nationalism

To this point, Ireland is pretty much the only nation in Western Europe without a significant far-right political party, a fact that reflects the strong historical connection between Irish nationalism and anti-imperialist or anti-colonial ideology.

Muivah studied briefly in Beijing's College of Diplomacy, visited Vietnam and came back speaking reverently of Mao and Zhou Enlai - though he would later fuse their ideology with a deeply Christian nationalism.

Ghastly homages to white supremacy, often suffused with the anti-democratic demands of Christian nationalism, have been on the treacherous rise for a decade.

The party's frustration is obvious, and it goes beyond its anger at the party political name-calling that saw the Ulster Unionists describe the Alliance last week as "divided, desperate and drifting towards nationalism".

A final theme emerges here as well: the tension between nationalism and globalism, independence and interdependence.