Coming months will be ultimate fight of Kenny’s political life

ENDA KENNY, Ireland’s most prominent Mayo man, will be hoping last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final football clash with Dublin is a metaphor for his political life, writes Gerard Howlin. 

Seeming too far behind to catch up, Mayo dug deep and scored a draw against the Dubs to fight again next Saturday. Until he became Taoiseach, his own long history as an also-ran paralleled his team’s fortunes.

The Taoiseach, like Mayo’s football team, spent years qualifying for the final without bringing home the silverware. That thin analysis has a grain of truth, but it also belies a fundamental fact. He kept in contention longer, for the ultimate prize than any future Taoiseach in modern politics. His endurance and longevity are political phenomena of sorts. It is all the more so considering his near miss in 2007. In retrospect, losing then was a lucky break. But it almost undid him. Underestimated by some of his own, it was only an internal heave against him in 2010 that consolidated his leadership, eight years after he attained it.