We in the media get it wrong. And we have been getting it wrong more and more lately; particularly when it comes to politics. Only last week, we got it spectacularly wrong when it came to the formation of government. We wrung our hands about what Green Party members were going to do. We fell across ourselves to hear the voices of dissent within the party and then gravely warned that it would be touch and go if they would manage the two thirds needed to vote for the programme for government.

There was barely a mention of Fianna Fáil. What happened? Green Party members gave 76% backing to go into government to Fianna Fáil’s 74%. Then we moved onto the fantasy cabinet. Twitter and newspaper columns were bursting with predictions from political analysts with the inside line. How many of them had Stephen Donnelly down for Minister for Health and Dara Calleary not getting any?

The core of journalism is to report news, but opinion and analysis has become a byproduct of the divergence of media over the past two or three decades

How many of the media set predicted the rise of Sinn Féin in the general election? Go further afield, and who predicted Brexit, Boris Johnston and Donald Trump? To be fair it wasn’t just journalists that were caught by surprise. But we are the ones who have appointed ourselves as the bellwethers of political opinion. The core of journalism is to report news, but opinion and analysis has become a byproduct of the divergence of media over the past two or three decades.

The race to be first with the news and ahead of the posse has dented the traditional first commandment of journalism, which is to establish fact. In the modern, bite-sized world of media consumption – which we so crave – drama trumps fact. Trying to man-mark Twitter opinion has also become an unwelcome distraction from the traditional role of the journalist. In any case, we pay too much heed to the noise on Twitter; where anyone with mad notions can share the same platform as the most brilliant of minds.

Stephen Donnelly has been the Fianna Fáil health spokesman for the past couple of years. How did this fact bypass the opinions and chin stroking of all the political hacks? Then again, I asked a Fianna Fáil parliamentarian what the chances were of the programme for Government getting the nod. “I’d be worried about the Greens,” was their response. Turns out, they should have been more worried about their own party. So in being asked our opinion on, say, government formation, we can only go by what we are hearing from actual people in the tent. If they can’t read it, what are the chances we can?

Simon Coveney told a conference I attended in February that Brexit would be the biggest issue facing Irish politics in 2020

Gauging public opinion has become a very difficult science. Pollsters and market research companies (who are paid lots of money to sound out public opinion) have been off the mark lately, too. Simon Coveney told a conference I attended in February that Brexit would be the biggest issue facing Irish politics in 2020. Now, he wasn’t to know what was coming down the line with COVID-19. Still, when polled at the general election, only 2% of the Irish public saw Brexit in such terms. And here was Fine Gael believing that Simon and Leo Varadkar’s sterling work in navigating Brexit’s choppy waters would win seats.

It begs a very serious question: how worrying is this detachment from public discourse? Or, is it actually a good thing that we are more confident and diverse of opinion now that public sentiment can no longer be taken for granted on any matter? Well, who am I to answer that!

Credit where credit is due

Usually in sport, you can easily identify players you despise among the team of your greatest rivals. As a Manchester United fan, I can’t think of one on the current Liverpool team. Congratulations to them.