Reborn Noonan revelling in limelight

He was branded Fine Gael’s lost leader, but now Michael Noonan is teaching his successor a lesson in how to connect with the real world.

Few who witnessed Mr Noonan’s car crash general election campaign of 2001 would have predicted such a transformation. Then, his inability to connect with voters was manifest and helped ensure Fine Gael was almost swept away as it battled against the tide of electoral history as the Celtic Tiger was erupting into its full roar.

The sight of the Fine Gael leader wiping away the remnants of a custard pie that had been splattered in his face came to symbolise Mr Noonan’s disastrous attempt to take on the mantle of Taoiseach.

But now he has re-emerged into the limelight displaying a sudden surge of the sure-footed emotional intelligence Enda Kenny so patently lacks.

While Mr Kenny lumbered on his usual wooden way throughout the two-day Dáil debate on the economy, Mr Noonan brilliantly captured the national mood of despair and laid the blame firmly at the feet of the Government.

Without falling into the slightly sanctimonious sounding trap that Labour’s Eamon Gilmore occasional digs for himself, Mr Noonan eloquently expressed the bewildered misery of countless families ripped apart by the explosion of the boom as their children are scattered to the four corners of the Earth in the search for the dignity of a working life they can no longer hope for at home.

Mr Noonan’s quiet, gravelly voice which once so grated with voters, now seems to exude a vibe of empathy as he assesses the economic carnage littering the country.

He emerged from his briefing at the Finance Department last week displaying the air of a disappointed headmaster, which is a step up from Mr Kenny who can sometimes come across with all the finesse of a frenetic Thunderbirds puppet.

The botched rebellion against Mr Kenny thrust him back into the frontline as he was seen as the only party figure with enough gravitas to take on Brian Lenihan after Richard Bruton was banished from the key economic role as punishment for his challenge.

Mr Noonan refused to say publicly who he backed in the leadership showdown, but many suspect he was not on team Enda. However, his elevation has boosted the party as Mr Bruton could often come across as credible, yet slightly robotic and at times exuding all the warmth of a walking pocket calculator.

Mr Noonan’s experience in national life gives him an inbuilt blast of natural authority, and to that he has added a knack of tuning in to the angst of an electorate feeling bruised and betrayed by a decade of false promises and lost opportunities.

Nine years on from leading his party to its most shattering defeat, he is enjoying a political second act which could see him expunge the blame he shares for that 2001 failure by playing a key role in helping Fine Gael win its first Dáil election for nearly three decades.