I am wondering is it vital for irelands political future that this organisation is utterly rejected by the electorate and consigned to the dust. It would create a proper left right political divide in the country between labour and fine gael instead of this artificial situation we currently have.
secondly it seems to me that this type of behaviour requires that the electorate make a decision regarding what is acceptable and what is not.
there are lots of young men and women in fianna fail at the moment who appear to me to be decent enough such as michale mcgrath colleary and averil power for example but despite that they are lead by a man who was in the thick of the way the country was run in michael martin and the most senior td they have (mighty mouse) is an archetypal sleveen politician. remember o dea was one of the ring leaders in attempting to ridicule the tribunals work and thought nothing of telling lies in order to slander a sinn fein candidate and then tried to destroy a young journalists career through further lies up to and including being willing to fill out false claims on a sworn document despite him being part of the legal system.
clearly fine gael have questions to answer and maybe they should go as well but the level of corruption endemic in fianna fail was astronomical in comparison to all others as a result of the amount of power they wielded. Plus they also steadfastly backed their men to the hilt regardless of what was in the public domain whereas fine gael seem to have been willing to dump party members who were caught with their hand in the till.
their one and only hope is the hoisting of the gallows and a public cleanout, that seems to be where the party mood is trending now…otherwise Flynn and Aherne wouldnt have fled so quickly/tamely. Aherne handing back the keys to the constituency office also significant.
If anything remotely incendiary comes out we Marting they are sunk.
Young Dev could be a big player here too i feel…will he start another party?
On the flipside by the time another General Election comes around FG and Labour will be after riding us bareback for 4 years. Any clown in charge of FF should be able to makes gains in that climate.
the evidence points in that direction as she did at some point arrive to a chruch with fionan sheahan and his hair at the top of the aisle (assuming this is her marital status)
but she seems to me to be a decent enough skin at the same time
I don’t like Averil, she asked some of her voters to vote Labour or FG when it came apparent that she couldn’t win a seat in her consituency lasr February. All because the last seat was in danger of going to SF according to Mrs Sheehan.
Sounds to me like she hasn’t a thuoght in her head she hasn’t borrowed from Mr lowrys former advisor.
No she doesn’t. Her voice is grating, she looks like a crack whore who has been given a makeover, she comes across as self-serving and bittter and as Rocko pointed out, she’s very dim.
Far from a FF supporter but it isn’t too long ago so everyone should also remember how bad the likes of FG and Labour were in opposition. If FF had lost the 2007? election, they would probably have an overall majority now.
Though the Cowen administration was certainly the worst in the history of the State.
At the end of the day every political party has one aim, to get into power. Many here would like to think that SF would be different but the reality is they wouldn’t. Gerry Adams in the Dail is a real retrograde step for them. Imagine that power hungry zealot in government.
Michael Martin is guilty by association with the government of the Ponzi scheme economy, he was a part of it no doubt. But the opposition of the day, media and large portions of society were guilty also. Remember Bertie Ahern presenting the Premiership!!
Martin was also the instigator of the Smoking Ban. One of the most socially progressive pieces of legislation ever introduced in Ireland and
roundly copied around Europe afterwards. If I recall correctly he was also a very good Minister
for Education. FF will be out for a while but they might attract some proper people now into the party. Focusing on policies and not outright opposition to everything. Their days of big numbers of seats are over but there are a number of seats up for grabs at the next election. I can see them doing pretty well at the next election by putting in proper candidates against some of the idiots Mick Wallace etc and some of the core vote returning like it did for Sean Gallagher. The next Govt could well be a FG/FF one to keep SF out.
All that I know about FF is that when the topic about Bertie came up in a conversation that I had with my auld boy, he called him a wanker and a cunt! The family back home would be roaring FF and if you hear that from the likes of him then the longterm game is up for FF. Their demographic must be strong in the over 60’s and lets face it, in 20 years time most of them will be gone.
If there was a party with Michael McGrath leading it I’d be interested. Not FF though; I’m done voting for them bad bastards. Right now I’d rate the parties as follows:
FG, Lab, ULA*, SP,…FF, …SF**
*Not a party but doing good work in the Dáil
** Just can’t see myself voting for them, pack of crooks.
So FF did some good things but brought the country down, but its FG & Lab’s fault cos they didn’t win the 2007 election? And you don’t like Gerry Adams.
A load of people vote on who they think is the best candidate though. You put Sean Gallaghers up against Mick Wallace or FG/Lab backbenchers would done the square root of fuck all in Govt and they will get votes.
Martin needs to keep the likes of O’Dea away from the media spotlight. A few more public dismissals of people from the party and I’d be fairly sure their vote will increase.
I would be amazed i they didn’t return in force much sooner than is generally expected at the moment. An extremely strong organisation at grassroots level, and much of the country still wants to vote for them, even if they can’t at the moment.
Perhaps their greatest strength is their complete absence of political principal, which enables them to be pretty much whatever they need to be at a given point in time. This flexibility makes them very attractive to people who ‘want things done’, and will inevitably see them appear as the party of common sense on a major issue at some stage, the party in touch with the ordinary people unlike the doctrinaire and stubborn government parties.
Ah fuck it , Mac has crushed me again. That masterbaterdebater style of his is just too much. Yatesy trained you well in the Enniscorthy lit and deb club.