Many theories have been put forward to explain the relatively poor turnout during Irish elections over recent years, with regular suggestions that people are too alienated, too apathetic or simply too busy to go to the polls.
Just 63.6% of those eligible to vote in the 2022 Stormont Assembly poll managed to do so, with the comparable figure for the Dáil contest in which counting finished on this day last week dropping even further to 59.7%.
However, another factor which merits consideration is that a significant proportion of our younger citizens, either temporarily or permanently, no longer live in Ireland.
I spent the month of November in Australia, where my admittedly unscientific research which mainly involved visits to bars and restaurants confirmed a major Irish influence.
In the popular Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, GAA county tops were to be seen on almost every street corner and some residents estimated that up to half the district’s population came originally from Ireland.
It may be noted, in terms of potential lost votes back home, that a large GAA club in the city is actually called Melbourne Sinn Féin, although its name, dating back to 1953, has an historical context and is unconnected with political events in Ireland since then.
Listening to dozens of passing accents during a stroll from Bondi Beach to Coogee Bay in Sydney, along a celebrated 6km coastal path, indicated that the Irish actually outnumbered native Australians on that day by a clear margin.
RTE reported earlier this year that there are currently some 27,000 Irish visa holders in Australia, and this figure does not include those from north of the border who for a range of reasons find it more convenient to carry UK passports.
Many tens of thousands of young Irish people are also to be found across north America and all the main European cities, but it is striking that such a high proportion are prepared to make the massive journey to Australia their first preference.
While immigration has always been a reality in Irish society, young people travelling down under these days are much more likely to be motivated by career opportunities than the grim economic necessities of the past.
Listening to dozens of passing accents during a stroll from Bondi Beach to Coogee Bay in Sydney indicated that the Irish actually outnumbered native Australians on that day by a clear margin
The health, education and construction sectors, among others in Australia, offer notably well-paid jobs for Irish citizens who can obtain the relevant visas, as well as a hugely attractive lifestyle.
Melbourne is a wonderful place by any standards, rated the fourth most liveable city in the world according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2024 survey, with a normally balmy climate and a particularly comprehensive public transport system.
It may be unfair to compare it to much smaller Irish urban centres, but it was still depressing to see the queues of long-suffering commuters waiting in the Belfast rain last week for buses which were either seriously delayed or never arrived at all.
Melbourne, with a population of over five million, handles commuters daily with the minimum of fuss, primarily using trams which depart every couple of minutes on all the main routes from the centre to the outskirts.
Taxis are another culture shock, even if we all understand the reasons why bookings need to be routinely made hours in advance in dear old dismal Belfast and may be entirely unavailable during parts of the weekend.
A standard app in Melbourne will usually provide a car which appears literally within a couple of minutes, even at busy periods, with a hold up of a quarter of an hour regarded as something of a talking point.
It’s just a small example of the wider Australian experience which probably deserves another column or two to explain why our young people are heading in such enormous numbers to a country where incidentally, although it is another argument for another day, voting is compulsory for those on the electoral register.
Perhaps many of them will return to Ireland eventually, but the effective absence of a postal voting option means the diaspora can play no part in the democratic process here.
There was clearly some form of link to results in the last Dáil election, and it remains to be seen if the blue skies of Melbourne and other distant locations will impact on the grey mists surrounding a future Irish border referendum.
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