Comment: The author is surely confused: what is a 'protest vote against the embrace of globalism by a country's establishment' if not nationalism?
Irish (nationalist) eyes are smiling
But the building in which this celebration of amity took place had its own rather haunting presence. It was the spanking new Convention Centre, a glamorous, ultra-modern monument to the optimism of the Celtic Tiger years. By the time of the Queen's visit, it looked out on a landscape of shattered dreams. From the top floor, you had a panoramic view of abandoned building sites on the other side of the Liffey, testaments to the folly that created a spectacular banking crisis, vicious austerity and deep disillusion with the political system that had brought such pain.
If you stand there now, what is most striking is not what you see but what you don't see: those jagged gaps that less than a decade ago made Dublin's docklands look like a mouthful of broken teeth. Nearly all the holes have been filled in by headquarters of multinational companies and the lawyers and bankers who serve them.
Comment: Yes, the exit poll strongly suggested housing and healthcare were by far the biggest factors in Irish voters voting for Sinn Fein.
However...
Besides running the risk of looking a fool for reading the result as indicative of Irish support for globalization - a remarkable piece of mental gymnastics given that 'the Southern Irish' just voted for a nationalist party for the first time ever! - the author is missing something important.
People tell themselves narratives - not lies necessarily, more like 'reasons' and justifications - about why they do what they do, but the real motivation is often something vague, something emotional, and something few of them can actually put their finger on.
Here is a major clue that Brexit, the rise of English nationalism, and the rise of nationalism generally, did have an effect on Irish voters:
In January this year, as part of ongoing centenary celebrations marking the Irish War of Independence, the resulting Civil War, and the birth of what was then the 'Irish Free State', the Dublin government thought it would be a good idea to include in official commemorations the 'Black and Tans', a militia force of WW1 vets and hardened criminals put together by Churchill to terrorise the Irish population into withdrawing their crucial support for independence fighters.
No doubt today's globalist ideology of 'inclusiveness and diversity' played a role in blindsiding Dublin elites to what happened next: a popular backlash so strong that PM Leo Varadkar was forced to pull the plug on any such commemoration. The Wolfe Tones' Irish rebel song 'Come Out Ye Black and Tans' subsequently went to number 1 in the UK & Ireland iTunes music chart!
That, more than 'persuasive arguments' and 'appeals to people's intellects, is what swings elections in unexpected directions. Then as now, the Dublin intelligentsia are convincing themselves that this is all just a blip and will blow over soon. "Kids today don't understand nationalism like we do," they convince themselves, and "they'll surely see sense in the end."
Don't count on it. The genie which Dublin elites spent a century containing is now out of the bottle, and Irish nationalism has reunification of the island in its sights.