On Wednesday evening, when Maria Steen’s fuming supporters were still reeling over the cheek of certain elected representatives who wouldn’t sign her nomination papers for them, one of the men they couldn’t corner was down the road from Leinster House flaunting his liberal credentials.
Senator and qualified barrister Michael McDowell was in Hodges Figgis bookshop attending the launch of Katherine Zappone’s memoir Love in a Time of Politics. Also there was his Seanad colleague Victor Boyhan, another independent Oireachtas member who came under fierce pressure to endorse Maria.
Victor is not a qualified barrister. But he is a protestant, if that helps.
Labour leader and qualified barrister Ivana Bacik did the honours for Katherine on the night. The two women go back a long way – Ivana was on Katherine’s legal team when she mounted a court challenge seeking to have her 2003 Canadian marriage to Ann Louise recognised in Ireland.
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They lost that case, but 12 years later the then senator Zappone would publicly propose to Ann Louise amid jubilant scenes in Dublin Castle as the country voted overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage.
Qualified barrister Maria Steen, as the leading light of the Iona Institute was repeatedly described, strongly opposed this societal change.
If McDowell and Boyhan were hoping to escape the wrath of ideological opposites in Leinster House for refusing to do their bidding, they went to the right place.
It was liberal central in Dawson Street.
Still, It’s never nice when qualified barristers fall out. Have a read of Ellen Coyne on this subject elsewhere on these pages. It’s riveting stuff.
Meanwhile Gareth Sheridan, another hopeful who put in some time and effort in having a launch and traipsing around councils looking for support, also came up short and didn’t get on the ballot. The wealthy tech entrepreneur’s USP was that he is a qualified 35 year old.
It wasn’t enough to get him through either but he accepted the democratic process.
Not so the losing Steen machine, still whingeing about being blocked by anti-democratic politicians who were elected by the people.
Speaking of which, spool back to March of last year when Maria and like-minded social conservatives basked in the warm glow of a double referendum victory.
After severe knock-backs in the same-sex marriage and abortion votes, the nation’s firm rejection of the government’s family and care referendums gave them hope for the future. Senators Rónán Mullen and Sharon Keogan were positively aglow.
McDowell was seen as the hero of the hour.
When the results came in, they all celebrated.
But the opposition campaign was not just a conservative Christian enterprise. It was a much broader church.
As Senator McDowell rejoiced with fellow members of the victorious No camp, he stressed that his sole motive in opposing the amendments was to protect the Constitution. The proposed wordings were “an affront” to it and nothing more than “wokeism ... and demeaning window dressing”.
And he was careful to put on the record that he didn’t share the social conservative views of some comrades on the winning side.
But needs must.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Not friends any more, that’s for sure.
It was probably too much, meanwhile, to hope that the book launch would be held in the Merrion Hotel, scene of “Merriongate” when Zappone held an outdoor social gathering for former government colleagues, including then taoiseach Leo Varadkar, when Covid restrictions were still a thing.
There was public outrage at the time, even if no laws were broken.
Outrage, of course, was all the rage this week, with much of it focused on McDowell, his Independent colleagues in the Seanad and a number of non-Government TDs who didn’t fall into line for the Steen machine.
He told the Daily Mail on Thursday that he was never going to nominate fellow qualified barrister Steen because he didn’t want her to run for the presidency as she could have won.
He contends her team knew this.
“She was not going to be the unifying candidate that she claimed,” he told reporter Brian Mahon.
“I wasn’t willing to support her campaign for president, and if I wasn’t willing to propose her to be president, I wasn’t willing to sign her nomination papers.”
It is hard to fathom how the likes of Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín – one of the best political operators in the Dáil – and Leinster House veterans such as Mattie McGrath and Rónán Mullen didn’t have their much-vaunted candidate out in the field much sooner.
A few weeks of a barely visible campaign followed by a frantic blitz in the dying days wasn’t very clever. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, as Roy Keane famously said.
The petulant reaction to their own failure smacked of entitlement. When the plan didn’t work, they blamed everyone but themselves.
Afterwards, the diversion of disappointed Maria’s hugely expensive Hermès Kelly handbag added to the gaiety of the nation and the growing victim complex of her champions.
Never mind the designer bag. Winged messenger Hermes had no bearing on this sluggish effort.
Maybe Maria’s ideological baggage was the problem.
End of an era as Leinster House head chef retires
It was the end of an era in Leinster House this week when head chef Julie Lyons retired after 34 years in the Oireachtas.
Julie has often been described as the heart and soul of Leinster House.
But there was never any special treatment for anyone – everyone who worked in the place got the same friendly service from Julie.
On Wednesday, the Ceann Comhairle gave her a fine send-off as TDs from all sides of the House rose to pay tribute to her unique brand of hospitality in an environment where relationships are not always cordial and patrons can have a tendency to stress.
With her family watching from the public gallery, Verona Murphy afforded a singular honour to “the woman who keeps the kitchen going”.
VIPs are afforded a seat in the distinguished visitors’ gallery when they visit. In Julie’s case, the Ceann Comhairle decided that she would sit in the actual Dáil chamber, inside the upper rail where seats are reserved for senators. She was escorted in by Dáil ushers while all the catering staff beamed down from the gallery.
Verona welcomed her children Miranda and Dan and their partners Ed and Lorraine along with her grandchildren Ruby, Lily, Teddy and George. She hoped her partner Brendan would make it to Leinster House in time for the celebration later.
In wishing her a long, healthy and happy retirement, Verona said she was waiting for Julie’s book with an insider’s account of her years in the corridors of power.
“You served us loyally and I have been instructed by colleagues to say they will very much miss your Christmas puddings once you depart,” said Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, on stand-in duty for the Taoiseach.
“Julie, you are an absolute legend and you know it. Thank you for everything” said Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik talked about how kind Julie was to children when they visited. “That has been really appreciated, and also the way you brought fun to our food – Christmas dinners in September and the legendary Markievicz trifles.”
The ushers also escorted Julie – who was rather mortified by the attention – to the Seanad where further warm tributes were paid.
There probably is a book in Julie. When she started off, Charlie Haughey recognised her culinary skills and asked her to come to Kerry and prepare the food for his trips to his offshore island, Inishvickillane.
“I was never asked to go over to the island when he was entertaining, because I was a woman.”
She also delights in telling people that she used to polish Haughey’s grapes.
He was very fussy.
As for the future.
“I’m going to just enjoy myself and enjoy not going to work, especially on Wednesdays when the late sittings are on.”
Echoes of Succession as Guinness heir launches book about family history
Tales of what might have been on Monday night when three men who could have been contenders were among the guests in the ballroom of Iveagh House at the launch of Ned Guinness’s book on the history of his famous family.
Guinness: A Family Succession was launched in the same week as the much awaited big-budget Netflix drama House of Guinness began its run.
A happy coincidence.
Iveagh House on St Stephen’s Green used to be one of many Guinness mansions in Dublin and counties beyond. Ned’s forebears gifted it to the State in 1939 and it now houses the very elegant headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The ballroom was packed for the occasion.
There was Guinness and Guinness Zero on tap, laid on by Diageo.
Now, when we say Ned Guinness, we mean Arthur Edward Guinness, the Fourth Earl of Iveagh, who has a small pied-à-terre in Dublin’s Liberties not far from the famous brewery but lives most of the time on his 22,500-acre Elveden estate in Suffolk.
His brother Rory and son Rupert were also at the launch along with Seán and Rena Fitzgerald – former Farmleigh estate managers.
Ned is popular chap. But then, his great, great, great, great great grandfather Arthur invented Guinness.
Guests included former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny. Enda, despite many entreaties from Fine Gael admirers, never expressed a desire to become president. He was in flying form.
Bertie, on the other hand, is still a bit miffed over not getting a chance to seek the Fianna Fáil nomination.
With both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in the United States on Government business, deputy secretary general Sonja Hyland did the honours on behalf of the DFA.
