Backbench committee - Initiative raises ghost of FF unrest

The formation of the Fianna Fáil backbench committee in an effort to force Bertie Ahern and his frontbench colleagues to heed the concerns of backbenchers is hauntingly reminiscent of the unease in the party during the summer of 1979.

This was the precursor of a period of unprecedented unrest within Fianna Fáil.

An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was a backbench member of the party in his first Dáil term and Mary Harney was then a Fianna Fáil senator, also in her first term.