Country avoids grinches of politics spoiling Christmas!

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

So no general election later this month. No political grinches spoiling our Christmas shopping time. No hitting bum notes dirges lamenting the possible certain loss of a Dáil seat compete with Good King Wencelas. No door bell ringing looking for a vote from every member of the audience just as the Late Late Toy Show gets underway.

So we have got out of Dodge. Until the Spring at least. It’s not to say everybody is happy. The younger guns in Fine Gael wanted an election. There were a few Ministers who wanted one too. One of the happy consequences would be that they would be relieved off their portfolios. If they were in government they would go to another department. If they were in opposition, well, it would be a sacrifice worth making.

But Leo Varadkar cancelled only one election. By doing that, he made sure that four elections would still go ahead. They are the by-elections to replace the four TDs who were elected to the European parliament: Clare Daly in Dublin Fingal; Billy Kelleher in Cork North Central; Frances Fitzgerald in Dublin Mid West; and Mick Wallace in Wexford.

Anyone driving up to Dublin from Galway will see that the posters are all over Lucan and Palmerstown and that part of the N4 that passes through the constituency. And so Christmas cheer has been put on hold in at least four constituencies.

It’s hard to analyse by-elections. Sometimes they are important. Sometimes they are not. There was a long period when the Opposition won every single one, about 15 years or so. And then the Government party won a few. They sometimes tell you a lot about the State of the nation, and the way its people are thinking. They sometimes, however, tell you nothing.

When a TD dies and an immediate member of their family stands, that’s always going to be a powerful factor. If the son or daughter is elected, it tells you of the power of the family’s name in the constituency. It has been a feature of Irish politics that that more often than not the successor turns out to be a politician of more stature than their parent. Look at Enda Kenny, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Brian Cowen from the past. You can see the same potential now in Helen McEntee now, who succeeded her later father Shane only in the past decade.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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