Come on, Mary, why the silence? I wonder what could be worrying you?

What is making Mary Harney keep her powder dry, and effectively leaving a cloud over whether a government will be formed on June 14? Is she looking for certainty there is nothing going on behind the scenes that would destabilise a government almost as soon as it is formed?

THE morning after the 1992 general election, and with Dick Spring’s permission, I got hold of Pat Rabbitte’s home number and rang him to suggest a meeting. I didn’t know him well then — in fact, he was a virtual stranger. But, depending on how you totted up the figures, his party, Democratic Left, could be seen as holding the balance of power. Labour had done immensely well in that election, and both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had lost a lot of seats.

There was a slight problem, though. A recount was going on in Dublin South Central, and Eric Byrne of Democratic Left was locked in a tussle with Ben Briscoe of Fianna Fáil. If Byrne won, then a combination of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left would just about have the numbers to make up a workable majority — and deliver the change Dick Spring had campaigned for. (It’s ironic that the same Eric Byrne, who is now with Labour, came within 70 votes of winning a seat this time. Had he won, the alliance for change would be in a stronger position today. So Byrne has twice come within an ace of making history.)