Dr. Shana Cohen

Yeah, I thought it's really interesting that the major parties are not, to me, not doing well and that to do well, that some of Sinn Féin's voters are looking toward into the independence.

And you could see that being an emerging, surprisingly, maybe that's an emerging alliance between some of Sinn Féin's supporters.

in a right-wing party.

Despite Connolly's success in the presidential election, I think there's a, if I could say this, there's a bit of an identity crisis on the left.

And that, I think, is part of what you're seeing.

The whole left.

Yeah, because they're not, you know, Social Democrats, I think, maybe because of the leader.

And they might do well in the Dublin election.

But the independent candidate is expected to win in Galway, from what I've been reading.

So I think that there's a narrative piece that's missing, even going back to the migration discussion we just had.

There's not a narrative among the big parties that the public is buying.

I think for me, when I look at the polls, that's what I see.

And so they're going to the smaller parties because they're not satisfied with what the three big parties are offering.

I was going to give you an example.

So I've spent a lot of time the past two years in Poppentry where there was just this gun incident, right?

So I've spent a lot of time talking to people.

Just as a snapshot, after the financial crisis, the government slashed support for youth services, and they haven't rebuilt it.

So if you're talking about a downturn or even the effects of AI, if you have a rise in youth unemployment, which we do right now, then the government should be thinking, we have resources, so we should invest them.

In areas like Papanchi, you should invest them in youth services.

So you're competing against the grooming economy and gangs, but also you're providing people with some hope in the future.