Yesterday, Labour was the party of smiling faces. From the hierarchy down, the followers of Connolly were basking in political sunshine.
Michael D is en route to the Park, the first Labour Party candidate to be elected president in the history of the state. Mary Robinson doesn’t count, as she was only semi-attached to the party.
If that wasn’t enough to spread good cheer, the party’s candidate in the Dublin West by-election also looked like he was heading for victory. It has been nearly 30 years since a government party has won a by-election, and Labour’s Patrick Nulty was yesterday bridging that gap. Strange days indeed.
For the old dogs in particular, this was a rare day on the hard road.
Joe Costello ran the Higgins campaign, and he has known the troughs which the party has endured over the last few decades. Yesterday on radio, he strove to keep triumphalism out of his voice.
"The Labour party picked the best candidate," he said. "When you pick the best candidate, you can’t go wrong. Michael D is an academic and a statesman. He had broad appeal."
Like his colleagues, Joe couldn’t concede that the race was all but lost until Martin McGuinness cut poor Sean Gallagher off at the knees on the Frontline.
His party leader was in similar mood, maintaining their man did not have to rely on the lap of the gods, or the odd tweet to RTÉ.
"It was very much a campaign of ideas," Eamon Gilmore told RTÉ’s Drivetime. What ideas? Michael D was a perfectly acceptable candidate.
He will make a grand President, but he won largely because he was the last man standing, while all the others collapsed under the weight of various controversies.
Gilmore arrived at the count centre in Dublin Castle at 6pm, spreading good cheer and bonhomie. Despite his mood, he still couldn’t offer a word of thanks to McGuinness for the ambush.
"It was Sean Gallagher’s response to a question he was asked, including his response to questions from the audience," he said, about the game-changing Frontline debate.
Still, it would be churlish to deny the Labourites their day in the sun. Michael D has long been the politician many of them would aspire to be if the real world didn’t keep getting in the way. He is passionate about matters such as equality, culture and the overweening power of the market. In some ways, he is dangerously close to being a socialist. Many party colleagues would instinctively rally to the same standard, if only there was any chance of getting into power on such a ticket. So they are delighted that he is in the Park, where he can symbolise the best about the nation, without actually running the show.
But there is no such thing as a free day in the political sun.
"We’re going to pay a price for this," one party hack remarked in Dublin Castle yesterday as the good news kept flowing in.
They may as well enjoy the long weekend, because the winter will press in thereafter. Between now and Christmas, dirty reality will have be negotiated. Budget cutbacks are set to dominate the political landscape. Piling pain upon the pain already being endured is alien territory for a Labour party.
And apart from the troika on one side, and the public on the other, Labour will now have to contend with its partner in Government, which marches to a different political drum.
For just as Labour has emerged from the presidential and by-election campaigns in fine fettle, Fine Gael has been left dazed and confused.
The Blueshirts will be in no mood for dancing lightly around their partner’s political concerns when it comes to crunching the numbers.
Strange and wonderful days indeed for Labour. A president in situ for the 1916 centenary. Another TD has been added to their roster of 37. But the nights are about to close in on their heady days. Little more than pain and pestilence is in store for the foreseeable future.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, October 29, 2011
