Smooth transition offers little hint of choppier waters ahead

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Switcheroo; I don’t think it’s a word I have ever used before, but it’s a not very august word to describe a brand new phenomenon in Irish politics – as in, the switcheroo between Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar at the weekend.  A lot of chatter at the weekend was about the fusing of the two Civil War parties. Indeed, during his first speech as Taoiseach in the Dáil, Varadkar reminded people that 1923 was a particularly venal year for killings in the Civil War and said that a lot would be done to heal what he called “a century of hurt on both sides”.

Well Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coming together might be one example of that.

The former RTE – and indeed Connacht Tribune – journalist Seán O’Rourke has made an interesting documentary series (and podcast) which has been going out this week in which he has argued that if the coalescing of the two big parties has not formally happened yet, it’s a near certainty that it will happen in the future.

Indeed, Bertie Ahern’s former adviser Gerry Howlin was also on radio at the weekend saying that the parties are indistinguishable and have been since 2015, when both agreed to do a ‘Confidence and Supply’ agreement. While Fianna Fáil were nominally in opposition – and believed it was keeping its own authentic identity intact – the public perception was that they were getting to be one and the same.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee etc – or FFG, to use the favourite acronym of the green biro brigade on Twitter. That’s been cemented by the Coalition we have at the moment.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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