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Labour is primarily an urban party and must make inroads in rural constituencies if it wants to succeed, writes ELAINE BYRNE

EAMON GILMORE is good at oratory. His “One Ireland” rhetoric at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Galway paid tribute to the hope of an Ireland defined by “employers and employees. Farmers and business people. Private sector and public sector”. It rhymed well with Barack Obama’s signature line – “There is no red state America; there is no blue state of America; there is the United States of America.”