Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy close their series on the PDs. In 1997 the party runs a disastrous campaign, falling from 10 seats to four, yet still enters government with Fianna Fáil, Mary Harney the sole cabinet minister.
Their real influence comes through Charlie McCreevy, effectively a PD inside Fianna Fáil, whose close friendship with Harney drives a tax-cutting agenda during the boom years.
Facing wipeout in 2002, Michael McDowell rescues them with a Ranelagh lamppost stunt and an ingenious slogan. But the next term in government is less successful.
McDowell takes the leadership in 2006 just as the Mahon Tribunal investigates Bertie Ahern. Why does he choose to stay in coalition rather than pull the plug?
Father of boy with Friedreich’s ataxia devastated as HSE recommends against drug funding
From boom to bust: how the Progressive Democrats unravelled
A Minister for both Climate and Transport? That’s just the tip of the iceberg
Jim O’Callaghan requested ‘unoppressive’ Irish traditional music for EU ministers
The 2007 election reduces the PDs to two seats. Does the party have another fightback in them?
Finally Pat and Hugh deliver their verdict on the Progressive Democrats and ask where that centre-right energy now resides in the Irish political scene.
