“Fianna Fáil supporters may find it instructive to take a close look at Japanese politics today. Just over a week ago the LDP party was trounced in the general election. The LDP is the Fianna Fáil party of Japan, almost continuously in government since 1954.”
Fr Kevin Hegarty I attended what may have been the last old style political rally in Mayo. Now spin doctors have sanitised politicians’ interaction with the public, such events rarely added much to the fount of political wisdom but they were often great fun.
The year was 1989 and the place was Belmullet. The Fianna Fáil minority government, having dealt ruthlessly with our economic debt, was riding high in the opinion polls.
In April the government was defeated in the Dáil on a health motion. Though the defeat was not a matter of confidence, the Taoiseach, Mr Charles J Haughey, encouraged, according to Albert Reynolds in his memoirs, by Pádraig Flynn and Ray Burke, decided to call a general election. He hoped to win an overall majority, a feat that so far had eluded him.
Towards the end of May, a Fianna Fáil election rally was scheduled for Belmullet. From early evening, Carter square was a hive of activity. The co-op lorry was hosed down and put in position in front of the Erris Hotel, a relic of faded grandeur, now demolished and replaced by a colourful hardware store.
Local party henchmen festooned the lorry with posters. A tape recorder was set up so that we might be ‘entertained’ by the Barleycorn singing the then Fianna Fáil anthem, ‘Rise and Follow Charlie,‘ a raucous ditty which must have cost the party the discerning music lovers’ vote.
At about 8pm the Fianna Fáil election machine swept into town. The candidates, accompanied by a number of hangers-on, ascended the makeshift platform.
First up to speak was Denis Gallagher who was retiring after 16 years in the Dáil. He thanked voters for electing him since 1973 and said it was an honour to represent West Mayo. He sounded as if he meant it. He concluded by courteously asking voters to support the new Fianna Fáil team.
He was followed by Martin O’Toole who had replaced him on the party ticket. After many years labouring in the foothills of politics at county council level, he now had the opportunity of competing for the main prize. For much of his speech, as he talked amiably of what he would do for west Mayo, if elected, he seemed like a candidate a party could let out on his own.
Then he stumbled, as he inadvertently let slip that an appreciation of feminism had not yet reached Louisburgh.
On election day he told us we would be handed three ballot papers, one for the general election, one for the European election and one for a constitutional amendment, whose import I forget, but was so innocuous that it did not attract the usual gaggle of fanatics who congregate around such proposals like flies around a dish of jam.
He hoped that the multiplicity of ballot papers would not confuse us. Women, he claimed, were prone to confusion in the election booth. He did not offer any evidence for this astounding psychological insight.
As I looked at the women near me, I say whatever ardour he had earlier ignited die in their eyes.
Last to speak was Pádraig Flynn, the Minister for the Environment. Throughout the earlier proceedings he had sat on the platform with a look of bored authority. Used to the elegant opulence of his office in the Customs House overlooking the Liffey, perhaps he found a perch in the back of a lorry in Belmullet an affront to his dignity.
He rose sourly from his seat, drew himself up to his considerable height and walked furiously towards the microphone. He looked like someone who intended to enjoy himself and he did.
He spoke with the fervour of an old style missionary berating a cowed congregation on occasions of sin.
Should the voters of west Mayo have the temerity to elect Frank Durcan, an independent candidate, he warned us of the consequences. He had a big paper shredder in his ministerial office. Into the maw of this great beast would go any representation Mr Durcan might make on our behalf.
Having scared us, he turned his attention to the national political scene. He asserted that the newly formed Progressive Democrats were a blot on the landscape. Des O’Malley had compounded his disloyalty to Fianna Fáil by founding a party whose success in 1987 had deprived Charles Haughey of an overall majority. He predicted that the party would be decimated in the forthcoming election. An ass cart, he claimed, would be enough to convey their TDs to the new Dáil.
He went on to extol the ability of Charles Haughey, a greater leader of Fianna Fáil than even de Valera of Lemass. By this time, of course, Jack Lynch had been airbrushed out of the party’s history. He concluded by thundering that, “Mr Haughey was the greatest political leader in the world, greater than Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand or anyone they might have in Japan.”
Fianna Fáil supporters may find it instructive to take a close look at Japanese politics today. Just over a week ago the LDP party was trounced in the general election. The LDP is the Fianna Fáil party of Japan, almost continuously in government since 1954. Since 1932, Fianna Fáil has been in government for 62 years.
Last week’s Irish Times opinion poll put the party’s support at 17%, half that of Fine Gael. The party’s traditional core vote seems to be falling apart at the seams. We live, as the loved political commentator, John Healy, was want to say during periods of political turbulence, ‘in interesting times’
Fianna Fáil supporters may find it instructive to take a close look at Japanese politics today.
