Political World
IMMA debacle leaves Enda with egg all over his face
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
We’ve all heard of pop-up exhibitions – but few have caused such hue and cry as the two-week wonder we have just witnessed at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA.
The furore it caused can be compared in the same breath to the first time the impressionists exhibited to the Academie; or to the first time Picasso’s Guernica was unveiled; or when Andy Warhol debuted his Campbell’s soup tin.
This exhibition wasn’t a painting, but rather an installation (as one Irish Times letter writer so accurately put it). Its inspiration is clear but the artist is unknown – however, there is a suspicion it may have been a collaboration between two eminent maestros: Enda Kenny and Heather Humphreys.
And almost as soon as it appeared in IMMA, the exhibition was closed down. But there are rumours that it may be appearing again after October 10 but this time in the fossil museum otherwise known as Seanad Éireann.
If there is one thing that all Irish political parties are particularly talented at, it’s taking a silk purse and turning it into a sow’s ear.
Here Fine Gael was last week looking in the best shape it has been in since the General Election of 2011. Michael Noonan made one of his weekly Friday apparitions in Limerick to tell his disciples that the CSO figures from the day before might result in growth of three per cent for ten years running. The figures were astounding and it was clear they were no flash in the pan.
The Government could say it had got rid of the Troika, dealt with some of the legacy debt – or at least the promissory note – and now brought the country galloping out of the recession it had been mired in for five years.
In politics, there are no stronger determinants than the economy. In other words, if the economy is performing strongly, it’s the ace up the sleeve. The Government party can throw it down on the table and say, with justification: “Now beat that!”
If you look back to 1997 and even 2002, Fianna Fáil was embroiled in its fair share of controversies over graft and political corruption but its overtures on the economy essentially out-trumped all the negatives. I suspect it will be the same way for this Government if it sells its successes.
But if it keeps tripping up with seemingly small process issues like it did this week, it could end up taking a spectacular and not so pretty fall.
At the heel of the hunt, the self-inflicted fiasco over John McNulty’s appointment to IMMA removed at a stroke much of the good news on the economy from the week before.
I used stroke deliberately there because that was what it was – and not a particularly good one at that.
I spoke to a senior Fianna Fáil person last week and said to him that it must have filled him with nostalgia. “What, not at all,” he replied with a curl of the lips. “Don’t even begin to compare that stroke with ours. That was an amateur job. When we did strokes in the past we did them properly.”
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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