Anniversary of FG role model
The country was still in the throes of a civil war, and it is perhaps one of the saddest ironies of that conflict that while Michael Collins was dining in Bandon with Gen Sean Hales on August 22, 1922, prior to embarking on his final journey, his brother, Tom Hales was busy planning the ambush which would result in Collins' death. Fine Gael members would do well to remember that Sean Hales had an even closer association with that party than had Michael Collins.
On the day that Sean Hales died, he was due to attend a meeting concerned with the setting up of a new political party, Cumann na nGaedheal, to represent the views and concerns of those who had adopted a pro-Treaty stance. This party would, a decade later, merge with the Centre Party and the Blueshirts to form Fine Gael.
