FF seeks to turn our loss to electoral gain

For Fianna Fáil, its ard fheis was about taking the decisive step away from past responsibility towards future political opportunity.

Fianna Fáil is back on its feet and getting back to basics. Even if reports of recovery are overdone, the recovery is real and shows signs of continuing.

A lot of the coverage focussed on abortion. However, much of what was debated centred on the party’s core. Farmers, public servants, and the self-employed were all oratorically fondled and had their ire justified. Micheál Martin’s strategy was about slowly slipping off the sackcloth and conjuring up again the populism — “fairness” was the upright term used — required to harvest popular discontent.