O’Rourke urges FF and FG to ‘bridge the divide’

Veteran Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke has called on the party to consider coalition with its traditional enemy, Fine Gael.

The ex-deputy leader insisted it was time for the two parties to put aside a dispute over a “treaty signed in London in far off days” and look to working together.

Ms O’Rourke, in an address to the William Carlton Summer School, Co Tyrone, urged the great rivals of Irish politics to “bridge the divide” separating them.

Ms O’Rourke’s call will have a particular resonance as her family links with Fianna Fáil are so strong, with her father, brother, and nephews representing the party in the Dáil.

Her brother, Brian Lenihan, was tánaiste and his son, Brian Jr, was finance minister.

“Here we are now in 2013 and here I am too, somebody who was in successive general elections elected on behalf of the Fianna Fáil party and proudly representing my constituency of Longford/Westmeath,” she said.

“And yet surely it is not too fanciful for me to put forward as the theme of this summer school that it is time that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would bridge the political divide between them and give serious thought to coming together in a political coalition come the next general election.”

Ms O’Rourke said a speech by her nephew, Brian, at Béal na mBláth, had inspired her call for reconciliation.

“I know quite well that there are plenty who will dismiss my reflections as ‘summer school speak’ or even the wild rantings of somebody who has left the political system. It is very easy to dismiss my thoughts in that cavalier fashion.

“I put the thought out there conscious that I can do so coming, as I am, from a lifetime of observing the tribal political theatre that is Dáil Éireann, coming, as I am, from someone who has reflected in historical terms long and hard on the thoughts I am putting forward today and coming, as I am, from a mixed political pedigree.”