Sinn Fein first out of the blocks as party think-ins signal start of political season

Political World with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

At around this time each year all the political parties hold strategy meetings involving their TDs, senators and handlers. There are a few purposes to the meetings – all of them simple enough. It’s a chance for the parliamentary party to regroup after the Summer recess. The meetings allow them to identify priorities and strategies for the coming Oireachtas term.

And it also gives them a glorious opportunity to get largely uncritical media coverage, with the press office doling out a couple of ‘eye-opening initiatives’ and announcements for the top of the news bulletins and for next day’s paper.

The other thing that’s noteworthy about them is that most are held ‘away’ from the capital. The media, of course, have dubbed them think-ins. Or ‘drink-ins’ when chatting among themselves!

The two most memorable were – no surprise here – both associated with Fianna Fáil. The first was its meeting down in West Cork in 2004 when Bertie Ahern invited Fr Sean Healy (of Social Justice Ireland, then CORI) to address the troops.

Out of that after years of unbridled Charlie McCreevy individualism and capitalism, Ahern announced the Inchydoney Strategy, a U-turn for Fianna Fáil which was now embracing a more caring and sharing strategy. Of course, that didn’t happen and the new Minister Brian Cowen ‘kept her lit’ just like before, with terrible consequences.

The second featured Cowen himself in September 2010. The Fianna Fáil think-in that year was held in the Ardilaun Hotel on Taylor’s Hill in Galway City. Cowen and a bunch of his Dáil lobby buddies had stayed up very late one night – along with a fair smattering of journalists it must be said. The then-Taoiseach regaled the assembled crowd with a few good mimicked sketches and some rousing songs.

Problem was that he was on Morning Ireland the next morning sounding (and making as much sense) as a rusty door. When Simon Coveney tweeted that Cowen sounded hungover, it unleashed a media feeding frenzy that did immense damage to Cowen and his status as taoiseach. He may have felt hard done by, it but it was self-inflicted.

Anyway, it’s the season for them now and Sinn Féin was the first to kick off on Friday in Carlingford, Co Louth. The meeting had the ‘broaden your mind’ agenda that you find at such occasions. In this instance, they had invited two independent unionists to address the meeting and give their perspective on events in the North.

The media were allowed in for Gerry Adams’s opening address and he did a long doorstep interview beforehand. The two themes for public discussion were the two most topical – Sinn Féin’s approach to the October budget as well as the upcoming Seanad referendum, in which the party is advocating a ‘Yes’ vote.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.