Political World
History and family – a winning double act
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
Just about the best anecdote in the late political editor of The Irish Times, Dick Walsh’s book about Fianna Fáil is his recounting of a conversation with a neighbour in Co Clare.
The neighbour professed himself to be a member of Fianna Fáil and said his family had supported the party right back to its origins.
Back to 1927, so? Not at all, replied the neighbour, all the way back to ’98.
Walsh used the illustration to show that Fianna Fáil was something more than a political party, that it was a national organisation, or a political cult. Allegiance to the party was welded into the DNA of successive generations being born into the same family.
You see it frequently in Ireland. You might wrap the red flag around you and proclaim Gort as a Soviet Republic but once the news filters out that “he comes from a strong Fine Gael family” the die is cast and you are labelled.
There’s a famous cartoon from the Dublin Opinion in the 1950s that shows a frail Dail Deputy on his death bed with his family surrounding him. He’s telling them what he’s leaving them in his will – the farm; the pub; the undertaking business. And he then turns to his eldest son and says he is leaving him his Dáil seat.
It’s a wry observation but it was also true. Maybe a little less true these days. Nonetheless, it’s still a phenomenon that’s evidenced very strongly in Irish politics. A fifth of Irish TDs are hereditary: sons, daughters, nieces, nephews or grandchildren of former politicians.
For a political party, there are obvious advantages to running a child of a TD. For one, there is the name recognition – especially in a bye-election.
When people periodically ask Michael O’Leary of Ryanair why he doesn’t go in and run the country, he replies that he would make a lousy politician. I’m not quite sure if he would, but as a general proposition, he is right.
You need a certain type of temperament and outlook to become a successful politician. You need to think and act socially, be generally good with people having a good sense of what they are thinking, and have an outgoing personality.
You also need to believe in something – unfortunately too many politicians believe only in gaining power and holding onto it. There are as many exceptions to that general rule. Generally, the children of politicians grew up campaigning for their parents, answering the door, attending meetings, and being steeped in the tradition. They can slot into playing that role more easily and more comfortably than others.
Look at Enda Kenny, Michael Kitt and Máire Geoghegan Quinn. All became TDs in their early twenties in the 1970s in byelections, after the deaths of their TD fathers. At that age, all were completely unproven. They were all teachers and primarily what got them selected first, and elected second, was the power of the name plus a sympathy factor.
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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