📊 "IRELAND'S older population is more PROGRESSIVE" Kevin Cunningham | Next Left Pollsters

About this episode

Kevin Cunningham discusses the evolving dynamics of Irish politics and the factors influencing voter confidence.

🇮🇪 Delivery Matters More Than Promises In this episode of the Progressive Pollsters FEPS Talks series, Kevin Cunningham, MD and founder of Ireland Thinks, joins Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training, to reflect on the evolving dynamics of Irish politics — from shifting trust in institutions to the lessons progressives can draw from Ireland’s distinctive landscape. 🗳️ Cunningham explains how delivery, rather than rhetoric, shaped voter confidence during the cost-of-living crisis — and why Ireland’s absence of a strong radical right sets it apart. Yet, he also highlights the warning signs: growing frustration among younger voters, deep divides in housing and migration debates, and a widening gender gap — with young women more focused on Gaza and social justice, and young men increasingly concerned about immigration. 🌹 In the run-up to PES Congress in Amsterdam Progressive Mobilisation, the Next Left Progressive Pollsters series highlights the ongoing work of the FEPS-Karl-Renner-Institut's Progressive Pollsters network, which brings together leading pollsters and political analysts to discuss and reflect on key political and social trends shaping Europe’s…

People in this episode

Host: Ania Skrzypek

Guest: Kevin Cunningham

Topics covered

• Irish politics
• voter confidence
• cost-of-living crisis
• progressive mobilization
• youth engagement
• gender gap
• housing and migration debates

Keywords

• Ireland
• politics
• progressive
• voter confidence
• cost-of-living
• youth voters
• gender gap
• housing
• migration

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ireland Thinks, FEPS, PES Congress, FEPS-Karl-Renner-Institut

Places: Ireland, Gaza

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