The times we lived in

A fter his party's mournful showing at the Meath East by-election, we would love to be able to give the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, something to cheer him up. Really we would. This picture, however, probably isn't it. Unless it makes him smile to see this younger self, all baby face, slim shoulders and earnest expression?

Ah, well. We were all baby-faced once upon a time. This picture is really, however, a picture of another sort of face altogether – namely, a snapshot of the ever-changing face of the Irish political left. Taken at the Workers' Party conference in the winter of 1987, it features the party leader, Tomás Mac Giolla, flanked by Mr Gilmore (a mere county councillor who has yet to be elected to the Dáil) and – on the right – the TD Proinsias De Rossa.

The document upon which they are all so intently focussed is a 44-page assessment of the shortcomings of the Irish taxation system. Determined to make tax reform a major issue in the forthcoming election campaign, the party aspired to reduce the tax bill of PAYE workers by 10 per cent (hooray) and transfer the burden to “farmers and the self-employed” (boo).

In the photo, the body language of the three men sends a clear message. We stand (or, in this case, sit) shoulder to shoulder on this issue, it says. It was a rare moment of unity in the party's somewhat mercurial history. Once known as Sinn Féin the Workers' Party, it became the WP in 1982. Ten years later – five years after this picture was taken – Proinsias De Rossa left to form Democratic Left. Which, in turn, would merge with Labour in 1999.

On this occasion, however, the trio are singing from the same hymn sheet as fervently as Pavarotti and Co ever did. And look at the headline on that document's front page. "Tax the Greedy, not the Needy", it declares. To which most of us taxpayers – not the greedy ones, obviously – would still utter a heartfelt Amen.
Arminta Wallace

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