FG to meet in Galway – but they won’t repeat FF disaster

Date Published: {J}

They’ll be writing a new page in the history of Fine Gael when the biggest ever Parliamentary Party holds its annual general meeting in Galway’s Radisson Blu Hotel in a little over a week’s time … but don’t be surprised if the celebrations are a low-key affair.

One of the reasons the festivities will be somewhat restrained is that there will be serious cuts on the agenda in public spending that the TDs will find hard to stomach – but the other will be surely the thought of the utter fiasco which a similar Galway Fianna Fáil session turned out to be during the Brian Cowen period as Taoiseach.

FF met in the Ardilaun and there was some considerable hospitality … only problem was that the country was on its knees, the government were deeply unpopular, and people who could not pay their mortgages were reading stories of late-night piss-ups … and then came that disastrous Brian Cowen ‘Morning Ireland’ interview in which Cowen sounded way below his best.

I have to say that, at the time, I thought some of the coverage was unfair. Yes, the party had partied late, and Brian Cowen did sing his party piece ‘The Lakes of Ponchartarin’ in the early hours of the morning. But, dinner and drinks are a part of many gatherings in this country … and you do not expect that some of your guests who drank your booze (the journalists), may well be counting how many drinks you had in the subsequent days of coverage.

However, that said, Fianna Fáil should have been immensely more cognisant of its dreadful public perception, and the fact that the newspapers were reflecting a public weariness with government which was later expressed in an election wipeout that changed the electoral landscape.

It was indicative of the kind of misfortune into which Fianna Fáil had fallen, that on the final afternoon of that gathering in the Ardilaun, there was a crash on the other side of the city which brought the entire city to a halt.

Ministerial Mercedes were dotted all along city routes like St Mary’s Road and Newcastle Road as the ministers tried to get out of town and found themselves stranded. Indeed, then Finance Minister Brian Lenihan used the opportunity to catch some exercise … walking briskly along Newcastle Road while the ministerial Merc came along hundreds of yards behind him.

Thee was no sympathy. Indeed many said wasn’t it marvellous to see ministers finally get a taste of what Galway traffic could be like – conveniently forgetting that FF people like Frank Fahey TD (who later lost his Dail seat) were among those who had fought hardest for the City Outer Bypass over many years! But then, when your luck is out, your luck is out.!

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.