Less than 20 years ago, in the general election of 2007, Fianna Fáil got 15,398 first preferences in Dublin Central – 44 per cent of the vote. On Friday, in the same constituency, Fianna Fáil got 1,049 first preferences – 4 per cent of the vote. This is a decline of 93 per cent.

The shocking thing, however, is that there is no shock. Nobody on the ground expected anything different. The pathetic attempts of the Supreme Being of 2007, Bertie Ahern, to suck up to anti-immigrant voters were symptoms of desperation and ideological bankruptcy. The mighty are fallen so low that they scrabble in the dirt.

Yet, if we stand back a little, we should be astounded. This is arguably the world’s most successful democratic political machine of the last century. For more than half of that century of existence, Fianna Fáil has held the office of taoiseach (albeit not called by that name until 1937). And, just in case we haven’t noticed, it still does.

I’m sure some political anorak (maybe Bertie himself) can answer this question: has any serving prime minister’s party in a stable democracy ever got less than 5 per cent of the vote in a national parliamentary election? I can’t think of any.

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We must, of course, enter the caveats.........

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