All political careers, Mr Enoch Powell once said, end in failure. And it would suit some to see the decision of Mr Dick Spring to stand down as Labour Party leader as vindicating that aphorism. But it would be a serious misjudgment both of the man and of his contribution to political life on this island.
Dick Spring is 47. It is an age by which many people have not yet hit the full stride of their career or life plan. But with almost two decades before he reaches what many consider normal retirement age, he has already achieved not just national stature but also a measurable degree of international recognition. He has led his party for 15 years. He has twice been Tanaiste over almost a decade in government. And he has secured a reputation, particularly in Europe, as one of the most experienced and shrewd practitioners of the age in the art of statecraft.
But it is not sufficient to define his success or influence in these measurable terms. He re-ordered the State's political priorities to reflect a concern for social justice, individual rights, awareness of the marginalised and equality for all. The Ireland of the late 1990s is a different society from the late 1980s in many ways. Considerable strides have been made in the quality of support services for those in need. There have been far-reaching reforms of the laws on equality of opportunity, on freedom of choice, on personal conscience. We have become, in many important ways, a more tolerant, open and egalitarian society whose laws increasingly reflect these values.
Many factors have contributed to these changes. But they might not have taken place so swiftly or so completely had not Dick Spring taken a scattered and demoralised Labour Party in 1982 and fashioned it into a formidable political force. He positioned it electorally so that it secured the balance of power in a series of elections. And he then used that power to enforce his agenda of social reform and of progressive legislation. His tactical leverage in government, in which a much smaller party consistently succeeded in stamping its will upon a larger partner, must constitute a textbook case of maximising political power in a democratic theatre.
He was not always reasonable. He was seldom modest. He unashamedly bestowed preferment and placement upon those who shared his political colours. He made enemies a-plenty. And he made mistakes, not least in breaching faith with the electorate when he agreed to enter government with the Fianna Fail party which he had reviled in the run-up to the election that brought Labour to its peak strength. With its highestever representation in Dail Eireann, the Labour Party effectively dominated its coalition with Fianna Fail. But in embracing Fianna Fail, Mr Spring had planted the seeds of Labour's drastic poll reversal in the general election of June this year. A diminution in party fortunes was considered inevitable. The collapse of the Adi Roche presidential campaign accelerated it.
Dick Spring now leaves behind a party which has fallen well back from the high-water mark of the mid 1990s. It has to address questions about its ideology and strategy and it is deeply divided on what these should be. But he is not leaving in failure or disgrace. He is standing down from a party which he has placed at the centre of the Irish political system rather than on the fringes as it had been for decades. That is his monument to the political tradition into which he was born. The Irish people of the 1990s, growing in material well-being and maturing in social terms, owe him much. It could be said that his party owes him everything.