Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan’s pitch to make the process of obtaining Irish citizenship more lengthy – from five years to eight – and Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s strangely woolly reasoning for this is best viewed as part of what’s happening in the world and country we live in. We are in a rocky era characterised by authoritarian movements and nativist sentiments.

Authoritarian movements may take on various shapes depending on jurisdiction but they are united in an aversion to complexity and diversity. Given the role of the digital sphere – a force which homogenises as well as acts as a catalyst for contagion – it’s not surprising that such movements borrow from each other and replicate events, tactics and rhetoric from place to place. These movements have grown in noise as well as influence.

Plenty of evidence from history and the present day shows us that so-called centrist politicians, even softly humming the melodies of the authoritarian far-right’s tunes, hastens the spread. And why wouldn’t it? Appeasement doesn’t have the best reputation, not least in Europe.

A government, at this moment in time, stating it is making it harder for immigrants to become citizens takes on an additional meaning and cannot be separated from the wider context. Such a policy is a signal.

Shane Lowry distils the mania around him as Donald Trump and Clare Force One hit the........

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