Class politics in post-boom Ireland: a burgeoning resistance?

In this paper we outline the features of an emergent resistance in Ireland. We examine its stunted development in the context of the period of speculative expansion known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’. We draw attention to the speculative nature of the Irish boom period, to the character of the subsequent crash, to the conditions that have enabled the financial interest to effectively close ranks, transferring private debt to the general population. Whilst acknowledging the apparently low level of resistance to all of this, we reject the notion that the population has meekly accepted all of the related cuts and impositions. We show that the apparent submission to the austerity agenda is quite deceptive, that forms of resistance are emerging everywhere, not least in education, and that these represent the potential for the development of a mass movement against austerity in the years ahead. Amidst relentless attacks on services, and on the living standards of the population, we trace the development of several different forms of resistance that have emerged, along with the continuing efforts to pull its various strands together to produce something worthy of the Irish working class.