As no society is immune from hardwired human behaviors, and as humans reliably react to insecurity by (a) blaming someone else, and (b) looking for a "strong" leader, it's inevitable that Ireland will suffer the same idiocies experienced elsewhere around the world. Furthermore, although Ireland is relatively unimportant from a geopolitical perspective, Russia knows that all destabilization of Western countries is a good thing. Hence it's support of Le Pen's neo-fascist organization, it's persistent support of Republican candidates in the USA, it's support of the AfD and (more covertly) PiS, etc. It's sad that Ireland is experiencing the very first intimations of a much darker future, but given the cognitive limitations of our species, it's unavoidable within the twin contexts of representative democracy and sensation-dependent mass media, both of which dramatically amplify the very worst features of our innate programming.