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.