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This month, for the first time in about a century, the dominance of Ireland’s two natural governing parties has been challenged.

When the votes were counted two weekends ago, the centre-right Fianna Fáil party narrowly came out with the most seats, while the equally centre-right Fine Gael was reduced from a minority government to third place.

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Coming up from the left wing was the republican Sinn Féin, led by an affable Mary Lou McDonald. She seems likely to form some kind of government, possibly with help from smaller left-wing parties.

McDonald’s success was Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s peril. A liberal leader with a large international profile, he was seen as an Irish Justin Trudeau — right down to his love of quirky socks.

Varadkar was popular abroad, in part over his sharp criticism of Brexit, but at home his popularity tanked. In his failure is a cautionary tale for Trudeau.

Photo by Aidan Crawley/Bloomberg

Ireland has seen 29 consecutive quarters of inflation in its housing rental market — they went down in December by a tenth of a percentage point. McDonald and Sinn Féin seized on a growing anxiety over the mounting prices.