Veteran TD challenges FG to win back his seat
Fine Gael must aim to win back a traditional Co Donegal Dáil seat that it held for over a third of a century if it wants to enter the next government, it was claimed tonight.
Veteran TD Paddy Harte was first elected for Donegal North East in 1961 and won at every election until a dramatic defeat in 1997.
But he claims in his memoirs, published tonight, that a complacent Fine Gael leadership regarded it as a safe party seat and eventually paid the price.
Writing in ’Young Tigers and Mongrel Foxes’, Mr Harte says of his general election defeat: “There was a sense of betrayal all around, and for weeks the party leadership and headquarters who had let the party down in the constituency were being made aware of how people felt.”
Criticising the then leader John Bruton for not looking after the constituency, he added: “The humiliating general election results in 2002 were on the cards for a long time.”
Born in Lifford, Mr Harte was elected to Donegal Co Council in 1960. He entered the Dáil a year later and served until 1997.
Apart from holding office as Minister of State at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs for seven months in 1981, he never served higher than TD rank.
The Northern Ireland issue was of special interest to Mr Harte and he did a lot of unsung work with unionists and republicansacross the border and was rewarded with the party spokesman portfolio.
In his early years he built up his reputation by championing causes like mental disability services in Co Donegal and "tattie hawker" potato pickers in Scotland.
He offers in the book an appraisal of several Fine Gael leaders beginning with James Dillon who he said was the most articulate and gifted politician he ever served under.
“With all his brilliance, style and gift of oratory, he was also one of the most humble men I met in my lifetime,” he said.
However he believed Enda Kenny’s predecessor, Mr Bruton was paranoid during the 1990s that rivals were plotting his downfall.
He added: “His time as leader must rate as one of the most disastrous periods in the history of Fine Gael, when he had, unquestionably, the ability to make it the greatest.”
In his later years, Mr Harte had a burning mission to mark the bravery of up to 50,000 Irishmen – North and South – who lost their lives in World War I battlefields in Belgium and France.
Mr Harte’s dream to create “a little little corner of Ireland forever in the former battlefields” was finally realised in 1998.
The Island of Ireland Peace Park, featuring a 100-foot high Round Tower was unveiled at Messines Ridge in Belgium by President Mary McAleese, he Queen of England and the King of Belgium.
Mr Harte was later made an honorary citizen by Messines Town Council in 1999.
The popular constituency politician won any awards during his career including Donegal Person of the Year in 1998 and the AIB/Rehab Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
’Young Tigers and Mongrel Foxes’ will be launched in Dublin tonight by former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Garret Fitzgerald.
