Given these extraordinary ties, America is obviously Ireland’s best friend, so where does the anti-Americanism of the Irish left come from? In these days of social media, it’s the Cultural Revolution for the TikTok age, but Maoism-Third Worldism gripped the left decades ago. In Maoism-Third Worldism, there are only two sides – the powerful and powerless, the coloniser and colonised, the legitimate and illegitimate. Economically, Maoism-Third Worldism cleaves towards pure self-sufficiency, rather than the tricky compromises that international trade involves. Might having a new Irish president steeped in the rhetoric of Maoism-Third Worldism risk American capital flight?

Source: The Irish Times November 15, 2025 16:31 UTC