Gerard Howlin: Fianna Fáil grapples with crisis of identity after counter-revolution

As dangerous as it would be to go into government without Sinn Féin, it would be as fraught to go alone.

THE late Brian Lenihan Sr self-described as “the X in OXO”. But now, the party he once embodied is in immediate danger of becoming the meat in the sandwich. There is no combination of coalition which excludes Sinn Féin that won’t put them in danger of further diminishment. Government wouldn’t be so much an Indian summer as a nuclear winter. Still, no matter. It will work fine for the few who enjoy office.

Fianna Fáil’s problem isn’t tactical. It is isn’t even strategic, it is fundamental. It is a crisis of identity for a political party that self-described as a national movement. Only mediocrity of ambition could countenance coalition with Fine Gael, without Sinn Féin. For a party that is heir to the constitutional subtlety of a de Valera there is immobilising inertness instead.