Holly Cairns broke new ground in Irish politics last year when she became the first party leader to take maternity leave. Her return to duty this week, just in time for the Social Democrats’ annual think-in, should have been an uncomplicated matter. Instead she was met with an unwelcome distraction in the renewed controversy surrounding Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes.
Only recently readmitted to the parliamentary party after a lengthy suspension, Hayes was forced on Monday to apologise when photographs surfaced of him wearing blackface at a college party 16 years ago. The episode follows earlier criticism of his misleading statement over shares he held in the Israel-linked weapons technology firm Palantir, which had already divided the party. Cairns has so far avoided calls for new sanctions, but her response stopped well short of a ringing endorsement of her colleague. The affair highlights lingering doubts about Hayes’s place in the party and exposes the strains beneath its outward unity.
More strategically, Cairns faces choices that will shape the Social Democrats’ long-term future. The party emerged from the last election as the most popular of the three main centre-left groups, marginally ahead of Labour, and has extended that advantage in opinion polls since. Yet its ambition to exert greater influence depends on building alliances. The Social Democrats, Labour and the Greens share many policy priorities, from climate action to housing reform, and could form a strong progressive bloc. But they are also all fishing in the same relatively limited pool of voters, making cooperation more difficult.
An even bigger question is whether to look beyond that immediate circle towards a wider partnership with Sinn Féin in order to challenge Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s grip on power. Labour remains more cautious than the Social Democrats on the issue, but the early months of the current Dáil have already seen steps toward greater left-wing coordination.
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Cairns’s party was instrumental in the joint effort to nominate Catherine Connolly for the presidency, supported by Labour and People Before Profit. Sinn Féin’s impending decision on whether to field its candidate will be telling. But whatever happens, the presidential contest, although very different in tone and character from a general election, will offer some indication of the electorate’s attitude towards a left-wing alternative to the current status quo.
On a range of issues, this Government is perceptibly to the right of its predecessor. That should in theory offer an opportunity for the parties of the left to capitalise on.
But only if they can demonstrate a capacity to work together and to convince voters that a credible alternative really does exist.
