McDowell express picks up steam

ROLL up, roll up for your seats on the mystery train ride that takes you through the long and dramatic journey of Michael McDowell’s political career. Yes folks, we can guarantee a spectacular rollercoaster ride.

Look left now to see the spills and the thrills of his stuntman period when he recklessly chucked himself out of Fine Gael, walked the tightrope with the electorate of Dublin South-East and fell off badly in 1987. Witness him shimmying up a lamp-post with AB-SO-LUTE-LY zero protection.

Ooops, now we’re hurtling through the dungeon of horrors; all the bruising battles; his well-meaning-hubris; the smacks he took over casinos, café bars. If you are of sensitive disposition, avert your eyes for his unprovoked VBH (verbal bodily attack) on a defenceless Fine Gael deputy leader.

And now we’re quickly gaining ground; PD founder member; TD; Attorney General; Minister for Justice; the slam-dunker of Sinn Féin; leader of the PDs; Tánaiste; and finally, finally… wait for it folks… we are coming up to journey’s end now… Taoiseach.

Michael McDowell’s ambition has always been neon. It was he who forced the leadership question during his nasty squabble with Mary Harney last June. From his perspective (and that is the only view McDowell has of the word) she had given a date, in fact three successive dates, for her departure but on each occasion had thwarted his ambition.

McDowell had his ears pinned back then. The leadership issue was settled with Harney winning the unanimous endorsement of the party, including that of a subdued Justice Minister.

He, as much as anybody else, might have been caught on the hop by Harney’s shock announcement on Thursday. But this time around, Harney made sure there would be none of the shenanigans that eased her into the leadership in 1993 at the expense of an apoplectic Pat Cox. Nobody was tipped off beforehand like she had been. She was careful that none of the three pretenders would be put into an advantageous position.

The astonishing aspect of all of this was the speed at which it was all wrapped up. Whatever about Harney commanding the support of all the troops when she forced McDowell’s hand three months ago, her departure meant we were looking at a horse of a different colour. Suddenly, all of those who had backed Harney to the hilt had metamorphosed overnight into unwavering McDowellites.

In the hours following Harney’s departure, the nascent campaign teams were already in action, canvassing support, taking soundings on how the numbers stacked up. O’Donnell supporters were talking optimistically about tallying up six possibles out of the 13 TDs and senators, if there was a two-way race — O’Donnell herself, Senator John Minihan, Tim O’Malley, John Dardis, Tom Parlon and possibly Mary Harney.

They were confident that if there was a three-week campaign, O’Donnell’s charm and media savvy would help her make inroads into McDowell’s initial lead.

But overnight everything had unravelled. The campaign ended yesterday morning when Tim O’Malley came out and declared his support for the minister. Supporters of McDowell said they were confident that the other potential floaters in the parliamentary party, Fiona O’Malley and Mae Sexton, were in his camp.

Tim O’Malley’s backing left both Parlon and O’Donnell in the lurch. Their problem is that each candidate needs to be nominated and seconded by one of the party’s TDs. With Mary Harney declaring herself agnostic on her preferred successor, it meant that if O’Donnell or Parlon wanted to stand they would need the other to second their nomination.

And as the day progressed, the momentum behind McDowell became unstoppable. Noel Grealish, Sen Michael Brennan, Sen Kate Walsh, Sen Tom Morrissey, as well as former TD Bobby Molloy, all pledged their support for him. By noon, it was becoming clear that it would be a coronation.

And so Michael McDowell will be Tánaiste, on Monday or very shortly afterwards. PDs were yesterday saying that Bertie Ahern’s warning about the Government needing to last its term was designed for his backbenchers. But while McDowell and the PDs need the Government to last (to demonstrate that they made a real difference) there is an incendiary gasket-blowing quality to him. So much so that the mystery train is capable of derailing the Government at any moment over the next nine months.