Good to see they haven’t lost their sense of humour in Fianna Fáil despite all the upheaval of the past week.
Who decided to send the Minister for Transport into the Dáil on Tuesday night for the votes on the budget measures that needed to be passed by midnight?
He arrived in the chamber to propose the increase in cigarette taxes.
Darragh, who has been publicly shamed by this Taoiseach for having sneaky fags around the back of Government Buildings when he thinks nobody is looking.
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He took it well.
And who is the Shakespeare buff in the parliamentary party who told RTÉ’s Barry Lenihan on Tuesday that Wednesday’s much anticipated parliamentary party showdown with leader Micheál Martin would be like Titus Andronicus, the Bard’s bloodiest play?
There are a lot of theatregoers in the FF parliamentary party. Arts spokesman Páidí O’Sullivan and musical theatre stalwart Malcolm Byrne were immediately in the frame but they ruled themselves out.
“It felt more like Othello – a family row,” said Páidí. “I think we would have been more Henry IV,” said Malcolm.
The meeting went on for 5½ hours with 48 speakers.
There was no break for a breather or a brandy.
The top table, which included party chairman Brendan Smith and chief whip Mary Butler, was very concerned about preventing leaks to media.
The leaks were live-streamed, as usual. However, critics of the Taoiseach and his supporters claim they were not the ones dishing the dirt from behind closed doors.
“Three-quarters of the leaks that came out in the first half of the meeting were favourable to the Government,” said one. “And then, when somebody leaked that no Minister had spoken, three of them suddenly found their voices and started to defend the Taoiseach.”
“He’s lost Cork,” another told us.
The stream of politicians from the rebel county willing to line up with harsh words for their fellow Corkonian was striking.
John McGuinness’s speech was described as “box office”, while former ceann comhairle Seán Ó Fearghail’s call for “a process of renewal” to take place in January 2027 was seen as a call to the Taoiseach to hand over the leadership to his successor before his term finishes.
RTÉ gave the game away on Cuddihy
Rampant speculation in Radioland that broadcaster Kieran Cuddihy was set to leave Ballymount for Donnybrook intensified when he hosted the first of the presidential election debates on Virgin Media’s Tonight Show a couple of weeks ago.
These debates are newsworthy events, so it was not unusual for RTÉ news bulletins to report that this one was taking place.
However, many listeners noticed that it was trailed with an enthusiasm not normally in evidence when a rival network is running the show.
And what really jumped out was how the host’s name was emphasised in all dispatches. “Kieran Cuddihy ... Kieran Cuddihy ...”
Usually, just a perfunctory noting of the event does the job. No point in driving viewers to a competing channel.
No surprise, then, when RTÉ announced Cuddihy as the new host of Liveline. The powers that be in Montrose had been hoping to unveil their new signing with a big reveal on last night’s Late Late Show. They got a bit ahead of themselves.
It didn’t happen because Kieran has to work out his notice before going anywhere.
Meanwhile, word is that Gavan Reilly, Virgin Media’s indefatigable political correspondent (the station hasn’t appointed a political editor since Ursula Halligan back in the TV3 days), is being lined up to replace Cuddihy.
Reilly stepped in to fill the breach when presenters Claire Brock and Ciara Doherty left the Tonight Show at the end of November. He kept the lights on for three months in the immediate aftermath of the general election while continuing his work in Leinster House.
It’s hard to keep up with the changes to the press gallery there these days.
Mary Regan, former RTÉ pol corr, is now going great guns as the Irish Independent’s political editor. Meanwhile, former Indo pol corr Gabija Gataveckaite started this week as the BBC’s Dublin correspondent.
Louise Byrne, after some memorable years at the Irish Mirror, is now grilling politicians for the Irish Examiner.
And Cónal Thomas, who had been cutting quite a dash on the gallery for the Business Post in his natty green suit, has made the short journey to the office next door and the nerve-centre of the Indo’s political operation.
Curious case of Catherine Connolly and the bar
Headline of the presidential campaign (so far).
You wait for ages for one decent headline to come along in a dull presidential election campaign and then all hell breaks loose and one candidate sensationally resigns and the party that nominated him goes into meltdown and the two remaining candidates tear into each other in the politest possible way and Joe Brolly disgraces himself online while the German Reichstag makes an appearance amid viral displays of football keepie-uppies and the man who doesn’t want to be on the ballot paper can’t be taken off it and the woman who couldn’t get on the ballot paper calls for the whole thing to be cancelled.
Then there’s a budget in the middle of it all. It’s hardly been noticed.
So much happening. So many headlines. And there are two more weeks to go and both sides are accusing each other of launching Project Smear.
But this headline will be hard to beat:
“Bar comes to defence of Catherine Connolly in cab-rank row.”
What bar was she in?
Does it serve cocktails?
Is the bar beside the rank?
What was the row over?
Did Catherine jump the queue?
What time was this at?
Did anyone throw a dig?
When will the video appear?
The headline appeared above an article in Irish Legal News, the daily news service for lawyers in Ireland, after Independent candidate Catherine Connolly faced questions about work she did on behalf of financial institutions back in her legal days.
Then the Bar Council of Ireland waded in with a statement explaining the “cab-rank rule” which prevents lawyers from picking and choosing their cases. They are obliged to accept work if it is within their field of practice, in a court where they normally appear and at their usual rates, although they can be exempted on certain grounds.
In accordance with this rule, Catherine Connolly said she took on “all types of work” as a barrister, including for banks.
“That’s the role of a barrister. You take work from everywhere you get it and you do your best.”
So no late-night altercation at a taxi-rank then.
Pity.
What would Young Heather say to Current Heather?
Here’s a wee bit from the Anglo-Celt newspaper in December, 1977.
“The final of the debating competition organised by Junior Chamber Cavan was held last week. The finalists were St Aidan’s comprehensive, Cootehill, and St Clare’s Convent, Ballyjamesduff, who proposed the motion ‘That Ireland Needs a Dictatorship’.
After a keenly contested debate, St Aidan’s emerged the winners.
The Cootehill team were: Siobhán O’Donnell, Cootehill (Capt); Oliver Smith, Kill; Heather Stewart, Drumm; Michelle Lynch, Cootehill.
Michelle Lynch also won the award for best speaker. The team will now represent Cavan at regional level.”
So, that’s Fine Gael’s presidential candidate, Heather Humphreys, when she was 14 years old, speaking against dictatorships. And winning.
Wonder what the young Heather would have made of political party leaders imposing their preferred election candidates on a reluctant membership or instructing their county councillors not to facilitate any Independent candidates seeking a nomination to run.
Paddy Smith was some man for one man
Still in Cavan (in a roundabout way), we noticed a new portrait in a prominent position on the wall near the ceremonial staircase in Leinster House this week.
But who is this distinguished-looking gentleman staring down the length of the long corridor that links the front part of the building to the area housing the Oireachtas bars and restaurants?
This is a prime spot so he must have a good reason to be there.
It’s a portrait of Paddy Smith, the longest-serving TD in the history of the State.
Paddy, from Tunnyduff near Bailieborough in Cavan, retired in 1977 at the age of 75 after 54 years of unbroken service. He was first elected to the Dáil in 1923 and was returned there by the people of Cavan for 17 elections in a row.
He held several ministerial positions, including in agriculture and social welfare.
Former taoiseach Charles Haughey, who had an extensive art collection, commissioned the portrait from renowned Irish artist Pat Phelan, to mark the TD’s retirement.
It hung in Haughey’s Abbeville mansion in north Dublin for decades. His son Seán Haughey, a former TD for Dublin Bay North, gifted the portrait to his parliamentary party colleague, Niamh Smyth. The Minister of State for Enterprise and TD for Cavan-Monaghan is a grandniece of Paddy Smith and she gave the painting on loan to the Oireachtas.
It was unveiled last month by Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, with Niamh and the extended Smith/Smyth family in attendance.
Her grand-uncle Paddy had quite a life.
He was an IRA commander during the War of Independence when he was just 19. He was captured by British forces in 1921 and put on trial for treason, narrowly escaping execution. He was interned during the Civil War and endured tremendous hardship, at one point going on a 41-day hunger strike with six fellow prisoners.
While he was still recovering he was asked to run for the Dáil.
He died in 1982.
They don’t make ‘em like Paddy any more.
After all the fuss, Jim Gavin is still in with a shout
So what if the unthinkable happens and Jim Gavin is elected President of Ireland in two weeks’ time?
As Justine McCarthy wrote here yesterday, his name is still on the ballot paper so he could win if enough people vote for him. He may have quit the campaign but he is still a contender, according to the rules.
Here’s where it gets complicated.
Jim triumphs. But he doesn’t want the job.
If he refuses it, he can resign and then another election must be held within 60 days of the inauguration.
How can he resign if he hasn’t been inaugurated? Will he have to be inaugurated first and then resign? What if he refuses to be inaugurated?
This is very complicated. We really need a qualified barrister like Maria Steen to explain this to us.
In the meantime, who will mind the nation, rudderless without a president and Michael D back home in Galway with Sabina, the dog and their tea cosy collection?
Fear not, for our belt-and-braces Constitution has us covered. The Presidential Commission will step in.
Donal O’Donnell, the Chief Justice; Mark Daly, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad; and Verona Murphy, the Ceann Comhairle, will do the business.
