Political World
It’s not his sexuality that may hamper Varadkar
World of Politics with Harry McGee
The most mercurial and brilliant don’t always rise to the top of the tree. Back in the 1970s, the journalist Nell McCafferty wrote a column for The Irish Times about the cases that came up in Dublin District Court. In September 1975 she reported about a peculiar case in Court 4.
The Court was cleared of the public and two men were brought before the judge. Both faced charges of engaging in a homosexual act in the cubicle of a public toilet. One of the men was married, the other single. The married man’s wife was in court with him. Both pleaded guilty.
A lot of the discussion in the case surrounded the notion that this was an aberration, and that drink and other circumstances had overtaken both men. The judge was reassured that both could be ‘cured’. Throughout the case, what had happened was described as disgusting and abnormal behaviour. Both were fined and warned about the consequences of a reoccurrence.
That is less than 40 years ago and is a reminder that homosexuality was a criminal offence then, (theoretically at least) punishable by a prison sentence. Eight years later, in 1983, a young man walking through Ringsend Park in Dublin died after being set upon by a gang of youths in an act of so-called ‘queerbashing’.
Not only did the young men not get custodial sentences when the case came up in court, they were also feted when they returned home to their neighbourhood. A protest organised by those campaigning against the unforgivable leniency of the sentences was also attacked by locals in the area.
It was Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who as Minister for Justice finally decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 – perhaps the act in a Ministerial role for which she will be most remembered.
Society has moved on hugely since then. The stigmatisation of gay people has gradually subsided and that has emboldened more people to declare their sexual orientation in public: though I’m sure it’s a big step and some just don’t have the confidence to do it. Most people are related to, or know, people who are gay. It’s that personal close-up experience of knowing what kind of human beings they are that has made the difference.
Leo Varadkar is not the first Irish politician to state publicly that he is gay. David Norris has been open about his sexuality throughout his adult life. In the current Dáil there are three other openly gay TDs – Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons of Labour as well as Jerry Buttimer of Fine Gael. If you go across the water to England there have been gay members of Cabinet for a generation (Labour’s Chris Smith springs to mind) and the leader of the Scottish Tories, Ruth Davidson, is also gay.
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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