Derek thanks Gilmore for not making him stick knife in

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Politics is a murky business. It’s for bruisers and hard necks. Politicians would stop at nothing – they’d eat their grannies – to save their skins.

Survival is the name of the game.

But even allowing for all that, and allowing for a generous dollop of hypocrisy that is par for the course in Irish politics, we spat our morning coffee out when we received an email on Wednesday from Galway West Labour Party TD, Derek Nolan paying tribute to the “outstanding contribution” Eamon Gilmore had made to Irish life.

Gilmore, from Caltra, earlier in the week announced he was retiring and would not contest the next general election.

Derek sounded surprised at the news. His farewell email was full of admiration for buddy-old-pal, Eamon. The city-TD was oozing praise for his former great leader.

So much so that one could be forgiven for thinking that this wasn’t the self-same Derek Nolan who had hastened Gilmore’s exit stage-left.

But avid readers will recall that Derek was in fact one of the gang of five newly elected Labour Party TDs who were preparing to plunge a sharpened knife into their leader’s back.

Gilmore got wind of the revolt and instead fell on his own sword, graciously, before being bludgeoned by the ungrateful shower that got elected under a ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’ platform.

Derek was one of Gilmore’s comrades who went wobbly at the knees on the back of a couple of poor opinion polls. And they got their scapegoat – Gilmore. By jumping, Gilmore saved Derek and his buddies from having to push him, even though their footprints were all over the plank which Gilmore eventually walked.

But that’s all water under the bridge now, apparently, and this week Derek commended Gilmore.

“He (Gilmore) has made political and personal sacrifices for the Irish people and paid a high price for the courage he displayed in his years as Tánaiste. In the aftermath of his resignation, he showed great dignity and always put the Labour Party before his own interests,” said Derek, without a hint of irony, in his ‘Ode to Eamon’ this week.

More Power to Averil, says Mary on Twitter!

More back-stabbing, this time in Fianna Fáil.

The defection of promising talent Dublin senator Averil Power sent shock-waves through the party.

Her withering put-down of a parting shot at leader Micheál Martin prompted an acerbic response from the usually mild-mannered Cork man.

And in public, over the airwaves, so we could all enjoy the washing of Fianna Fáil’s dirty underpants.

Notice Éamon Ó Cuív has kept his powder dry on the matter. Dev Óg is around the block too long to be sucked into a controversy unnecessarily. But that’s an aside.

The spat is well documented.

And it struck a chord with another woman – former Fianna Fáil Galway City Councillor Mary Leahy – who hinted she was all too familiar with the ‘old boys’ club’ that operates within political parties.

During the Power/Martin fall-out, Mary was watching Averil spill the beans on Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ.

She tweeted: “Well done Averil Power. Fully get where you are coming from. Bright political future ahead. Your work not valued in #FF #Claire Byrne”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.