It hardly seems like the most sensible thing to do, writing a piece about Ireland’s European election results when all we have are limited exit polls, but here we go.

It’s exactly because of the results of those exit polls that plenty of similar pieces will no doubt be penned in coming days and weeks. According to the polling organisation Red C, the Green Party have topped the poll in Dublin, taking 23% of first preference votes, with their candidates in Ireland South and Midlands-Northwest (the two remaining electoral regions) taking 12% of first preferences, meaning that if the transfers fall kindly,the party could be on course to win three seats in Ireland’s European Parliament delegation for the first time in its history. 

But there’s another story here that risks getting overlooked, and that is Ireland’s continued resistance to the advances of xenophobic, isolationist populist parties of the far-right. Ireland is no stranger to the kind of standard electoral, ‘parish pump’ populism that precedes nearly every election campaign: both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have at various points throughout history positioned themselves as centrists with populist-esque leanings, cutting healthcare funding one minute only to be pushing for it to be increased when either party is in opposition

However, an organised far-right has never truly managed to gain a foothold in Ireland (not since the early 1930s anyhow), a phenomenon all the more surprising given the country’s current housing and healthcare woes, woes that elsewhere in Europe have proven to be a major source of votes for the far-right. Indeed, following both the financial crash and subsequent bail-out, it was far-left populists who made electoral gains, but even here such gains were minimal and blunted by the type of infighting and ideological divisions common among such parties.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t far-right parties and individuals in Ireland who have tried to make a splash. The ‘Irish Freedom Party’ (IFP) for example spent €40,000 on anti-EU posters and ran candidates in this year’s European elections, whilst Peter Casey, the controversial business tycoon who came second recent presidential election, has made a name for himself by demonising migrants, travellers and asylum seekers. But again, the IFP have failed to make any impact, and despite his rather strong showing in the presidential race, Casey only seems to have taken 7% of first-preference votes in Midlands-Northwest, his candidacy marred by his tax-exile status and generally xenophobic remarks that prompted Saoirse McHugh, the Green candidate, to lament that Casey was yet another millionaire scapegoating migrants for problems created by both the state and big businesses.

How long Ireland can resist the far-right remains to be seen. The nation has a relatively young and well-educated population that will grow considerably over the next decade. This segment of the electorate tends to not only be the most skeptical of populism more generally, but also the most vocally opposed to everything the far-right stands for. Indeed, as noted by Harry McGee of The Irish Times, many young people actively encouraged their parents to vote Green and then give their remaining votes to candidates who prioritised fighting climate change. The refusal of Fine Gael and other mainstream to give into the anti-migrant, and most especially anti-Muslim politics that many of its centre-right counterparts in Europe has also meant there hasn’t really been any mainstream push from the centre-right towards widespread immigration restrictions, a trend that hopefully won’t be changing anytime soon, given Ireland’s labour shortage in areas like construction and tourism.  

Whether the Greens ultimately do as well as those exit polls suggest is, I’d argue, neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things. What they show is that the people of Ireland, driven in part by both educated young professionals and teenagers who may not even be able to vote yet, have focused not on divisive xenophobia but on pressing issues like climate change that affect all citizens globally. No longer the semi-isolationist, monocultural country of the past, Ireland has over these past five years chosen to embrace global change and the challenges that come with that, an attitude that I am not only proud of, but one that will hopefully continue to grow and strengthen in the years to come.