Northern exposure has Martin feeling heat as another close ally turns
A FIANNA Fáil TD has become the second senior party figure to publicly challenge leader Micheál Martin’s policy on the North.
In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Michael Moynihan – a former decades-long close ally of the Taoiseach – also claimed Fianna Fáil has become dangerously detached from the public, and that too many people with ‘PhD’s’ and too few ‘plumbers’ are guiding the direction of the party.
The MoS last week revealed another former ally of Mr Martin, Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher, has pledged to lay ‘a substantive motion’ recommitting the party ‘to the objective of Irish unity and setting out the steps our party needs to take to prepare for this reality’.
In what will be seen as a criticism of Mr Martin’s cautious approach, Mr Moynihan said the party has to send out a far clearer message on core values such as the North.
The Cork North West TD told the MoS: ‘I believe Fianna Fáil stood in the past very much for a united Ireland; a Republican ethos. Bertie Ahern, Charlie Haughey, Albert
‘Our number one aim is to reunify the island’
Reynolds all embraced it right to the bringing around of the Good Friday agreement. We have to have a very clear message. Our number one political aim is to reunify the island. We have to be clear and unambiguous that this is our aim.’
However, Mr Moynihan questioned whether ‘nationalist people believe we are the party that will reunite the country.’
He added: ‘One-third of the population is looking for a political home in a nationalist Republican party that provides the best chance for unification.
‘An awful lot of us joined Fianna Fáil out of the belief that a united Ireland is not a dream to be shameful of. We have to be front and centre in negotiations to secure that.’
It is believed the Republican wing of Fianna Fáil, which includes potential future leader Jim O’Callaghan and influential backbencher Barry Cowen, agree with Mr Moynihan’s views.
The Fianna Fáil TD was also sharply critical of the increased separation between the party and its former core vote of working people and rural communities.
And he said increasing numbers of voters are asking: ‘Do Fianna Fáil understand the working man and woman on the street? Do they believe that we have policies that will make an improvement?’
He said: ‘We have to be unashamedly about the ordinary person, the fellow that got the council house in the 50s and bought it in the 80s. That’s real social mobility.’
Intriguingly, he cites Charlie Haughey as being the perfect example of Fianna Fáil’s lost connection with working-class voters, despite the former Taoiseach’s famed sumptuous lifestyle.
‘Haughey came from nothing, so he understood the fellow who had nothing. He was some man to understand the ordinary people.’
In a wounding observation for Mr Martin, who takes great pride in his working-class antecedents, Mr Moynihan said: ‘We need to understand the challenges facing people who want to get on. Instead, there appears to be a disconnect. We’ve lost the capacity to understand what the people want and need.’
He added: ‘When it comes to advice, we need more plumbers and less PhDs.’
Citing the recent critical Fleming report into Fianna Fáil’s election performance in 2020, he also warned the party will face a serious wake-up call in 2025, unless it changes.
Mr Moynihan told the MoS: ‘We are too comfortable with ourselves, looking for 20% to 25%. When it comes to the relevance of our party and our future I fear election 2020, where significant expected gains simply evaporated, could be the event that shapes politics over 20 years.’
Mr Moynihan said the party has become seriously detached from its former rural heartland.
‘There has been a sea change where young people are making the decision to come home. Ten years ago, if you mentioned living in rural Ireland you were laughed at. It was a place for people to grow flowers or for Sunday drives.
‘Remote and hybrid working has changed the game plan. The Government has to catch up with the people,’ he said.
Mr Moynihan said this is exemplified by the huge delays in rolling out the National Broadband Plan.
He said: ‘The new broadband plan is obsolete. There was a big fanfare. It cost the Government a minister. The story has moved on. People have made alternative arrangements. The best the Government can do now is concentrate on improving the security of the connection.’
Unlike his own recovery from Covid-19, Mr Moynihan predicted two things that will not recover from the pandemic are ‘the Church and the public house’.
He said this will have serious consequences, especially for rural areas. ‘Everyone needs a sense of belonging. There has to be a focus, a centre. We cannot live our lives as individuals.
‘What I noticed during my solitary confinement is that we are obsessed with Covid. It starts with a small story at 7am and by 9pm, 15 experts are giving contradictory opinions. The mental health of the nation has been very severely affected. Very active people in their 70s are suddenly old. When they write the histories, mental health will be the major issue.’
‘We are too comfortable with ourselves’