Gilmore strikes the right note as his hero comes back into fashion

It may prove to be a good time to be in opposition given the economic uncertainty, broken general election promises on the part of the Government, a growing anger over political mismanagement and a sense that three terms in office has made Fianna Fáil insufferably arrogant.

DESPITE the fact that his Watchword of Labour was dropped as the party’s anthem in favour of Jim Connell’s The Red Flag, the ghost of James Connolly lurked in the background at the Labour party conference last weekend.

There seemed to be a sense that the party is embarking on a journey back to the future, and there is no harm in that. In 1998, the current leader of the Labour party, Eamon Gilmore, who led the Democratic Left team that negotiated the merger with Labour, declared they were going about “the unfinished business of Connolly: to put the left in power”.