In a year of global political turmoil, anti-incumbent fervor, across-the-board cynicism and the looming shadow of Donald Trump, voters in the Republic of Ireland appear to have delivered the most surprising verdict of all: No change, thanks. It's now clear that the two mainstream centrist parties who have controlled government in Dublin for the last five years — and who, before that, had been sworn enemies for nearly a century — will get another crack at it, presumably with some smaller coalition partner.
But the story of the Irish general election on Nov. 29 is not that simple, and definitely should not be understood as evidence of widespread contentment with the status quo. In Ireland, after all, stories are almost never simple, and tend to involve seemingly irrelevant tangents and extended detours into the past. This election and its non-earth-shaking result reflect a pair of contradictory truths: This island nation off the northwestern edge of Europe remains a highly distinctive place and also one heavily dependent on the global economy, and on its precarious position in between Britain and the United States.
