Gareth O'Callaghan: Nothing has changed politically in 50 years

There are many similarities between the Fianna Fáil leader of five decades ago, Jack Lynch, and the man who is about to become taoiseach, Micheál Martin

On a summer’s day in June 1977, Jack Lynch wiped the eyes of five political parties and other independents contesting the general election by winning an unprecedented landslide victory for Fianna Fáil.

“It’s like the days of Jack Lynch all over again,” the man sitting next to me on my bus journey into Cork told me dreamily during the week. I smiled and nodded. I didn’t have the heart to disagree with him.

Let’s remind ourselves then of those so-called halcyon days of the 1970s when politics possibly seemed to have a stronger, if somewhat mythical whiff of transparency about it than what’s been landed in our laps in recent times.