The rocky road to being a ‘Mayo Taoiseach’

The rocky road to being a ‘Mayo Taoiseach’


Profile
Aine Ryan

THE EARLY death of his father propelled 24 year-old primary school teacher, Enda Kenny, into political life in 1975.  An All-Ireland GAA winner in 1936, Henry Kenny had been a TD for 21 years and a Parliamentary secretary at the time of his  untimely death.
Before fighting the November 1975 by-election, Enda’s main political experience had been gained while helping his father at constituency clinics. Kenny was elected on the first count with 52 per cent of the vote and became the youngest member of the 20th DΡil Éireann.
It was the beginning of a long career that now – aged almost 60 – sees him as Father of the DΡil and Taoiseach-in-waiting at a most critical time in this country’s economic and social history.
In1986, Kenny was appointed a Minister for State at the Departments of Education and Labour.  After Fine Gael lost the 1987 General Election, he was appointed to a number of shadow positions, including spokesman on Education, Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Island as well as Fine Gael Chief Whip for a period.
In 1994, under Taoiseach John Bruton, he joined the Cabinet as Minister for Tourism and Trade, in the Rainbow Coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left. 
At this stage he had married his longtime girlfriend, Fionnuala O’Kelly, whom had met soon after she was appointed as Press Officer for the Charlie Haughey-led Fianna FΡil government.
Back on the Opposition benches, Kenny was among a number of candidates who stood in the leadership election when John Bruton resigned after a vote of no confidence in 2001. However, it was to be his now right-hand finance guru, Michael Noonan, who emerged victorious.
The following year, however, Fine Gael suffered its worst electoral performance ever and lost 23 seats. Michael Noonan resigned on the same night and despite the fact that Kenny almost lost his Mayo seat, he was triumphant on this occasion in the battle for leadership.
Over the next five years he would ‘electrify – from the grassroots up — a demoralised party that now only held a dismal 31 seats. And when the votes were counted in the General Election of May 24, 2007, Kenny proved his organizational and invigorative mettle, when the party increased its seats by 20, to return a total of 51 seats.
Dogged, however, by tepid opinion polls and a hostile Dublin media, Kenny’s leadership was challenged by a number of leading frontbenchers in mid-June 2010. The Mayo TD’s deft handling of the ‘cappuccino cabal’ by sacking his Finance spokesman, Richard Bruton and tabling a vote of confidence in himself, took both his challengers and his media detractors by surprise.