Political World
It’s not his sexuality that may hamper Varadkar
World of Politics with Harry McGee
The most mercurial and brilliant don’t always rise to the top of the tree. Back in the 1970s, the journalist Nell McCafferty wrote a column for The Irish Times about the cases that came up in Dublin District Court. In September 1975 she reported about a peculiar case in Court 4.
The Court was cleared of the public and two men were brought before the judge. Both faced charges of engaging in a homosexual act in the cubicle of a public toilet. One of the men was married, the other single. The married man’s wife was in court with him. Both pleaded guilty.
A lot of the discussion in the case surrounded the notion that this was an aberration, and that drink and other circumstances had overtaken both men. The judge was reassured that both could be ‘cured’. Throughout the case, what had happened was described as disgusting and abnormal behaviour. Both were fined and warned about the consequences of a reoccurrence.
That is less than 40 years ago and is a reminder that homosexuality was a criminal offence then, (theoretically at least) punishable by a prison sentence. Eight years later, in 1983, a young man walking through Ringsend Park in Dublin died after being set upon by a gang of youths in an act of so-called ‘queerbashing’.
Not only did the young men not get custodial sentences when the case came up in court, they were also feted when they returned home to their neighbourhood. A protest organised by those campaigning against the unforgivable leniency of the sentences was also attacked by locals in the area.
It was Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who as Minister for Justice finally decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 – perhaps the act in a Ministerial role for which she will be most remembered.
Society has moved on hugely since then. The stigmatisation of gay people has gradually subsided and that has emboldened more people to declare their sexual orientation in public: though I’m sure it’s a big step and some just don’t have the confidence to do it. Most people are related to, or know, people who are gay. It’s that personal close-up experience of knowing what kind of human beings they are that has made the difference.
Leo Varadkar is not the first Irish politician to state publicly that he is gay. David Norris has been open about his sexuality throughout his adult life. In the current Dáil there are three other openly gay TDs – Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons of Labour as well as Jerry Buttimer of Fine Gael. If you go across the water to England there have been gay members of Cabinet for a generation (Labour’s Chris Smith springs to mind) and the leader of the Scottish Tories, Ruth Davidson, is also gay.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Leo Varadkar once said that he would retire from politics at the age of 50. When he said it, my reaction was: ‘nah, that’s not possible, he’s never going to do that.”
But politics has changed. What was once seen as a profession for life – or as long as you survived – is no longer that.
A slew of Fine Gael TDs – all male – have announced they will not be standing in the next election. What raised eyebrows was that many of them were in their forties and early fifties; mid-career politicians. The impression you got from them was that Covid had made them re-evaluate their lives after spending far more time at home. And the life of a TD with the constant travelling and time demands no longer accorded with their desire to have a better work-life balance.
The cynicism of the public (and the snake pit that is social media) were also factors.
Last Saturday, my colleague Miriam Lord had a fascinating column in the Irish Times where she raised the possibility that some of the most senior figures in Fine Gael such as Simon Coveney and Paschal Donohoe might not remain in politics until they are entitled to a free bus pass.
And she wondered too if Leo Varadkar himself might do a Jacinta Ardern on it and leave politics entirely.
Miriam wrote: “Now questions are being asked about Varadkar’s zest for the Taoiseach’s job the second time round as party colleagues bail out and some close supporters peel away. The ceaseless, debilitating abuse on social media can’t help either – and that’s not going to improve any time soon.
“A two-term Taoiseach and only 44 years old, Leo has a big future ahead of him. But is it with Fine Gael?”
Coveney came out quickly in the Irish Examiner on Tuesday to say that he has no intention of retiring any time soon and will stand in the next election.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I remember walking down the laneway at the back of our house in Glenard when I was 18, my head full of the unassailable self-confidence only 18-year-olds can have.
I can distinctly remember telling myself that I would be a published author by the time I was 25 or die in the effort. Failure was not an option.
Well I have succeeded in the end. But as has been the story of my journalistic career, I missed that milestone by a tad – although one of the things of which I’m proudest of when it comes to The Murderer and The Taoiseach, is that it was completed under an incredibly tight deadline.
This book and the podcast series I did for The Irish Times last year were amongst the biggest – and most complicated projects – I have done. And both happened very quickly.
My Irish Times colleague Enda O’Dowd and I brought the podcast from conception to a completed project in five months last year.
And this book, which is all my own work, took a little over six months to write from beginning to end.
What made it easier is that I have been fascinated by GUBU since I was a teenager. I was getting into current affairs and had started to buy the current affairs magazine which I thought was the most exciting writing
I had ever encountered and got me hooked on journalism. Vincent Browne was the editor and he had some of the best young journalists in Ireland writing for him.
The summer was memorable for several reasons. It was long and hot, without rain for weeks. I spent my summer playing Gaelic and hurling, hanging around in Salthill, swimming in Blackrock reading books and magazines, and listening to U2 and to Joy Division.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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