OF Eamon de Valera's three major legacies - the Irish Press, the Constitution and the Fianna Fail Party - the most enduring will be Fianna Fail. The Press is gone, and on that gladsome day when Ireland is united, the Constitution will have to be completely rewritten.
But as the Unionists look around for a new home, when they eventually emerge, blinking and bewildered, from Plato's Cave, there to welcome both them and the Nationalists will be the ever loving arms of Fianna Fail. Unionists particularly will have no difficulty in learning from the FF-ers the intricacies of planning applications, export credit insurance and relationships between supermarket barons and politicians.
For behind the rhetoric, Fianna Fail was founded and maintained on principles that de Valera understood best, those governing the getting and maintaining of power, the disbursement of patronage, the meting out of revenge. But as this book is about "Taking the Long View", not "Taking on the Long Fellow one should not expect it to provide a development of such themes, nor a critical assessment of the party or its prominent personages. Though sanitised and emollient in its approach, it is a useful, well edited volume, the contributors to which are serious people.
Frank Dunlop writes an affectionate but revealing portrait of Jack Lynch and the party of his day, which illustrates the arrogance which Dublin can encounter in its dealing with London. Margaret Thatcher's treatment of Jack Lynch at their meeting in London on the afternoon of Mountbatten's funeral is instructive, as is Ted Heath's earlier behaviour towards the Irish Prime Minister in Munich.
Martin Mansergh is respectful of Charlie Haughey's achievements, but to me the most interesting piece in the compilation is Mansergh's description of Albert Reynolds and his part in creating the peace process. He makes clear how much Reynolds contributed to bringing about the outburst of peace and how much the British did to fritter away the gains. It was a tragedy for Home Rule that Parnell fell from power over Kitty O'Shea, but at least she was a good looking woman. To think of Albert falling over a paedophile priest.
There are also some Dutiful Inclusions for the Women: contributions from a Finnish scholar, Ms Sari Oikainen, Margaret MacCurtain and Yvonne Galligan. On women's issues, as in economics and Northern Ireland, Fianna Fail has shown itself to be conservative but flexible, to hold the family values vote, yet embrace contraception (if that is the appropriate term).
For Fianna Fail is like a great political tree whose roots are so deeply embedded that it can safely bend and grow, no matter what direction the wind blows from. This point is well developed by Joe Lee in his essay on the party's marrying of social and economic policy.
Where family trees are concerned, Sile de Valera contributes "Treasured Sundays at the Aras". The contribution of Eamon O Cuiv, Sile de Valera's first cousin, illustrates how de Valera and Fianna Fail were once viewed in Connemara. Fianna Fail had "transformed the lives and status of ordinary people there was also the whole question of the lifting up of a people who had been so long used to being subjugated and giving them a say in the running of their own country". This of course overlooks the small matter that the people had been running their own affairs for over ten years before Fianna Fail took office.
However, O Cuiv has demonstrated an impressive track record himself in Connemara. And he has done good work for prisoners. He is also shrewd enough to realise, as did his grandfather, the importance of giving ear to ordinary people.
A matter of great concern to a lot of Fianna Fail members in recent times has been the drift away from the basing of policy on what public representatives hear on the ground. More and more the organisation feels that representative bodies, interest groups and experts of all types should have a bigger say in policy than the ordinary Cumann member.
Down the road I can foresee a time when Eamon O Cuiv may be expected to have "a bigger say" both in Fianna Fail and on the national stage.