The view from the UK, from Guardian media…

If Fianna Fáil’s refusal to die is one part of the story, another is the continuing fragmentation of the old party system. The combined first-preference vote of the two great civil war factions has fallen below 50% for the first time, with the other half of all votes splintering between Sinn Féin, which emerges stronger, a shrivelled Labour party, independents, radical leftists and other groupings. Unlike in Britain, where the slump was not as severe, and much more like in Spain and Portugal, similarly stricken peripheries of the eurozone, the latest election has not necessarily settled who governs. A rerun may be required. Irish voters have revealed what they are against, not what they are for. And Ireland’s rulers have learned that if you preside over enough suffering for long enough, the people will make you suffer in turn.