FF must decide what it stands for before convincing anyone else

World of Politics with Harry McGee

A decade ago, the late political commentator Noel Whelan wrote a history of Fianna Fáil, published several months after the 2011 general election, when the party had just suffered the most disastrous result in its history. It had won 78 seats in 2007 – but after that, its mismanagement of the economy was cruelly exposed in subsequent years.

The party crashed to Earth in early 2011: its representation fell to 20 – reduced to 19 when outgoing finance minister, Brian Lenihan, succumbed to cancer shortly after the general election. It left the party without a single TD in Dublin.

Whelan honed-in on a speech its new leader, Micheál Martin, gave to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the party at the La Scala Theatre on 16 May 1926.

The theme of Martin’s speech was renewal. He told those gathered for the occasion: “If we return Fianna Fáil to the core principles that for so many years won the support and loyalty of the Irish people, we will not only renew the party, we will renew a vital positive force in the life of our nation.

“I want Fianna Fáil to be that great party it once was and to be in touch with, and responsive to, the needs of the Irish people.”

Whelan was very pessimistic about the future for the party in spite of Martin’s forceful rallying cry.

He wrote: “[During 2011] Fianna Fáil battled to come to terms with the scale of its loss of power, position and prestige. It failed even to field a candidate for the presidency. It remains to be seen whether Fianna Fáíl will be around to commemorate any more significant anniversaries. The omens are not good for its recovery.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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