If Fianna Fáil baulk at a few F-words then we’re all effed

TAOISEACH Micheál Martin is guilty of wilful political negligence by allowing a situation to develop where Marc MacSharry resigned entirely from the party. No leader in his right mind would allow a man overboard at a time when a Sinn Féin tsunami of popularity is fast approaching, requiring all hands on deck.

Martin’s woeful handling of the internal party complaint that has, rather conveniently, rid him of his turbulent TD from Sligo-Leitrim is one of two major issues to emerge from MacSharry’s stroppy quitting of Fianna Fáil after over 40 years of close family connections with the party.

The other issue is – WTF? How does MacSharry’s use of a few ‘fs and blinds’ in the context of local intra-party rivalry constitute grounds for a complaint in the first place?

On the first issue, it’s been perfectly clear since the 2020 general election that Sinn Féin’s apparently inexorable rise to power threatens the national interest across the board, on economic, social and moral bases.

WITH just under 25% of the vote in 2020, Mary Lou McDonald won 37 seats and if the latest Irish Times/Ipsos poll plays out, placing Sinn Féin at 35%, then McDonald will be returned with at least 50 seats next time, a rub of the green could push that tally closer to 60.

All Sinn Féin needs then are a few useful idiots, with no regard for conviction politics, to put McDonald in the Taoiseach’s chair.

Then, like Liz Truss last month in the UK, we’ll witness just how much that’ll spook the financial setup and cause immediate pain and hardship in the real world to regular people overwhelmed by higher interest rates and inability to source or fund mortgages.

More particularly in Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny gathered 25% of the entire vote in 2020. Next time, with a running mate, two seats are in Sinn Féin’s crosshairs and achievable.

On the other hand, MacSharry secured less than half Kenny’s vote in 2020, at under 12%, and as a likely independent next time out, he’s split the Fianna Fáil vote down the middle ruining any prospect the party may harbour for a seat.

Well done Micheál, take a bow with the rest of the party leadership.

The second issue is the substance of the complaint against MacSharry, which on fair examination is utterly gobsmacking for its nothingness. In a text message on a Fianna Fáil WhatsApp group, he rounded on a local party councillor accusing him of ‘trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’.

This, apparently, followed remarks made by the councillor about Sligo hospital services on local radio.

BUT MacSharry’s crime was much worse than that. He also texted: ‘Ye fairly tried to f*** me there.’ And then, (this is where you bless yourself), MacSharry wrote: ‘It would sicken yer hole’. That appears to be it, the height of MacSharry’s offence against the new PC religion, his disregard for the new order of politeness.

That’s the kind of stuff that led to the complaint against MacSharry, the delay in his readmission to the party and his eventual decision to quit.

That’s the kind of ’outrage’ that increased the chance of Fianna Fáil enduring a greater hammering at the next election than would otherwise be the case.

Petal politics that’ll facilitate Sinn Féin’s accession to power – and we all know the kind of petal politics they’ve supported in the past.

Fianna Fáil must have lost their minds.