Political World
Summer break offers Galway politicians a chance to take a good look at the local
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
An observation was once made of the American novelist Carson McCullers that the best part of all her books were the titles: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe; The Heart is A Lonely Hunter; The Member of the Wedding.
It’s true that she picked great titles but once you have read her work, you know her novels were also memorable.
A little bit like Tip O’Neill’s oft-quoted aphorism that “all politics is local”.
It sounds amazing but is it really true? Well, if you want to be really accurate it might read “most politics is local” but then it might not chime as well as a phrase.
There are a minority of politicians in Leinster House who focus all their energies on their constituencies with little or no engagement with national political issues. These guys could be classified as turbo-charged county councillors as their status as TDs allow them to make more headway.
Noel Grealish, the Independent TD for Galway West, is about the best example in the current Dáil. He has close to the lowest profile of any TDs in the Dáil, rarely speaks in the Dáil, and is not a member of a standing Oireachtas committee.
Like Micheal Healy Rae and Michael Lowry, he is not a member of the technical group, made up of Independents and members of small parties. In essence, Grealish’s impact in the next election will be largely judged on his local work.
As will the rest of Galway’s TDs and senators, although they have all had higher national profiles.
And none more so than the three parliamentarians who have lost the whip of their parties. The first to go was Labour’s Colm Keaveney, who crossed the Rubicon in protest at the budgetary cuts to child benefit, social welfare and the PRSI rate.
But it was clear, given his off-message public comments for months beforehand, that a casus belli (cause of war) pre-existed and Keaveney’s defection was not a question of if rather than when.
For a good while after his departure last December, Keaveney did manage to retain his role as chair of Labour, despite the obvious conflicts it entailed.
It was a position that he might not have retained after the party’s conference in the Autumn (if that is still going ahead) but for some it was seen as giving him incredible leverage, allowing him to be the authentic voice within Labour of grassroots dissent.
But modern politics is very tightly controlled and stage-managed and does not encourage any of its internal debates happening in the public’s gaze. Within a few months, Keaveney realised the influence he would bring to bear would be minimal.
Besides, in a constituency like Galway East, which is being reduced from a four-seat, to a three-seat, area, any chances he has of re-election will be improved by being free of the Labour brand.
Two Fine Gael Oireachtas members walked the plank over the abortion legislation, two of seven from a parliamentary part comprising just over 100 members.
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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