Political World
Sinn Fein first out of the blocks as party think-ins signal start of political season
Political World with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
At around this time each year all the political parties hold strategy meetings involving their TDs, senators and handlers. There are a few purposes to the meetings – all of them simple enough. It’s a chance for the parliamentary party to regroup after the Summer recess. The meetings allow them to identify priorities and strategies for the coming Oireachtas term.
And it also gives them a glorious opportunity to get largely uncritical media coverage, with the press office doling out a couple of ‘eye-opening initiatives’ and announcements for the top of the news bulletins and for next day’s paper.
The other thing that’s noteworthy about them is that most are held ‘away’ from the capital. The media, of course, have dubbed them think-ins. Or ‘drink-ins’ when chatting among themselves!
The two most memorable were – no surprise here – both associated with Fianna Fáil. The first was its meeting down in West Cork in 2004 when Bertie Ahern invited Fr Sean Healy (of Social Justice Ireland, then CORI) to address the troops.
Out of that after years of unbridled Charlie McCreevy individualism and capitalism, Ahern announced the Inchydoney Strategy, a U-turn for Fianna Fáil which was now embracing a more caring and sharing strategy. Of course, that didn’t happen and the new Minister Brian Cowen ‘kept her lit’ just like before, with terrible consequences.
The second featured Cowen himself in September 2010. The Fianna Fáil think-in that year was held in the Ardilaun Hotel on Taylor’s Hill in Galway City. Cowen and a bunch of his Dáil lobby buddies had stayed up very late one night – along with a fair smattering of journalists it must be said. The then-Taoiseach regaled the assembled crowd with a few good mimicked sketches and some rousing songs.
Problem was that he was on Morning Ireland the next morning sounding (and making as much sense) as a rusty door. When Simon Coveney tweeted that Cowen sounded hungover, it unleashed a media feeding frenzy that did immense damage to Cowen and his status as taoiseach. He may have felt hard done by, it but it was self-inflicted.
Anyway, it’s the season for them now and Sinn Féin was the first to kick off on Friday in Carlingford, Co Louth. The meeting had the ‘broaden your mind’ agenda that you find at such occasions. In this instance, they had invited two independent unionists to address the meeting and give their perspective on events in the North.
The media were allowed in for Gerry Adams’s opening address and he did a long doorstep interview beforehand. The two themes for public discussion were the two most topical – Sinn Féin’s approach to the October budget as well as the upcoming Seanad referendum, in which the party is advocating a ‘Yes’ vote.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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