Fianna Fáil's vote share actually continued its long term decline with a further 0.3% reduction in its first preference vote share, which was the second worst in its history, better only than its calamitous crash in 2011. It's success in increasing its seat count by 10 was instead enabled by a number of factors:

    
1. The 14 seat increase in the size of the Dáil as a whole meant there were many more seats to play for.

    
2. The record low turnout of 59.7% meant that FF's core support of older voters with a higher predisposition to vote had a greater influence on the outcome.

    
3. The diminution of the historic FF/FG antipathy resulted in them getting a far higher proportion of lower preference vote transfers from their FG coalition partner voters, sometimes even when another FG candidate was still in the field, but especially if the alternative contenders where SF or other opposition candidates.

    
4. Terrible candidate selection and vote management by FG, in part because the latter had more than half of their incumbents not standing for re-election, including many of their more experienced, established and "big beast" representatives.

    
5. The fragmented nature of the opposition and their failure to present a united, coherent, and credible programme for government meant that transfers were going all over the place, including to FF from eliminated or elected opposition candidates.

In short, none of FF's success was as a result of any growth in the core support which continues to be centred on an aging and declining demographic. The only positive one can identify is FF's improved ability to attract lower preference transfers from other parties/candidates, and especially from FG.

It is to the credit of the Irish political system that these high level of transfers indicate that the extreme level of polarisation that has occurred in other democracies has not yet happened in Ireland, and SF, too, has benefited from much higher levels of transfers from other parties than was previously the norm.

So, what we are seeing is an increased consolidation of a left right divide in Irish politics, with increased levels of transfers between FF and FG on the right, and between SF and other smaller opposition parties on the left. However, the much greater cohesion between FF and FG on the right resulted in FF achieving an amazing seat bonus on the back of FG transfers.

Mick goes on to decry "the weird party spin that conjured alternative realities from the RTÉ Exit Poll" which was outside the margins of error due to an oversampling of younger voters, who, it turned out, voted in far smaller numbers than expected. This had the effect of boosting FF's actual as opposed to exit poll % of the vote by about 2% and the reverse for SF. [The actual outturn numbers were (exit poll numbers in brackets) FF 21.9% (19.5), SF 19% (21.1), FG 20.8 (21.0)].

As I noted in my own piece, the record low level of turnout indicates that younger people are voting with their feet, rather than at the ballot box. This is not a positive trend for any democracy and should not be celebrated as "FF's slow growth working just fine".

Notwithstanding that slight sampling error, that exit poll also showed a clear generational divide where under 35s primarily get their information from social and on-line news media while over 35's rely much more on TV. Support for FF is as low as 15% among under 25s and 11% in the 25-34 age rising to 27% among over 65s.

None of this is to take away from Micheál Martin's achievement in rebuilding FF after the Great Financial Crash and helping to build a cohesive FF/FG coalition which is now evidently extending to their respective voter bases as well. The right has consolidated while the left remains divided and weakened by lower turnout among their younger voting bases.

It may be that some of these younger voters will become more conservative as they become more established in the economy and society and many of the more radical or able may emigrate in disillusionment. But a stagnation around the status quo with voting increasing dominated by older demographics is not to be celebrated.

Micheál Martin's (so far unreciprocated) outreach to the unionist community needs to be complemented by a much greater outreach to Ireland's younger demographics if the alienation so evident in so many other democracies is not to spread to Ireland as well. Harking back to the sins of the past is no longer sufficient. A much more positive and inclusive vision of the future is needed if Ireland is to continue to progress towards the forefront of successful nations on this planet.

This means that key strategic issues which were barely touched on in the election campaign such as such as Trump's ascendency, Europe's post Brexit fragmentation, Putin's aggression, climate change, the middle east disasters and Northern Ireland's relative decline will have to be tackled much more proactively despite the likely lack of the Greens or any other progressive party in the next government.

Let us hope that Ireland does not turn in on itself and becomes a mé féin polity like so many others in the West recently. We can be so much better than that. A circling of the wagons as in the consolidation of the Right in Ireland will not get us very far if those strategic challenges are to be addressed as successfully as the Great Financial Crash, Brexit and the Pandemic were overcome in the past 15 years.

That success has earned FF and FG a reprieve but let us not make the mistake of thinking that things are progressing just fine. The really hard work of addressing those strategic challenges, closing the generational divide, providing decent housing and public services for all, addressing infrastructural deficits and north south dysfunctionalities starts now. Jeering the disappointed and disillusioned will get us nowhere.