Political World
Walsh shows depth of his convictions – but what price will he pay for them?
Brian Walsh is under absolutely no illusion about the repercussions of the political bombshell he delivered on Monday morning when he became the first TD to state in public that he will not support the controversial abortion legislation being prepared by Government.
“It could herald the end of my membership of the party and of my political career. It does place me in a precarious position but I have done what I believe is right,” he told me earlier this week.
It means that when the Dail finally votes on the Protection of Maternal Life Bill in July (it’s going to take that long for it to go through all stages in the Oireachtas), Walsh will not follow his colleagues up the steep stairs of the Dail chamber and turn left into the Government lobby.
It’s a common enough site in British politics where backbench rebellions are frequent and sometimes lead to Government proposals being defeated. In many instances, there are no sanctions for the mutinous MPs.
But in Ireland it is a rare phenomenon. The culture of politics here is that a much stronger whip is imposed and defying the whip is a much bigger deal. In most cases, it leads to expulsion from the parliamentary party.
Occasionally, a member will be given a warning if he or she abstained. But as we have seen in this Dail, if you are a Government TD who votes against the Government you more or less lose the party whip. The Galway East TD Colm Keaveney knows all about that since last December.
It is rarer still for a TD to vote against the Government on a matter of conscience. In 1985, Dessie O’Malley was expelled for Fianna Fáil after supporting Coalition government legislation that liberalised the availability of contraceptives.
O’Malley was already in the wars with Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey, having lost the party whip in an internal party row over the Northern peace process. His decision to back Fianna Fail’s Coalition rivals led to his expulsion from the party, an event that eventually resulted in the establishment of the Progressive Democrats a year later.
The decision by Walsh is a very brave one and has been done in accordance with his own conscience. It took everybody by surprise, not least because he has not been seen as belonging to a prominent group of Fine Gael TDs who had publicly voiced their concerns about the legislation.
As he has made very clear, he has very strong convictions on the matter and rejects the premise of any legislation that includes provisions for a suicide threat, no matter how rigorously drafted. He set out his thinking to me earlier this week:
“The overwhelming medical evidence is that abortion is an inappropriate treatment for mental health issues.
“It looks like we are going to ignore the evidence. I have no problem with anything that gives guidance and clarity to doctors to make sure that a woman’s life is protected. I have no problem either with the repeal of the 1860 Offences Against the Person Act.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
An Opposition party is a bit like an invading army trying to surmount the defences of a seemingly impregnable fortress – constantly surveying the moat, the drawbridge, the doors and the battlements to spot any weakness.
For a Government party, the chink usually reveals itself when it tries to push through a deeply unpopular policy – like, for example, the decision to bring the eviction ban to a close at the end of March.
The Government’s thinking was that, by delaying the end of it, it was storing up problems for itself. The longer it left the measure in place, the bigger the queue of landlords who wished to sell up when the restrictions were lifted, triggering a huge number of evictions.
As it was, even ending the restriction now, according to campaigners such as Peter McVerry, was going to cause a “tsunami” of evictions.
Senior Coalition figures admitted that it was going to have an impact on homelessness in the short term.
As soon as the Government announced it was lifting the ban, there was a hue and cry from the Opposition.
Several back benchers in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael expressed concern but were brought around by assurances from senior Ministers that local authorities and approved housing bodies would be given the go-ahead to buy properties from landlords who were selling up and leaving tenants in situ.
However, if there are any upsides to the move, they will not become apparent for months at the very least, by which time there could be a big spike in the homelessness figures.
From the moment the decision was made, the Green Party TD for Dublin Central Neasa Hourigan signalled she opposed the move.
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
The last local elections in May 2019 were dominated by the story of a big swing; nothing to do with the voting though – it was the famous swing in the Dublin version of the Dean Hotel that former TD Maria Bailey took a tumble from.
That’s how exciting local and European elections are for the media and the public. As a political story, they ran a distant second to the so-called Swing-gate.
As it happened there were political swings too. In the locals, the Greens made big gains. Fianna Fáil and the Social Democrats made some gains. Fine Gael was treading water. Sinn Féin lost a fair few seats.
It was a little different for Europeans. The Greens gained two seats. Fianna Fáil gained two but failed to take one in Midlands North West. Sinn Féin lost two of its three MEPs. Fine Gael ended up winning four with Maria Walsh taking a second seat in Midlands North West.
At the time, Sinn Féin was on a downward slope and had been since the general election of 2016. What won it gains in 2014, messages of anti-austerity, protests against water charges, no longer applied. It was struggling to find its feet.
It lost almost half its seats in the locals, falling from 159 down to 81. Its share of the vote had dipped to below 10 per cent, a drop of 5.6 per cent.
So, the ‘read’ at the time of the 2019 election was that Fianna Fáil seemed to be continuing its recovery from the nadir of 2011 into the next general election. Fine Gael was in its second term of government and was concerned about holding its own. Sinn Fein looked like it would have a difficult general election.
For the Councils, Fianna Fáíl held remained the largest party in local government and showed strongly in working class areas of Dublin. Its European election was mediocre though.
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
In 1980s Galway, we teenagers thought we were different as we listened to U2, wore Smiths badges on our lapels, and railed against the conservatism of our parents’ generation.
But we weren’t. Ireland was a mono-everything society – church, State, political parties, race, and thinking.
We were more conformist than radical but didn’t know it at the time.
At the time there were two dominant political parties. Over 80 per cent of the population voted for them. They included a majority of practically every demographic.
Implicit in that vast vote for the establishment party was a deference, more or less, from the population for the powerful institutions of the State.
The death grip of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was loosened gradually in succeeding decades. That said, until a decade ago, it was inconceivable to think any other party would be able to form a government.
Because if you didn’t want to vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, where did you turn?
Labour might have been an alternative. But the party went in with Fine Gael in 2011 with 37 seats and got hammered in 2016 and were left with seven. So they were hardly going to step up to the breach, were they?
The battering of Labour told us another lecture. There had been a long tradition in Irish politics of the smaller party in government taking a hiding after the election. Labour were (nominally) the small party in government and suffered because of it.
What people did not fully realise then was that it was not just the smaller party in government that was coming out worse when they next encountered the electorate. It was also the main party in government.
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.
Local TDs lay out their stalls ahead of Government no-confidence vote
Jury resume deliberations for fourth day in Portumna murder trial
House prices in Galway drop since the start of 2023
Protestors voice opposition to elements of proposed Athlone-Galway Cycleway
Report shows Martin Roundabout works coming in well under budget despite delays
City seeks to annex Oranmore, Claregalway, Moycullen and Barna in boundary extension
Man awarded €142,000 over unprovoked attack in toilet of County Galway pub
Woman convicted of harassing social media guru
Galway family’s plea – help us save our home
Bono has finally found what’s he’s looking for!
