Reader's Blog: De Valera family’s time has come and gone
With incredulity, I listened to Galway councillor, Oliver Crowe, of Fianna Fáil, on RTÉ’s Drivetime radio show. He outlined his proposal to get Éamon Ó Cuív on the presidential ballot.
He outlandishly said that he has the support of nearly all FF councillors in the country, and was contemptuous when asked how his proposal reconciled with the unanimous decision of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party not to put forward a candidate.
Mr Crowe is the best example of everything that is wrong in Fianna Fáil today.
He represents party members who are still living in the Éamon de Valera and Sean Lemass eras, when the party had broad support, and was permanently in power.
Those days are gone. FF contested the last European elections and did not win one seat. Sinn Fein put forward three hitherto unknown candidates and won three seats. Like them or loathe them, when Sinn Féin set a target, they harness all their energy with a unity of purpose.
A generation of home-owners is in negative equity and will never be otherwise.
They do not blame the real culprits (the banks), but, rather, the government of the day, FF, for not controlling or regulating the reckless behaviour of said banks. This generation will never again vote FF.
Michael Martin is doing his utmost to lead FF into the 21st century and yet, every which way he turns, he is thwarted by the likes of Crowe and his ilk.
Ó Cuív’s silence is disgraceful, and John McGuinness’s support for him is expected. Both of them have, for many years, shown absolute contempt for both the leadership and democracy, and, no doubt, Crowe is a stalking horse. Ó Cuív’s cousin, Síle de Valera, was just two years in the Dáil, in 1979, when she criticised the party leader and Taoiseach, Jack Lynch. He was later ousted.
A strong Fianna Fáil, with credible and non-populist policies, is still needed in this country.
To have these policies, there must be unity, loyalty, and elimination of dinosaurs and dinosaur thinking.
Otherwise, the party will become as irrelevant as Labour.
