New Taoiseach time again, how will he do?
LAST week saw Enda Kenny’s final day as Taoiseach in the Dáil. Having achieved what no previous Fine Gael Taoiseach had, being elected Taoiseach for a second consecutive term; he has earned a place in history.
I remember the first time I met Enda Kenny. It was in the upstairs room of a community centre in Offaly and he was accompanied by then TD hopeful Olwyn Enright who was campaigning to succeed her father Tom. He struck me as a quiet gentle Mayo man. My own father being a quiet gentle Mayo man, I liked the then Deputy Kenny and thought he was a nice person.
Fast forward to 2011 and Enda Kenny breezed into Tullamore like the king of the world. The Fianna Fáil Government had fallen into huge disfavour with the country owing to the banks and burst property bubble and it was clear that Fine Gael would clean up in the forthcoming General Election.
Gone was that shy retiring man and in his place was a confident secure man. He lapped up the attention in Brian Cowen’s home town and it was clear it was only a PR exercise given the speed of his walk about.
Enda Kenny was the third Taoiseach I would meet. My encounter with Bertie Ahern was a well- polished one. It didn’t matter what question I asked him, he said what he wanted to say, whether the answer was relevant to my question or not.
The meeting was a brief one and the fact he had eaten something highly flavoured with garlic for lunch made me glad of this.
I lived in Tullamore while Brian Cowen was elevated to Taoiseach and was in the Dáil the day he became Taoiseach.
Unfortunately myself and my co- workers enjoyed the benefits of the Dáil bar a little too much and found we missed our entrance slot and were unable to enter the Dáil chamber and had to watch proceedings from a small room to the side. Despite his widespread condemnation, Brian Cowen always found a welcome in Offaly. I never heard a bad word said against him either from within his own party or the opposition in his home county. His legacy to the people of Offaly was the Midlands Regional Hospital at Tullamore. A modern well equipped facility, little did I realise it would be here that my own mother’s cancer would be diagnosed and treated.
So now it is time for Enda to take it handy in his beloved Mayo. And what can you say about his reign?
Politics aside, I think he represented the country well. There were no Trump like clangers and not too much of the ‘ arragh begorrah’ about him.
I’m hopeful that Leo Varadkar will also represent us well. But as with all Taoiseachs, I think it will be a case of seeing is believing.