John Downing:

Vestiges of ‘old FF’ emerge days after return to power

LITTLE more than a week “back in town” but already up to its oxters in the wars, it’s tempting to say “meet new Fianna Fáil – it’s more than a bit like old Fianna Fáil”. Today, Barry Cowen will once again publicly apologise, this time in the Dáil, following one of the most unequivocal and sincere public apologies delivered on RTÉ on Sunday.

By teatime that evening, FF’s new MEP, Billy Kelleher, was also in the public mea culpa department after an ill-considered foray from the European Parliament to Dáil Éireann to mark his party’s return to government after almost a decade.

This writer has no intention of minimising the duo’s misdeeds. Driving offences can potentially cost lives, and over-exuberance around public events, in what is still the coronavirus crisis, can risk the same outcome.

Fianna Fáil people had joined in the criticism of Sinn Féin over the displays at the funeral of IRA man Bobby Storey in Belfast last week.

Again yesterday, the new Taoiseach was issuing explicit warnings about rather dangerous behaviour around alcohol over this past weekend. Sauce for the goose must also mean sauce for the gander.

In the past, for all their foibles and misdeeds, and sometimes because of them, many Irish people literally loved Fianna Fáil. It was probably in part because many of us like our heroes to come with flaws; we like to feel they represent us.

But the sudden fall of Fianna Fáil in the February 2011 General Election had been coming for over a decade. By the late 1990s, key Fianna Fáil figures – Charlie Haughey, Ray Burke and Pádraig Flynn to name but a few – were a major focus of controversy, along with many others.

The Irish public chose to let things roll and Fianna Fáil went on to head three coalition governments – 1997-2002, 2002-2007 and 2007-2011.

The voters chose to ignore the ropier side of Fianna Fáil mainly because by then there were jobs and prosperity, industrial peace and a new but fragile peace in the North.

It must be acknowledged that Fianna Fáil played a part in delivering those positive aspects of Irish life. We must acknowledge that, while Fianna Fáil had delivered prosperity based on a false economic boom, none of the other parties said anything different in that “boom and boomier decade”.

Many aspects of Irish politics have profoundly changed since that cathartic election on February 25, 2011, when the party found itself on the verge of extinction.

One of those is that Fianna Fáil’s 2011 vote of 17pc was only fractionally up last February 8, when it got just 22pc. In the last generation, the party’s vote has halved.

In the past, Fianna Fáil showed a great ability to “circle the wagons” and battle its way out of trouble. In October 1997, weeks after taking office, Bertie Ahern lost his key lieutenant, Ray Burke, to forced resignation, but still went on to win three in a row.

Micheál Martin will hope to repeat at least a bit of that. But to move on from current woes he must banish those tricky vestiges of “old Fianna Fáil” still haunting its first week back in town.