Kenny's oath to honesty

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny used his party’s weekend Árd Fheis to deliver a powerful speech and signal he is ready to lead the country, writes political editor Harry McGee.

IT’S now almost five years since Enda Kenny became leader of Fine Gael. So stunning was his rise without trace that most outside the tightly-knit world of politics were moved to ask: Enda who?

Kenny became Fine Gael leader at the lowest moment in (almost) the longest losing streak in modern political history. The backroom people in Fine Gael surveying the train wreck of 2002 knew that, if the party lost again in 2007, the record would read: five successive leaders failed in five elections over 20 years.