Hard to find Fianna Fáilers with a good word for Brian Cowen's leadership as the unthinkable happened, writes MIRIAM LORD
THERE’S GOING to be war in Fianna Fáil.
The Soldiers of Destiny are on their knees in unknown territory. They have tasted defeat on an unprecedented scale.
This is not supposed to happen.
There will be war.
And the Greens, well, they’re a beaten dock leaf. The best they can do is hang in with Fianna Fáil and hope to survive.
So there’ll be murder with them too – if they have any blood left to shed after this weekend. The party was eviscerated by the electorate.
Their senior people, those who have been able to speak, are unable to conceal their shock.
While the Greens preached the gospel of sustainability, they neglected to apply it to themselves.
For Fianna Fáil, these elections have been a story of urban devastation, punctuated by pockets of rural collapse.
The unthinkable has come to pass, but the party that used to be the biggest, most powerful, most influential political machine in the country now lags massively behind Fine Gael in terms of popular support.
It is dying in the capital. Its vote has plummeted nationally.
In contrast, the fortunes of Fine Gael have risen. Those few Fianna Fáilers around the RDS count centre found the rejoicing Blueshirts hard to stomach.
George Lee’s landslide victory in Dublin South was difficult enough for them to bear. But the triumphant progress of Enda Kenny through the hall, cheering supporters leading the way, was the final insult.
Compounding the misery was the long-drawn out end of the Ahern dynasty. Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern pressed his brother Maurice’s claim to contest the late Tony Gregory’s seat for the party.
What followed was double humiliation.
Not even Bertie’s much vaunted vote-catching ability could save De Udder Brudder from disaster. He trailed home in fifth place, behind the independent Gregory candidate, Maureen O’Sullivan.
Then, having endured a lengthy recount yesterday with young FF newcomer Seaghan Kearney, Maurice finally conceded that he had no chance of retaining his council seat.
There are so many Lazurus-like resurrections a man can survive.
The battle to save Maurice, which saw the dreaded arrival of legal gentlemen into the fray, went down at one stage to two disputed votes. One ballot that underwent scrutiny had a clear number one opposite Ahern’s name, but a pair of devil horns drawn on his head. What will happen now to St Luke’s, nerve centre of the Ahern operation? Will it now slide into the Tolka and sink beneath the waves?
Saturday belonged to George Lee and Maureen O’Sullivan. But the Labour party also had cause to celebrate, increasing its share of local government seats by 50 per cent. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore arrived in the RDS and greeted Senator Alex White, who came in second to George. They raised their hands in the air. “The first decided result of the next Dáil,” said Gilmore.
The bad news for the Government kept coming. Scant tallies from the European elections didn’t hold out promise of easy victory for many Fianna Fáil frontrunners.
Independent deputy Joe Higgins arrived at the count centre with his 92-year-old mother Ellen. Joe looked poised to oust sitting FF MEP, Eoin Ryan, although forecasters kept revising their predictions.
Enda Kenny turned up for a second day, to do another lap of honour. Fine Gael lost the run of itself over the weekend, carried away by its performance in Dublin and around the country. Enda has shipped a lot of criticism for his performances as party leader, but his record is very impressive.
In contrast, it was hard to find a member of Fianna Fáil with a good word for Brian Cowen’s leadership. He didn’t travel to the RDS, preferring to remain on home turf in the midlands.
Government chief whip Pat Carey deserved a bravery medal for being the most visible Cabinet member during Fianna Fáil’s darkest hour.
Emma Sharma-Hayes, a member of the Save Tara Campaign, was delighted with the results, and the devastation of the Green and Fianna Fáil vote.
“It’s the curse of Tara. They’ve gone past The Mound of The Sages on Rath Lugh.” I knew this would happen, she said.
With the voting finished, Minister for Europe Dick Roche appeared in public again, wearing an alarming-looking chocolate brown suit in retaliation.
He came to offer support to a disconsolate-looking Eoin Ryan, who feared he would lose out to Joe. Sinn Féin’s MEP Mary Lou McDonald was similarly glum.
The Government will start spinning for real in the coming week. But yesterday and on Saturday, politicians resided in that rare moment of clarity as the results flooded in.
In the hours after a count, it’s like a near-death situation for them. It’s as if they rise from their political remains and hover above them, surveying the scene. It is then that they go on radio and television panels and tell the truth. They admit how bad things are, faced by the unadorned figures. It must be curiously liberating for them.
Then the call of political life proves irresistible and normal service is resumed.
“The people have spoken and must be respected” line kicks in, as they begin the task of explaining away the reason for the mid-term rebuke.
But there is something more than temporary pique in these results. The Government knows it.
The coming months will be fascinating. In the meantime, George Lee and Maureen O’Sullivan enter the Dáil as new deputies today.
Maureen had some exam papers to correct before settling into her new role. She also attended the Dublin match in Croke Park yesterday – her grandfather played on the Dublin team on Bloody Sunday in 1920. Maurice Ahern had to stay at the count, a forlorn figure in his Dublin jersey.
Deputy O’Sullivan celebrated with friends on Saturday night in the Seabank Pub in East Wall, and then in Molloy’s of Talbot Street, where the management laid on champagne to toast the memory of Tony Gregory.
George Lee and the jubilant Fine Gaelers took themselves off to McGrattan’s in the Lane, where the new deputy Lee is understood to have stopped talking long enough to allow himself a few celebratory libations.
Enda Kenny announced that his party is tabling a vote of no confidence in the Government this week.
That’ll be a nice gentle start for the two new TDs.
And then they’ll quietly go to war in Fianna Fáil.
