He left Fine Gael in September 1934 and since then the party has worked hard to obliterate him from its history, although the ‘Blueshirt’ term remained a pejorative description for it almost to this day. Even so, historians have found it difficult to pin the term ‘fascist’ on them and in one case they were described as “angry rural conservatives” engaged in populism.

Unlike in Italy and Germany, where fascists came to power with appalling consequences that led to the deaths of somewhere between 75m and 80m people worldwide in the Second World War, the reign of Spain’s fascist leader, Francisco Franco, lasted until his death in 1975, when the country once again transitioned to democracy.

Spain goes to the polls next Sunday in a snap general election called by socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, largely in the hope of mobilising leftwing voters after a poor local election showing and in an attempt to face down a resurgent conservative opposition.

The election is a tactical gamble by Sánchez to stymie gains by the right-wing People’s Party (PP), but there are growing fears that it could produce the country’s first government with a far-right influence since Franco. 

Mirroring a growing right-wing shift across Europe, as seen in Sweden, Finland, Italy, and gathering momentum in Germany, Spain is in a political quandary. Electors are facing a choice between Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and the new left-wing Sumar alliance, on the one hand, and the PP and the ultra-right Vox party on the other.

Polls suggest the PP is the most popular choice among the electorate, but will have difficulty governing without the support of Vox, an ultraconservative party that has pledged to erase Spanish laws that protect abortion, LGBT+ rights, and gender equality, and tackle the issue of violence against women.

In the region of Castilla y Leon, where the biggest city is Valladolid and the PP and Vox coalesce in power, local people claim their presence in government has normalised views against reproductive rights, LGBT+ rights ,and immigration.

This weekend, the Spanish electorate will have big decisions to make and depending on how they vote, they could have a far-right government for the first time since Franco.

This, as has been the case with other election results across the continent, will shape European politics and may even have an influence here in Ireland as we begin to see the rise of far-right politics emerging. That is something we have steadfastly resisted in the past and, we hope, will in the future.

Safeguarding children must be a priority 

We in this county have been engaged for some time now in extrapolations of budgetary proposals involving the spending of some or all of the €16bn windfall the exchequer has to play around with this coming autumn.

Tax cuts, infrastructure projects, and social welfare increases have all been touted as ‘essentials’ the Government must look at in its deliberations — and so they should. But over the course of the last few days it has emerged that the most vulnerable elements of our society, our children, may be the ones most in need of budgetary consideration.

The alarming contents of the report by the Child Law Project, in which was detailed an immediate “predicament and welfare” of children in care in this country and the dangers facing the State in the event of failing to deal with this crisis, should ring loud alarm bells.

As a nation, we have already lived through decades of scandal involving our innocent youth and the thought that we could allow another generation to be subjected to gross neglect as we fail in our duty of care — not to mention statutory obligation — to vulnerable children, is abhorrent.

That the basic elements of care for children in need are so gapingly lax is bad enough, but that there seems to be nothing by way of a plan to correct matters is shocking. Our children are our future and safeguarding them and our interlinked hopes and dreams should be a budgetary priority.

Troubled times for the Kremlin

If Monday’s second attack on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with Russia was humiliating for the Putin regime, the mystery of Russia’s missing generals is becoming increasingly embarrassing also.

It was bad enough for the Kremlin last week that Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov was killed when a Ukrainian missile slammed into a hotel in the coastal town of Berdyansk that had been taken over by the Russian military.

However, the subsequent disappearance of Major General Ivan Popov, the commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army which is key to Russia’s occupation of southern Ukraine, after a four-minute video of him railing against “the treachery of Russia’s military leadership”, has greatly unsettled the fighting forces.

So too the case of General Oleg Surovikin, former head of Russian forces in Ukraine, who was replaced in January and only seen recently trying to persuade mutinous Wagner Group forces to stand down. He has not been seen since.

Victorious military campaigns are won by great generals (Eisenhower, Patton, and Zhukov from the Second World War spring to mind), not those killed by the enemy or emasculated by their leaders. Troubled times for the Kremlin.