THE OUTSIDER
John Deasy tormented Enda Kenny and paved the way for Leo Varadkar. But has his rebellious streak, his disdain for sycophancy, cost him the promotion he truly deserved?
AT LEO VARADKAR’s campaign launch in Dublin City Council’s Wood Quay headquarters, Frances Fitzgerald clung to the runaway leadership candidate with the intensity of a woman hanging on to a wall approaching a path sheathed in ice.
On that late May day, watching Leo’s procession to victory taking off, many of us there believed this would mark a new style of leadership for Fine Gael.
TDs and ministers shamelessly shoved each other aside to make sure they were strategically positioned behind Leo for the photographs in the Sunday newspapers the following day. Yet Waterford TD John Deasy, the man who had done the most to ensure Varadkar would become leader, stood to one side gazing at the scrum with wry amusement.
Those caught up in the euphoric atmosphere that day thought it possible that Deasy, the talented maverick who had dedicated his career to opposing Kenny, might replace Fitzgerald at the Department of Justice.
I shouted at John: ‘Here, get into the picture.’ I hoped our newspaper’s photographer could get a picture with him in it. He frowned and mouthed, ‘no’. It’s not his style, but I felt a pang of doubt. Never forget the effect of sycophancy in politics, I thought.
THEN, last Tuesday, when the junior ministerial jobs were announced, Varadkar’s scorning of Deasy was stunning. Fitzgerald, 66, a Kenny loyalist who has presided over repeated controversies at the Department of Justice, remained as Tánaiste and had even been promoted to Enterprise and Innovation. Deasy, 49, the TD who did most to prepare the path for Leo to become Taoiseach, was snubbed in the appointments.
Deasy had harried Kenny throughout his premiership, criticising him publicly while others snivelled and grovelled, protecting their careers. Undoubtedly there was family enmity between the Kennys and Deasys.
But it was Deasy, and only he of the senior TDs in Fine Gael, who refused to bow to Kenny; who refused to take a job from him. Those close to Deasy said he would not be bought off to participate in Kenny’s brand of politics. Without Deasy’s weakening of Kenny, Leo would not have become leader.
Varadkar has had a turbulent start to his premiership, but it’s the overlooking of Deasy that carries symbolism. When it came to tough personnel decisions, Leo backed Kenny’s officer class rather than infantrymen like Deasy who put CJ HAUGHEY used to work the ‘chicken and chips’ circuit as he built a political base before usurping Jack Lynch. FF’s Michael McGrath appears to be on a similar quest. There are many strange duties on such an odyssey. Last week, he was pictured in Ballinasloe with the statue of a horse and fellow TD, Eugene Murphy. He tweeted it. Micheál Martin spends many evenings trawling Twitter. What must he think of constituency colleague McGrath’s journeys? their career on the line for him.
John Deasy was elected to Dáil Eireann in 2002, in the general election that followed his late father Austin’s retirement. Austin Deasy and Enda Kenny were once close colleagues in the John Bruton Cabinet of 1994-1997. Kenny and Deasy cut a dash in the Dublin social scene of the mid-90s. They fell out after an argument over a pint in the Berkeley Court Hotel in the early 2000s. Kenny didn’t attend Austin Deasy’s funeral two weeks ago. Varadkar did.
When John Deasy entered the Dáil there was tension with Kenny, but he was still appointed to his frontbench, as spokesman for Justice. In 2004, Deasy was sacked over a silly incident in the Dáil Bar. The smoking ban had been introduced and he had, through a misunderstanding, smoked indoors. Deasy was given minor spokesman roles as the Noughties progressed, but it was becoming clear that he and Kenny did not like each other. He did not assume a leading role in the 2010 heave against Kenny – he believed it was amateurish and doomed to fail. Leo played a leading role yet was elevated to Transport in 2011. Deasy was talented and articulate, yet his career stagnated.
Kenny suffered his first setbacks as taoiseach in October 2011. He put his proposal to abolish the Seanad to a referendum on the same day as the vote for President. Gay Mitchell, the Fine Gael candidate, was annihilated and the government lost the Seanad referendum.
At the following week’s parliamentary party meeting Deasy didn’t hold back. He said the referendum was Kenny’s idea, and his defeat. Paschal Donohoe and Darragh Murphy fawningly defended Kenny. They were soon promoted. Varadkar and others stayed quiet.
In 2016, Kenny’s team put all the money and logistics at their disposal to back John Deasy’s running mate in Waterford, Paudie Coffey. The aim was to wipe out Deasy once and for all. Deasy won, and Coffey lost his seat (yet Kenny still appointed Coffey to the Seanad).
Deasy continued to harry Kenny, while others shied away.
THOSE backbench TDs who supported Leo Varadkar did so because he was the antithesis of Enda Kenny. Leo was young, progressive, media savvy. They believed he was a new type of politician, not wed to backroom deals and strokes. They believed that if they opposed Kenny’s leadership enough he would eventually fall, and Leo would take over. They also believed that when Kenny was ousted Leo would also oust those who had been close to Kenny. All this seemed logical.
The shock that has followed Varadkar’s Cabinet and junior ministerial appointments is not based on the usual disappointment over missed career opportunities. There is a deep sense of betrayal. For not only had Varadkar kept the Kenny Old Guard, he had ignored Deasy.
Those close to Deasy are trying to figure out why this happened. Leo’s supporters have given watery excuses. There are too many ministers in the south east. Why then are there three in Meath? One of them, Damien English, was Simon Coveney’s campaign manager. There are two ministers in Galway.
Varadkar’s inner circle have admitted that he sought to reward ministers who came out early for him in the leadership contest. Two demoted ministers claimed last week that Varadkar told them they had to go to allow loyalists in.
Frances Fitzgerald, Charlie Flanagan, Heather Humphreys, Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Richard Bruton were either public defenders of Kenny or veterans. They were kept at the Cabinet table. Forcing just one out would have put distance between Varadkar’s administration and Kenny’s.
Last October, Deasy went on Seán O’Rourke’s RTÉ radio show. In an outspoken interview, he said: ‘When a party rewards failure to the extent that Fine Gael and Enda Kenny has, it’s in serious trouble.’
Asked about the leadership battle he refused to back either Varadkar or Coveney. After the show, Leo rang Deasy to say he was right not to back either of them publicly. But Leo didn’t forget. And Deasy may now think he has continued Kenny’s policy of rewarding failure.