SKETCH:As the last chords of the party's swansong rang out in Mullingar at the weekend, its members refound for an instant their youthful vigour, writes Harry McGee
WHAT MADE it strange was that nobody knew until the final moment if it was a funeral or a resurrection they were witnessing in Mullingar on Saturday.
In the end, only 40 votes separated those who believed in a dignified end for the PDs after 23 years and those who believed that, Lazarus-like, its fortunes could be miraculously revived.
As it turned out, reality prevailed. And delegates who swarmed out of the hallway of the Mullingar Park Hotel just after 4.30pm did speak of sadness and of a wake-like atmosphere. Those in the majority spoke of the futility of continuing the project.
If it was a wake, it was an Irish wake - evoking as much passion and argument as mourning. Ironically, after 18 months of aimless drifting and an utterly pointless leadership contest, the death scene of the PDs was played out with the kind of vigour and conviction that reminded you of its earlier days. The will of the leadership - that the party had no viable future - was confirmed but not before an intense internal debate and a too-close-for-comfort vote.
Those two senses - loss and passion - were encapsulated by Mary Harney, who personified the PDs in the second half of its existence in the same way Des O'Malley had in its early years.
The meeting was closed but most of the details filtered out. Former senator Tom Morrissey's outspoken criticism of the organisation; party leader Ciaran Cannon's rationality in saying they had to call it a day; and the call-to-arms by young Meath PD Serena Campbell who insisted the party did have a future.
But the one speech that everybody referred to was the one given by Harney. She spoke without notes for half an hour and was given a standing ovation. Her performance was, by all account, a tour de force.
"Mary Harney was head and shoulders over everybody else in what she said," said Aodhán Mac Donncha from Galway West. "She spoke with great passion."
Fergus Kennedy from Longford said that she "yet again had proved her quality as a leader and as a politician. There was tremendous sincerity and tremendous passion in what she said. I suppose it underscored what the PDs stood for."
Harney began by saying it was the saddest political day for her because 23 years before to the day, she was in Des O'Malley's house planning the formation of a new party.
She likened the excitement back then in 1985 to the excitement now in the United States. And with it the clear inference that the hope and energy had gone from the PDs.
"When we were formed, Des O'Malley was a year younger than Obama is today. Bobby Molloy had six successive elections behind him. Pearse Wyse had five and I had three.
"In order for the party to continue, you need people of that calibre that have a political track record. I don't see that in the party today."
Former general secretary John Higgins, speaking after the vote, said that what had ultimately clinched the argument is that those who argued for continuity could not point to a leadership figure.
"Where is the strong leadership coming from? That was not apparent in the hall," he said.
Behind the scenes, the PDs knew that even the winding-up of the party could backfire. There was a spirited group who wanted to keep it going. And part of the exercise during the week was trying to convince people who though the party had no future to turn up. In the end, the turnout was more than respectable.
Most of the party's former TDs and senators were there, but with a couple of absentees - Liz O'Donnell and Michael McDowell, Des O'Malley and Bobby Molloy (but the latter two did not attend on health grounds). A letter from O'Malley was read out, saying the party should be wound up. But the talking point about the letter was O'Malley's omission of McDowell's name from those deserving praise.
There were mixed views from delegates. Serena Campbell said she was disappointed and "quite angry" and hinted at forming a new right-of-centre party.
"We might have a new political party in the future hopefully with similar beliefs," she said.
Others like Edward Delahunt from Laois-Offaly shared the sense of disappointment. "A huge amount of people coming out of that room still have a huge interest in the PDs and in PDism.
But Galway delegate McDonncha summed up the majority view. "The party had too much baggage and was associated with Fianna Fáil for too long and had lost its way slightly," he said.
It was a strange coda in Mullingar on Saturday. The battle was won so the war could be lost.
