Martin gets firm with pro-lifers

FIANNA Fáil leader Micheál Martin has adopted a far more assertive position with his prolife rebels. One source noted of the antiabortion wing of Fianna Fáil – known internally as the ‘Group of 21’: ‘Micheál is keeping his hands clean but acolytes of the leader have been calling in to some of the windier pro-lifers. ‘There have been conversations. It has been made clear that the leader believes that on this issue there is a road to preferment and a road to, well, difficulty.’

One senior party figure noted: ‘The hierarchy have not been approaching people directly, they have been calling people for chats about something else and then abortion just happens to enter the conversation just like that.

‘That promotion of Dara Calleary was not accidental; it was about keeping your friends close and your pro-life enemies closer.’

The Fianna Fáil abortion rebels are: Bobby Aylward; Declan Breathnach; Mary Butler; Jackie Cahill; Pat Casey; Shane Cassells; Jack Chambers; John Curran; Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher; Seán Haughey; Marc MacSharry; John McGuinness; Aindrias Moynihan; Margaret Murphy O’Mahony; Eugene Murphy; Kevin O’Keeffe; Frank O’Rourke; Éamon Ó Cuív; Eamon Scanlon; Brendan Smith and Niamh Smyth.