But I hear so many American boomers dismiss these concerns by saying that you should just buck up if you didn’t vote, as if voting would fix the system. It won’t.

Accurate.

Okay, maybe you can just vote in the primaries that are held months ahead of the vote to ensure that a good politician gets nominated as the candidate by the party.

I just became old enough to vote, and did vote in the primaries, but my candidate didn't have as much funding as the others and lost. Obviously, Biden won. He's extremely well funded, and has donors in the healthcare industry, especially pharmaceuticals (clear link with trans). If you don't know about the Citizens United court case, I encourage you to watch this six-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz7xJn8X8fE

Basically, corporations can donate infinite amounts of money to political campaigns through a loophole.

Politicians lie and shamelessly break promises.

Same in the U.S.

Because the Irish media can still ignore and deny coverage to minor political parties that they don’t like to prevent these parties from winning a seat in the election.

By what mechanism? Do parties pay for their own ads, and can't always afford it? Do certain broadcasters refuse to run ads for certain parties? Are political ads not a big part of Irish politics (they're huge in the U.S., can't escape 'em)? Does the news refuse to cover certain parties because they're paid by larger parties?

How big of a factor is money in Irish elections?