The flowing red wine and lentil crisps do little to dampen the debate at the CLEAS Irish language book club at Gaeilge Locha Riach in Loughrea.
As a quiet, east Galway night descends on the village, the seven book club members dissect Imram, a collection of short stories by Róise Ní Bhaoill, with relish.
Among the streams of lilting Gaeilge, a few words of English are conspicuous by their presence. Phrases such as “coercive control”, “dystopian racism” and “the mother from Psycho” give a clue to both the themes of the short stories and the mood of the book club members.
After the book discussion, talk turned to the forthcoming election.
One member, Ruth Ní Shiadhail, says she would love to vote for Green politicians, but she believes that the current party doesn’t understand country living.
“As someone who has come from the country but is living in a town, I feel that we have a problem with the Greens at the moment. The Greens are all city based and they don’t understand country living,” she says.
“They don’t understand how we farm, they feel we should mass-produce vegan food. Obviously we [Irish farmers] are mass-producing meat but the solution isn’t to switch to very, very processed vegan food.
“I feel like there are no Greens who represent the full picture. My natural inclination is to vote Green, but the Greens that we have are all city based. I just don’t like the Greens that we do have.
“So the Greens are too city based and we don’t really have a proper Labour Party anymore so we have very few options. I am struggling to know who to vote for. Nobody is representing me.”
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A giant Palestinian flag with the phrase “Saoirse don Phalaistín” is draped over a counter in one corner of the room.
According to Verena Commins, an academic at the University of Galway who took up speaking Irish in her late 20s, the current Government is only paying lip service to the conflict in the Middle East.
“The huge issue for me at the moment is Gaza and I am devastated at the lip service that is being paid by Irish politicians to the issue,” she says.
“We have Shannon Airport, they [the Irish Government] could do something very real there. It would be very easy. Boycotting and divestment is a bit more difficult but more could be done.”
Commins says she is very disappointed by the recent budget, describing it as an “insult to any intelligent person”.
“I find the parish pump politics despicable to be quite honest. Any politicians who come to my door get short shrift. There is so much short-termism. I find it really depressing. The TDs are becoming more like local councillors,” she says.
“Between the budget and rubbing their hands together about the implosion of Sinn Féin, which the media are also doing. I think they are making more of it than there is.”
Jason Niland is the youngest member of the book club. Like so many people his age, the recently graduated primary school teacher is living with his parents.
“I was able to get a job close to home which was great, not having to pay rent. That is the biggest problem that people my age have. If you are in Cork or Dublin, the rent is ridiculous,” he says.
“We are worried that we will never own our own home. I am living at home at 24 years of age, I know people teaching in Dublin who are in their 40s and still living with their parents. It simply isn’t possible for them to move into rented accommodation.
“Housing is a big issue. You can’t go a day without hearing about the lack of houses. We seem to be in purgatory when it comes to homelessness. It’s Groundhog Day, you hear the same thing every day about homelessness and nothing changes.
“In the Irish-speaking community, for example, we have people who have left Connemara to go abroad for a few years and now they are coming back and can’t get houses in their homeplace because of short-term lets. Tourism locations are being hollowed out.
“Are the Government doing enough, or anything at all about that? Do they care? Probably not. Is this going to change with the same parties in government? I doubt it.”
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The book club is facilitated by Pól Mag Lionáin, who believes that the kind of open and diverse chats that take place during the club meetings would be of benefit to the rest of Irish society.
“There is always some conflict. I am from a farming background and sometimes that can create a conflict between being Green and being a farmer,” he says.
“Now and then politics comes into the book club. We have discussed issues such as refugees, Palestine, all sorts of things, but we probably fall on the more liberal side of things as a group.
“For me it’s all about diversity, not just in language but in every way. I would always lean towards parties that are that bit more inclusive and accepting of diversity in general.”
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