Alison O'Connor: Understated Micheál Martin deserves some credit for his service to this State
Surely nobody celebrated Micheál Martin's state of the nation address on Tuesday — but many would have quietly reflected that the Taoiseach's steady calm and dignity have helped him serve his country during a period of unprecedented crisis. Picture: Julien Behal
That is so what happened after Taoiseach Micheál Martin finished his speech to the nation on Tuesday night detailing the lifting of virus restrictions.
Unlike so many other occasions when there was a major announcement — often containing horrible details on new lockdown restrictions — you hardly felt like popping open a can of lemonade, let alone a glass of wine, to assist with the absorbing of it all.
The ‘new’ normal, you see, is as yet unknown. It is clearly welcome, but, after the global events of the last year and a half, it is no surprise that many of us remain happy to hang back and see how things develop before rushing out to embrace this new order. The high and ever-increasing virus numbers simply reinforce that feeling.
All rather low-key is the best way to describe Tuesday’s announcement. Understandably. Just like the Taoiseach’s speech. Just like the Taoiseach. There is no doubt he has grown into the role of leader of the country in the past year or so. His delivery has improved, as has his overall public performance.
He has been a steady presence. There has been a dignity about how he has gone about the job of leading a society gripped with fear in the midst of a global pandemic while also dealing with a very vocal rump, involving different voices at different times, who believed everything was moving too slowly, too carefully.
The Corkman has served as Taoiseach during a time of acute difficulty for the country. He has done the State some service. But you’d also have to reflect how it seems written in the political stars that the Fianna Fáil leader has a notable dearth of Champagne-worthy moments in his career.
Since getting his seal of office at Áras an Uachtaráin in June 2020, as the head of a three-party Coalition, there seem to be countless occasions when he has chosen to bite his lip, turn the other cheek, keep his powder dry — choose your idiom.
The cause is not always, but mostly, linked to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. The most recent egregious example of this relates to the sleight-of-hand appointment of former minister Katherine Zappone and all the ensuing, ever-continuing, controversy.
It’s clear the Taoiseach has taken pragmatic decisions to swallow hard in the face of provocation, knowing a Covid-weary public has little appetite for theatrics. But it is also his own ambition that makes him hamstrung by his situation. This is his big and final shot at power. He wants to remain in the Taoiseach’s office until the agreed date of December 2022.
Martin took over Fianna Fáil at a time when its popularity took an epic, and well deserved, plunge. The party was in a wretched place, where it remained for a considerable amount of time. Then, when Martin took over the country, it was in the midst of a global pandemic and just around the time we’d had more than enough speeches from podiums on pulling together while staying apart. Our Covid situation has improved hugely with vaccinations, but as far as Fianna Fáil goes, the party seems to constantly hover at the door of the political emergency department.
From the beginning, Martin’s has been a backfoot leadership. He and the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party have had a perpetually uneasy relationship as he attempted to forge a new path for a once mighty organisation that, almost overnight, became the political equivalent of kryptonite.
Years have passed; general, local, and European elections, as well as referenda, have come and gone, with everything from the day-to-day humdrum of political life to a regular enough supply of controversies. Still, he ploughed on — never ever seeming to reach any sort of a sweet spot with Fianna Fáil. Actually what has characterised the wider relationship is a sourness — at least with the more vocal members of his party, who take to the airwaves to vent their spleens publicly.
It’s like his leadership is perpetually one step away from an earthquake — serious seismic activity, for instance, after the result of the recent Dublin Bay South by-election.
But they’ve yet to bring him down. Even his detractors, though, sigh in exasperation to hear yet another criticism from the likes of Sligo TD Marc MacSharry. This is a man who can induce a political migraine before he has gotten past the first clause of his first sentence.
The real-time reports from the Fianna Fáil Zoom parliamentary party meetings have many of the elements of the toddler room in a creche. There’s Barry Cowen stirring the pot, John McGuinness pulling out an even bigger pot, and Jim O’Callaghan muscling in on the attention to present himself as the most delectable leadership prospect.
Are there reasons to criticise Martin for the state Fianna Fáil is now in? Many, many reasons. It’s dismal. He has repeatedly failed to carry the room when it comes to his own party — surely a key component of political leadership. Loyalty is never a word that springs to mind when thinking of the relationship between him and his party.
If you were explaining to a stranger what the Fianna Fáil of today stands for, you’d be hard pressed. In an interview on RTÉ on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said that, as we emerge from Covid, it was now his intention that people would see improvements on climate, healthcare — and particularly housing — as a result of the actions taken by this Government. Just what difference is made to those issues by having Fianna Fáil ideology in the mix remains mostly a mystery.
There is still no clear successor to Martin. It’s impossible to forget the words of veteran Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea, back in 2014, when talk of a leadership contest was yet again surfacing.
They remain as relevant today:
All these years later, you still have a bunch of TDs and senators, political kamikazes, seemingly happy to ignore the further damage they are doing to the party in the pursuit of personal political gain.
In that same interview on Wednesday, Martin agreed he would be going “all the way” to the next general election in government and as leader of Fianna Fáil.
Politically, he would be mad to say anything else, even if there is virtually zero chance of him leading the party at that point. Anything could indeed happen, but from this vantage, it appears some sort of miracle would be required in order for Fianna Fáil to bounce back at the next general election.
So Martin’s name will never be included in the pantheon of great political party leaders. If I was to take a guess, I’d wager he is not a Champagne fan. But, at the end of his time as Taoiseach, he certainly deserves a toast with something special for the decent and level-headed manner in which he has led the country for the past year or so.
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