God question a piece of cake compared to conundrums of Irish political landscape!

We were driving home from Dublin city centre last week when my three-and-a-half year old daughter Sadhbh hit me with a haymaker: "Daddy, who made God?" she asked.

For a person who's never short of a word, I was completely stumped. It was a question for which I had no answer, at least none that would make sense to a three-year old.

It got me to thinking of the questions for which there are no easy answers in Irish politics. And a few of those came to mind over the course of the weekend.

An obvious one is why there was no rioting in the streets after the country lost control of its sovereignty? Another is why no far-right party or anti-immigrant party has emerged over the past decade?

The third is why, despite all the travails, two parties look set to continue their dominance of Irish politics into the future?

The questions are all tricky and have no conclusive or satisfactorily complete answers but at least – unlike the question my daughter fired at me – I believe I am suitably qualified to have at least a shot at them.

That said, I think the answers to all three questions are inter-connected and related. They are also complex and, in some instances, contradictory.

For a start, I'm completely unconvinced there is any basis to this notion that the Irish are rebellious as a people. Indeed, the evidence is to the contrary. As a society, we are conformist.

The QED for that, in my experience, is the smoking ban which was introduced a decade ago. It was widely predicted that the ban would be observed more in its defiance than in its observance. The opposite was the case.

Indeed so wholesale was the acceptance that within weeks it became clear that any plans to reverse the policy would probably meet with civil unrest.

The net point being made is that Irish society is not rebellious – indeed it is a very compliant society. You will get the odd cowboy everywhere but the level of compliance to the rules laid down (from paying taxes, to obeying the rules of the road, to following the instructions of Garda officers) is extraordinarily high.

Part of the reason for this is that Ireland is a small and cohesive society. Another part of the explanation is that we have a very settled democracy – indeed one of the longest continuous democracies in the world.

Another is the coherent nature of Irish politics – while Irish people whinge continuously about the quality of our politicians, they are not remote figures (unlike Brussels bureaucrats) and are easily accessible.

When politicians make unpopular and harsh policy choices, there is evidence that citizens might not like the policies (especially if they dent their pockets) but accept them on the pragmatic basis that they are necessary, that no section of society is being unduly hammered or favoured, and that the decisions are for the betterment of society.

To give it to you in shorthand, Ireland has probably more of a North European temperament than a Mediterranean one.

It always struck me as pointless comparing Ireland to Greece, where the tax compliance rates are shockingly low, where democracy is a relatively recent phenomenon, and whose debt situation was markedly more drastic than it was in Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.