Something in short supply in politics these days is optimism. That’s hardly surprising. There is a lot to feel bad about. Many deeply serious issues that feature daily in Irish media – climate catastrophes, the genocide of Palestinians, the impact of American authoritarianism, the never-ending Irish housing emergency, the unnerving encroachment of AI – feel existential. There is no point in facing these realities in an inane or Pollyanna-type manner. But compounding a sense of negativity, helplessness and hopelessness stops conversations from germinating solutions.

With the Dáil briefly back early, it’s a challenge to feel inspired by the state of Irish politics. This could be just vibes, but in my day-to-day conversations with people – and perhaps this is part of a broader disengagement due to overwhelm and media fragmentation – I’ve noticed Irish politics as a topic features less and less. The ever-governments of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have also given rise to an ever-opposition. Although this repetition is not totally uniform (we have after all the reactionary and populist right wing in the form of Aontú and Independent Ireland, a growing party in the Social Democrats and violent, abusive far-right agitators online and off), it does breed a sort of stasis: new term, same tune.

But new seasons can also birth new approaches. As much as many people are either bored or disapproving of the current Government – in a summer poll conducted by the Sunday Independent, 61 per cent of people disapproved of how the Government was doing its job – what is........

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