Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Trump, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Trump, Brexit, Trump. The United Kingdom and the United States of America are in a political soap opera. Donald Trump is about to become the president, Theresa May managed to get into 10 Downing Street via the back door, and Brexit means Brexit.

Meanwhile, in Dáil Éireann and this is no joke…they have recognised the soft lemonade drink 7UP as an effective form of medication. Seriously.

The Irish Republican government, Dáil Éireann, do things a little differently to other global democracies, but nevertheless the methods on the face of it are friendlier. Like Russia, Ireland has a President and a Prime Minister – Taoiseach. These posts are currently held by 75 year-old Galwegian Michael D. Higgins since 2011 and 65 year-old Mayo man Enda Kenny.

Here is where things get a little different. Although MPs (TD – Teachta Dála) are generally elected via the “first-past-the-post” system with 158 representatives from all 26 counties in Ireland, the party with the most votes and the most representatives DOES NOT mean their leader becomes Prime Minister. Instead, that is voted in by the TD’s themselves.

So when you see the pantomime of the House of Commons in Westminster between Tory and Labour and the strongholds of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Washington, none of this would be seen in Leinster House, the former residents of the Dukes of Leinster.

Now when you look at the political landscape, it becomes more surprising. The two main political parties are the liberal centre right Fine Gael…and the liberal centre right Fianna Fáil. Now although this may seem bias, but when you consider that the third biggest collection of candidates from the 2016 election is independent, it means that when you think about it…it balances the scales out.

Although the third political party in the Taoiseach is the left wing Sinn Féin headed by IRA affiliated Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin have never been the majority party, which symbolises how much of a corner the Irish have taken in the last century.

If it weren’t for Thomas J. Clarke, Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett and others, who on Easter Sunday 1916 at precisely midday emerged from the rebel held GPO to read aloud the proclamation of the Irish Republic and the independence from British rule, this article would be pointless.

Even when you look at the last thirty years at what they have accomplished, it is phenomenal that a country that once was under civil war had now embraced western society.

Mary Robinson became Ireland’s first President in 1990, and was succeeded by Mary McAleese in 1997 and held the post until 2011; Ireland then became the first country IN THE WORLD to pass same-sex marriage by popular vote in May 2015. Heck, OBAMA CAME OVER ONCE TO GREAT ACCLAIM!!!

It gets better and better. McAleese and Robinson haven’t just decided to sit around unlike former British Prime Ministers or American Presidents. Mary Robinson was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002. St Mary’s University in London appointed McAleese Professor of Irish Studies.