Abstract

While writing this paper I am filled with the current reality of yesterday's possibilities. Ireland has just elected a new woman president, Mary Robinson, a labour party member who has consistently struggled for women's rights, for the unemployed, for the youth forced to immigrate from their home and for all the underrepresented in my country. The election of President Mary Robinson may or may not have a huge social impact, but it dramatizes the shift in ground of formal politics in Ireland. This development has come about, in part, through concrete political struggle, stemming from yesterday's dreams. These dreams were informed by critical education. Both the dreams and the practical developments were struggled over; they must still be struggled over in order that the changes are carried through to the point of bettering the lot of all people - in short, that they are or become radically democratic.