Political World
Seven years on – it’s clear Cowen flattered to deceive
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
It’s Easter Week and a time of political anniversaries – although we’re not looking at the predictable one that has dominated all the headlines.
No, the lesson from this anniversary isn’t about how we interpret the past – but about how spectacularly wrong just about everybody can be when it comes to predicting the future.
Seven years ago, this week, Bertie Ahern stood down as Taoiseach and as leader of Fianna Fáil. On that morning all its TDS and Senators congregated on Leinster House for a group photograph.
Ahern was sitting beside Brian Cowen, the then-Minister for Finance. He very consciously leaned over and shook his hand in a very deliberate fashion. This was the visual cue that Cowen was the anointed one; that he had become Ahern’s successor by acclamation.
A few minutes later as the group of about 100 – how big Fianna Fail was back then! – broke up and went their separate ways, Cowen was mobbed by colleagues eager to touch his hem.
A little distance away, Ahern made his way back to the doors of Leinster House unaccompanied. He cut a solitary figure, a little forlorn. He had planned to stay on until he was 60 but the carpet had been swept from under his feet because of the disclosures about his personal finances.
At the time Cowen became the seventh leader of his party and Taoiseach – he had to wait a month until May 8 for it to become official – the Celtic Tiger still seemed a living breathing animal.
Everybody knew the boom was slowing down but Cowen had been talking since soon after the 2007 general election about the prospect of a “soft landing”. It was a meaningless phrase and, as it turned out, outrageously inaccurate.
Still, that April there was still optimism in the air. Cowen set out his plans for Fianna Fáil under his tenure, invoking the spirt of the Easter Rising. In private comments to TDs and Senators he quoted Patrick Pearse and the country he envisaged.
But it was to Sean Lemass that Cowen referred most, name-checking his predecessor three times in the course of that speech. Lemass, he said defined patriotism as love of country and pride in the history, literature and the culture; as well as the ability to add to those achievements.
“On this occasion on the appointment of a new leader,” he said, “it is incumbent on all to subscribe to that particular credo today. Let it be the inspiration for what we set out to do.”
Cowen told his colleagues that he would put all his energies into the role but, typically, refused to set out his stall. In a press conference that day he would not be drawn on any specifics in relation to his plans.
He did acknowledge that the country faced more difficult times but said his commitment to capital investment remained the same. That would mean the imposition of discipline on the current spending side.
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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