability.
That young vote for Sinn Fein last time out was not a vote for a United Ireland, but rather growing resentment to what they perceive as the traditional political parties’ indifferent stance towards a viable future for the next generation – and an emphatic No to globalisation.
Now, there are those arguing that the young are still disenfranchised. There’s nothing to vote for, goes the argument. Theirs is a voice not being listened to.
Young people may appear to take this scenario seriously. But if we delve a little deeper, we see that the amount of unregistered young people has increased hugely. A generation (25 tears) ago only 14% were unregistered. Now that number has grown to 30% and more – one in three.
This is not good news. If our young people fail to raise their voting voices, their opinion will always be in the minority.
