FF was flawed from the very start

IT’S not really all that surprising Fianna Fáil can’t pull itself together to face the coming election.

Remember, this is not the first time Fianna Fáil has driven the country to the brink of ruin. We were here before as a result of Fianna Fáil’s economic war in the 1930s, its policy of economic stagnation in the 1940s and in the 1980s as a result of its 1977 manifesto.

The difference now is not only is Fianna Fáil in office when the consequences of its failings have become clear for all to see, but, even worse, it was in office when the IMF did actually have to take over. Something which other governments, even like the Fianna Fáil GUBU one, managed to avoid.

However, let’s not kid ourselves that Fianna Fáil caused this mess overnight. It started in 1979 when the party chose the culture of Mr Haughey and Mr Lenihan Snr instead of that of Mr Colley and Mr Hillery, so it’s only right that the natural heirs of Mr Haughey, which include every single Fianna Fáil and former PD member of cabinet, should reap what they sowed all those years ago.

What the party and the wider populace are going through now is akin to a victim of domestic abuse finally realising that by continuing the relationship, they are in fact a facilitator in their own abuse.

The political pedigree of Fianna Fáil was of course always flawed from its start. A party created due to the ego of one man, who caused a civil war by refusing to accept the democratic choice of the Irish people to support the Treaty, was never going to have the same level of integrity parties like Fine Gael or Labour have, as well as most of the other parties who have come and gone over the years, nor could it ever attract people of integrity the way those parties could and did.

But better late than never, the Irish people have now finally realised their complicity in facilitating Fianna Fáil being in office and those in Fianna Fáil now know they are going to face the consequences of their actions and abuses over the years and they are right to be afraid.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London