Renua Ireland facing a Herculean task

WHETHER Lucinda Creighton’s Renua Ireland has the impact its supporters imagine it might have remains to be seen, but yesterday’s launch in Dublin was more an underwhelming, long-flagged formality rather than a spectacular challenge to the status quo.

The gauntlet may have been thrown down, but not with the threat needed to provoke even a moderately excited mobilisation among the established parties.

Political stardust was in short supply and the kind of inspirational, energetic leadership figures — battle- hardened, parliamentary warhorses — needed to reshape a deeply embedded political culture were more notable by their absence than their participation. Though a noble set of guiding principles was outlined, the enormity of the task involved in making them real was underlined by the fact that not even one political heavyweight had defected from the main parties to join Ms Creighton and her colleagues in their Herculean task.