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Katy Barnett's avatar

The modern Left has forgotten about class. No, I have never been a Marxist - when my father explained it to me when I was 8, I said, “People don’t work like that. Even chickens and cows don’t work like that.” Also I know too many ex-Soviets to have a bar of Marxism! But I do think class is really important in analysing social dynamics.

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Jacqueline W's avatar

As an outsider (Brit/naturalised Aussie) in Ireland, Ireland still appears - or did appear, 20 years ago, less so now - very tribal. "Kin groups" and "hereditary constituencies" still dominate even national politics to an extent I found astonishing coming from Australia (only other country I've voted in). My reading informs me that some recent Irish tragedies e.g. Magdalen laundries (still not fully acknowledged by the whole community or full restitution given, if it ever will be) were in reality motivated by the concept of keeping land inheritance 'within the (legitimately acknowledged) family' rather than Catholic prudery, which is the official 'explanation'.

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