Nation comes before the individual

For me, Fianna Fáil was a way I could continue my national service after I left the Defence Forces.

I knew nothing of politics but read that FF was a party that supposedly represented everyone on this island, not just the working classes or the rich or only the middle classes, but everyone.

The idea being that if you could unite all the people of Ireland, regardless of background, behind a common purpose of creating a strong nation built on solid social principles such as equality, liberty and opportunity, that not only would the economic benefits flow from that but so, too, would the success of Ireland and its people. I liked that idea.

There are only four million of us, after all, but for that idea to succeed you need to promote values, not just policy. The minute we could no longer speak credibly about values, that’s when that vision was lost and that rot began in the 1980s.

For those who say FF cannot change, honestly, if I felt that I would leave myself. The hammering FF got in last year’s election showed what kind of politics people do not want and FF came to represent all of it. That coupled with the publication of the Mahon Report has shown how substantial the level of corruption was in all levels of the organisation and it’s hard to imagine how any change is possible or why people remain. That said, both events have given a remarkable opportunity for FF to clean up its act and reorganise based on sound principles, high moral standards, new radical but constructive ideas, new blood and, most importantly, a chance to begin to put country before party first.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that the Mahon Report will blow over, or that it will be forgotten about in time. In all honesty, I hope the last 14 years of FF government will never be forgotten, but I expect they won’t and rightly so. Whatever it achieved was made null and void, as far as the Irish people were concerned, by the bad ethical and economic practices and policies that were driven purely by the want to win elections through the promotion of auction politics. That needs to be remembered always. Politics became about the result over everything else and that was wrong, and although every party partook, we introduced it and we are responsible for that.

It is the system still practised by political parties today, only now it’s based on what they won’t take over what they will give.

Does the past of FF bother me? Yes, absolutely. It always will, unfortunately. Although I had no part in decisions that were made, as a member of three years, and at 25 years of age, I am still a member of a party that made those decisions and so will always be associated with them.

All I can do is remember those mistakes and understand why and how those mistakes were made, to hopefully prevent them from happening again. But I believe in what FF originally stood for and have faith it can start again in trying to bring about an Ireland that is built on cooperation and selflessness that every Irish man, woman and child can be proud of. A pride that is not attributed to an individual or party but a people and their collective efforts to bring about a better society and country.

I look forward to a time, hopefully soon, when FF members knocking on your door actually believe in why they are standing there, rather than in support of a particular individual. In the end, the cause of a nation is always greater than that of individuals.

James McCann

Chairperson

Ógra Dun

Laoghaire

Fianna Fáil