Flames of populism may have ignited the political infernos of Donald Trump and Brexit in 2016 and sparked growing Euroscepticism across Europe, but in Ireland there has been little heat seen on the conservative hard right.

That is until now. Last weekend, a group of 600 people, drawn to an appearance by leading Brexit flame-fanner Nigel Farage in Dublin, showed that there is some public appetite for an exit from the EU like the British, or at least that more questions be asked about the direction the EU is heading in.