Climbing Mount FF not for the weak

AS BEFITS the most ruthlessly efficient election-winning machine in the democratic world, getting to the top of Fianna Fáil is not for the faint-hearted.

Shaftings, burstings and routine intimidation are par for the course when the soldiers get together to decide on their destiny.

But that was bad old FF riven with factional in-fighting and snarling with naked loathing. How different will be the coronation of Brian Cowen as all his potential challengers sweetly smile to prove their party is not breaking over a succession this time around.

The unbridled bitterness of the heaves against Charles Haughey through the decade from 1982 gave way to a calmer, though still brutally efficient, leadership selection in the 1990s. One of more bizarre moments came in 1991 when cabinet minister Gerry Collins turned to the camera during a live TV news appearance and tearfully pleaded with Albert Reynolds not to “burst” the party by standing against Haughey.

Reynolds lost on that occasion, but was in pole position to take the crown when CJ’s vice-like grip on the party finally loosened a few months later.

Then, despite heavy pressure from Haughey supporters to run against Reynolds, Bertie Ahern was scared off by a whispering campaign regarding his private life. The need to know where a Taoiseach would be sleeping at night was raised repeatedly to remind backbench TDs and their conservative voters that Mr Ahern was not only separated, but also dared to be involved with another woman.

Ahern did not officially declare as a candidate, but tested the water nonetheless. The two men met at the Berkeley Court Hotel where Reynolds told his would-be challenger he had the numbers, but he did not have the inclination to stay in the top job too long.

The message to Ahern was clear, “back off now, take over later”.

The move worked and the two even showed each other their lists of supporters — with a large number of two-faced TDs declaring for both camps. Reynolds rewarded Ahern by keeping him in the finance department, but took such revenge on other Haughey associates he was dubbed the “Longford Slasher”.

Chief whip Dermot Ahern was swept out of the government. A memory that may have helped the present foreign minister decide not to throw his hat in the ring this time around.

Ahern seized the chance at the top job presented by the spectacular crash of the FF-Labour coalition in November 1994. A rapidly changing Ireland cared less about Mr Ahern’s sleeping arrangements and when Máire Geoghegan-Quinn withdrew from the race at the last minute he was elected unopposed.

It was a far cry from the bruising battle of 1979 when intimidation of some TDs during Haughey’s election as leader left such scars on the deeply factionalised party that a number of FF TDs seriously considered voting against Haughey when the Dáil divided to elect him taoiseach.

Such duplicity would surface for real as the FF parliamentary party gathered to decide on its presidential candidate in 1997.

Mr Ahern had promised Reynolds the nomination as a reward for not quitting his Dáil seat ahead of a very tight general election.

On becoming taoiseach Reynolds was no longer important to him and Ahern did not just move to have Mary McAleese made the party’s candidate but insured his predecessor was humiliated in the process. Reynolds entered the voting room confident of victory, but realised it was a trap. When Mr Ahern held his ballot paper up to Reynolds as proof he had supported him, the former taoiseach knew he had been “shafted”.

Mr Cowen may have avoided a bare-knuckle fight this time, but if he does not deliver at the next election it will not be very long before Fianna Fáil returns to its blood-thirsty old ways.