Fine Gael could learn much from its founders

EIGHTY years ago on Sunday last, a new political party was publicly unveiled at a convention in the Mansion House.

Approximately 150 delegates and representatives attended the meeting officially to launch the Cumann na nGaedheal party.

As the Civil War was still in progress, there was a strong military presence as the president of the executive council of the Irish Free State, WT Cosgrave, addressed the assembled gathering and voiced the need to “attract the best elements of the nation and bring home to everyone the need for a sound national organisation which knew neither creed nor class but worked for the best interests of the people and the nation”.

What is hard to understand today is that Eoin MacNeill, and not WT Cosgrave, was President of the Cumann na nGaedheal party in April, 1923, but this is perhaps best explained by reflecting on the fact that the complicated political situation meant that government rather than party considerations would dominate Cosgrave’s thinking until those who threatened the stability of the state were defeated.

Easter this year marked the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, and it is interesting to note that among the elements in the party programme adopted on April 27, 1923, was a commitment to achieve “the unity of Ireland and to combine the diverse elements of the nation in a common bond of citizenship, and in harmony with national security”.

Also, as we face into a different economic climate to that of the Celtic Tiger era, we can surely agree that the only way to safeguard our nation’s future is by ensuring that, in Eoin MacNeill’s words, we “secure the fullest opportunities of educational advancement for every section of the community”.

Finally, the present leader of Fine Gael, the party which was the result of a merger between the Blueshirts, Cumann na nGaedheal and the Centre Party in September, 1933, would do well to reflect on the thoughts of WT Cosgrave on the occasion of his retirement from politics in July, 1944, when he

acknowledged that although his party had failed to retain popular support, he believed that it was “not beyond the capacity of able men to discover a way to the people’s confidence and, having found it, to keep it”.

Frank Bouchier-Hayes,

Newcastle West,

Co Limerick.