Ireland’s two oldest rival parties get together

YOU CAN tell a lot about the slow-changing culture of Irish politics from the names of its three largest parties. Micheal Martin, who took over as prime minister this week after months of deadlock, has led Fianna Fail, or the “Warriors of Destiny”, for nine years. His predecessor as taoiseach (prime minister), Leo Varadkar, drops to deputy prime minister, but could swap jobs with Mr Martin again if their new coalition lasts more than two years. Mr Varadkar’s party is Fine Gael, the “Tribe of the Gaels”. Meanwhile the parliamentary opposition will be led by the leftists of Sinn Fein, or “We Ourselves”, formerly the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

In the rest of Europe, blood-and-soil nationalism mostly went out of fashion after 1945. But Ireland avoided both fascism and the second world war, so its party names still echo the fervour of early-20th-century separatism. Armed uprisings won independence from Britain for most of Ireland in 1922, and Fianna Fail and Fine Gael emerged out of rival Sinn Fein factions in the subsequent short but bitter civil war. Apart from that, there has been little to choose between the two: both are centre-right, pro-business, small-government parties, and—at least until recently—friendly with the once mighty Catholic church. The narcissism of small differences has let them alternate in...