Burgeoning gang of backroom boys who fuel Enda’s passion to win two in a row
FRANK FLANNERY was once Fine Gael’s supreme back room strategist, revered by the party membership and media. In the thick of the 2009 local and European elections, the FG Svengali cornered me in the corridor of Leinster House. I was surprised; up to then, communication between myself and Frank usually extended to nothing more than a polite hello.
He said Fine Gael, the party of law and order, would consider entering coalition with Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Provisional IRA.
I knew this revelation would electrify what was up until now a pretty dull election. Fianna Fáil was assured of a beating in the local and European elections. Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe looked likely to fall short in a by-election in Dublin Central.
Frank was trying to be too clever and secure Sinn Féin transfers in the working class stronghold. But it backfired. We ran a front page story, quoting Frank saying; ‘In the past, Fine Gael has been doctrinaire in its opposition to Sinn Féin but I wouldn’t say that is the case now. We are willing to work with any party that has the aim that we have – to get the current government out of office.’
Enda Kenny and the grassroots were incandescent at the gaffe. Frank’s reputation was never to fully recover. He’d broken the first rule – the backroom man must never outshine the leader.
AS we enter what will be a defining election for Fine Gael, Flannery’s successors will not forget it. Since Frank’s fall many of Kenny’s inner circle of political supporters have been jettisoned. Phil Hogan, James Reilly and Alan Shatter have been demoted or moved.
So Kenny councils of war will be packed with unelected advisers. Most of these men helped him become Taoiseach in 2011 and have guided him since.
Mark Mortell is the guru in chief. Dark prince he may be, but Enda didn’t pluck him from the shadows. He has known him a while. As tourism minister in the early Nineties Kenny appointed him chairman of Bord Fáilte. Mortell is a former Fine Gael councillor but he has understood he must put aside partisanship to learn. My Fianna Fáil sources tell me he accompanied Bertie Ahern to Washington more than a decade ago to watch the then master at work.
He is now a director of FleishmanHillard PR agency. Speaking to him at the Fine Gael parliamentary party in Limerick last year, I was struck that physically, he bears a slight resemblance to movie director Roman Polanski. He said his principle ‘day job’ is now managing the communications strategy of Dutch multinational Phillips. If there’s a man who fills Flannery’s multi-faceted role it is he.
There are a number of competing power structures in Kenny’s court. The cabal at the Department of the Taoiseach is led by Kerryman Mark Kennelly. He is the archetypal backroom man; quiet, softly spoken but a survivor. He has been an adviser to a former pretender to the leadership, Michael Lowry. And he has been chief handler to three Fine Gael leaders, John Bruton, Michael Noonan and Kenny.
He is respected and envied because, as one minister told me, ‘he can get Kenny to change his mind’. Andrew McDowell, a relation of former PD Justice Minister Michael McDowell, is Kenny’s economic adviser. But his role has morphed into that of one who advises the Taoiseach on all political
matters.
In the power struggle around the Taoiseach others have assumed positions of strength since he came to office. Permanent civil servant Martin Fraser, from Malahide in Co. Dublin, became Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach in the summer of 2011. He emerged during the Justice crises of 2014 as a key player.
Government Press Secretary Feargal Purcell manages a large team. The former Army press officer too has grown in estimation since 2011.
The lavishly funded Fine Gael press office also has influence.
It is headed by former IBEC executive Majella Fitzpatrick, who is helped by Stephen O’Shea, a former adviser to Lucinda Creighton.
Tom Curran, over at Fine Gael headquarters, has seen his influence diminish after the High Court case taken by former junior minister John Perry.
Kenny, as a West of Ireland man, will turn to family first. His closest confidante, wife Fionnuala, has also had the opportunity to learn from non-Blueshirt greats. She was working for PJ Mara at the Fianna Fáil press office when she met Enda.
PJ told me last year, before he developed the illness that led to his death on Friday morning, that he hardly recognised the modern advisory structure.
It had exploded in terms of resources and staff since he ran the press office and the Government Information Service. PJ was also the key adviser to Bertie Ahern during his three-in-a row run of general election victories.
Election 2016 will be the test of the new method. It will show whether a huge industrial-sized advisory structure will give Fine Gael its first ever two-in-a-row election.