Is it the end of Fine Gael? The end of the center?

While copious newsprint has been expended on answering whether this weekend's election result heralds the end of Fianna Fáil, a less obvious question has not been asked - is this perhaps the end also of Fine Gael? Theo Dorgan argued on RTE's The Eleventh Hour last Friday night that Fianna Fáil had been dealt with, and now Fine Gael were being given their chance - which they would inevitably spurn - and the true political reshaping of Ireland would happen at the next election. That, he said, was when the New Politics - presumably some kind of evacuation of the center - would begin.

They are an undeniably populist, centrist party, just as Fianna Fáil were. They will act politically, in the interests of power, reckoning that serving power is systemically analogous to serving the people. They are not ideological, and even the Labour party, their putative junior coalition partner, while more clearly defined ideologically as a party of the left, has moved so far from the lunatic fringe (in large part through its ingestion of the Democratic Left) that it is barely recognisable any more as socialist, or left wing. Left leaning is about as much as one could say, and that they spent the last few days of the campaign arguing for balance in the center suggests that they were about as left of center as Fine Gael were right of it.

Centrism, populism, conservatism. It has defined Ireland for generations. The intellectual argument - a la Theo Dorgan - has always had it that the revolution is just around the corner. The inevitability of radicalism (as an aside, Micheal Martin's talk of a radical center is just stupid. He doesn't understand either centrism or radical) had seemed to be upon us after the arms crisis of the 1970s, then again after the GUBU years in the early 1980's, and even in the wake of Bertie Ahern's blatant and unrepentant cronyism during the Celtic Tiger years. In each case, the inner conservative asserted itself in the Irish electorate. A fear of the unknown, a lack of confidence in the nation as a mature entity, a selfishness presented itself to the polling stations across the country and said "well maybe if we nudge it slightly this way it will be OK."

Another commentator during the week mentioned the Clement Atlee comment on returning from America, that they had two parties dominating, one the Republican party much like the Conservative Party, and one the Democrats, much like the Conservative party. Today, I'm not sure the Labour party - or the Liberal Democrats for that matter - are all that different either, as the Tories moved back towards the center from the right under Cameron, and as Labour under Blair simply snaffled the center vacated by the post-Thatcher Tories under Major. In Ireland, The Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael / Labour triptych is much the same.

It is in this light that I am unsure whether we will have any "New Politics". We're not going to lurch to the left, in search of higher taxes so we can fund the less well off. We're too selfish, and - notwithstanding the recession - too well off to countenance such largesse. We're not going to lurch the right and risk alienating our European neighbours with whom we enjoy such a strong trading relationship.

The only way in which any kind of revolution will be born in this country is if its people suddenly become poor. Whether that is a result of sovereign default, currency detatchment from the Euro, or some other Global catastrophe waiting around the corner, I don't know. Until then, People Before Profit will attract transfers in the leafy suburbs from frustrated housewives feeling strangely unfulfilled by the promise of Ireland, who give their number ones to the establishment candidate who will maintain a not unpleasant status quo, and their preferences to socialist candidates in much the same way as they pay €100 for a social event to help the disadvantaged. "These tickets are not cheap," they will protest. But, then, all things are relative.

The Death of Fianna Fáil, and the Unsustainability of the Center

In all modern democracies, there is a problem with the narrative. Most start in some kind of war or other, be it the French Revolution, the American War of Independence and Civil War, and Ireland’s Independence and Civil War. Clausewitz said something to the effect that war is simply politics by other means, and certainly as wars end and politics take over, the war has a great influence on the political structures that emerge.

Once those structures are established, the life or death incantations from the battlefield and other bloodied words become political invocations. Vote Johnny because he saved your sons and daughters from the evil! Vote Mary because she fought for you! You owe your life to Tony! That sort of thing. There is real depth of feeling, strength of purpose, an offence strongly enough felt to fight and die for, be it slavery, dependence, partition, or a massacre. The political organisations that coagulate around the remnants of war develop other identities, along broad socio-political lines. Socialism, capitalism, nationalism, sectarianism, secularism, environmentalism, and religion can differentiate them.

After the War

Invariably, the dominant forces tend to occupy the winners in the war, those who get to dictate the national narrative post-war. They get to decide who the heroes were, what the school text books say, when the days of celebration shall be, and how the society shall be run. In building this national structure, it is a structure intended as a home for that new dominant political movement.

As the memory of war fades into history, and the blood and thunder disappears into the mists of time, politics “normalises”. In order to accommodate the wishes of the majority, the dominant party or parties concede ideological ground to minorities. In reconciling disparate opinion, different ethical, religious and cultural norms, the strength of commitment to a core set of beliefs diminishes. As time goes on, people, parties and movements dilute their zeal, undermine their original purpose, and compromise their very raison d’être.

Fianna Fáil: A Case Study

Thinking about Fianna Fáil, all of this is relevant. Built out of the remains of war, designed as an anti-Brit party, creator of the modern Ireland and synonymous with our politics for almost a century, it has now reached that stage where its identity has been so diluted as to represent nothing at all, and everything. Fianna Fáil became Ireland, for a time, and Ireland became Fianna Fáil. As its authority waned towards the end of the twentieth century, it accepted the inevitability of coalition government, dealing with the leftist labour party, then the Fianna Fáil breakaway right wing party the progressive democrats, then finally the Green party.

Signs of Demise: Coalition

By the time it acknowledged the need for coalition government, Fianna Fáil was already beginning to break up. The Progressive Democrat breakaway represented a group of ideologically driven politicians who wanted in some respects to resurrect the kind of politics that characterised the post-independence Ireland, a driven, thoughtful, productive politics. In some respects they simply wanted to pursue ideas, rather than power and politics as an end in itself. In the British sit-com Yes Minister, when Jim Hacker, a government minister, is asked whether he should reverse a particular policy because it is unpopular in his constituency, he solemnly declares “they are my people, I am their leader – I must follow them!” In a way, this reflected the Fianna Fáil of the 1980s, when the fractious state of the parties in Dáil Eireann reflected a disintegrating consensus about how Ireland should be run. It has yet to be restored.

The 1990’s

Fianna Fáil continued in coalition under Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern. There was an admirable consistency to the governments led by Fianna Fáil in the years since 1992. The story, however, was told by the junior partners in government in that time. The Labour party won a massive vote in the Spring Tide in 1992 in what was in essence an anti-Fianna Fáil vote. When they went into coalition with Fianna Fáil, there was a huge backlash, and the Labour vote suffered terribly in 1997. Had Reynolds gone to the park in 1994 when the coalition collapsed, Labour would have been decimated. As it was, they gave up all of their 1992 gains and more in 1997, and only the amalgamation of the Democratic Left managed to allow it a critical mass in opposition.

Hanging On In There

Fianna Fáil continued to attract a large vote, with a seat bonus that was crucial to its maintenance of power. Increasingly, however, they were dependent on older voters, the more atavistic and the middle classes were more clearly divided. The lower classes were deserting them in droves. The first coalition with the Progressive Democrats limped through several crises, but managed to serve the full term, buoyed by the success in the Peace Process, and encouraged by a rising international economic boom that underpinned significant growth in Ireland. In 2002, Ireland voted to maintain the growth in the economy, maintaining Fianna Fáil’s position in power, but decimating the opposition benches by returning record numbers of independents. Local issues – in particular healthcare, and local hospitals – now dominated, as the national position seemed to be of less concern. Fine Gael suffered tremendous losses in that campaign, unable to compete with a successful economy, and – crucially – unable to differentiate itself from Fianna Fáil.

The Peace Process and The Property Thing

It had at this stage become impossible to define what Fianna Fáil stood for. Bertie Ahern had been able to successfully negotiate peace in the six counties primarily because he had no ideology, no attachment one way or the other. He – and Fianna Fáil – was too far removed from the war to empathise too much with the Republican side. Certainly it was now possible for them to objectively discuss peace with the Unionists, and indeed the Unionists saw that too.

After the 2001 financial blip, it became clear that growth that was dependent on the export sector would offer up a hostage to fortune. Ireland would not be in control of its own economy. Thus began a series of measures designed to drive the construction sector into overdrive, in a combination of major national infrastructure development combined with tax incentives for housing development.

The Last Socialist (Except Joe)

In 2004, as people and opinion polls began to become concerned that the country was more like an economy than a society, Ahern famously gathered the great and the good of Fianna Fáil at Inchadonney, and had them listen to people like Seán Healy so that they could become more empathetic, and caring. In an interview for a Sunday newspaper that weekend, he declared him (alongside the inimitable Joe Higgins) to be the only socialist in Dáil Eireann.

There was no cynicism in Ahern’s mis-statement. He was, from a political science point of view, clearly not a socialist. But he was absolutely and unapologetically populist, and at that time when the health service was in difficulty and young people were having difficulty buying their first house, he genuinely set about redistributing the wealth. However, in that redistribution, he did so according to who was more likely to vote for Fianna Fáil, and therefore perpetuate his power. The decentralisation of the civil service was the last great act of Charlie McCreevy, who was summarily dispatched to Brussels for not being socialist enough.

A Party Devoid of Direction

Fianna Fáil had finally become devoid of purpose, save political administration. In that, two things happened. First, they became exposed to crisis – there was no ideology, no plan to fall back on. Second, and perhaps more importantly, they became fodder for the civil service administration. John Bruton’s recent assessment of the Cabinet as the execution arm of the civil service is correct – and unveils a constitutional anomaly where the Dáil is irrelevant, the Seanad an inconvenience, and the country itself disrespected by the politicians who would seek to serve it. In essence, the Cabinet itself has become the fall guy for the Civil Service.

Oblivion on the Horizon?

It is unlikely that Fianna Fáil will be completely decimated at the forthcoming general election. It is difficult to know where the floor is in terms of seats, but to see them winning more than 30 seats (or roughly one per constituency) seems far fetched. There will be constituencies where they will win no seats; and there will be very, very few where they win more than one. Dun Laoighre will be interesting, with a cabinet member and two junior ministers all looking likely to lose their seats – ironically because of their profile; those Fianna Fáil politicians who retain their seats are more likely to be the less well known members, and therefore those less well associated with the party. The Fianna Fáil logos on their election posters will be small indeed.

The movement, however, will be undeniably at an end. Fianna Fáil politicians grasping for the leadership of the party this week have been talking about Fianna Fáil as more than just a party, as a community movement, something belonging to the people, a part of the fabric of the country. That is no longer true.

An Unsustainable Center?

Ultimately, it was Fianna Fáil’s centrism, populism that got found out. For years, people demanded, and people got. Fianna Fáil read the tea leaves, the opinion polls, Liveline and the Sunday Papers, and blithely designed policies around that. In the process, it abdicated an identity of its own. And when crisis hit, and the people said “lead us, where should we go? What should we do?” the party had no answers. When the leadership of the party was in the balance last Thursday evening, members of the party disappeared off to their constituencies nevertheless. The party was irrelevant now.

Was it inevitable? Is populist centrism unsustainable in the face of crisis? Is it inevitable that people in a democracy gravitate to this cobbled-together ideology that is least well suited to serve them in a crisis? Maybe it is. Fine Gael is undeniably now defined as not Fianna Fáil, but it remains centrist, and populist. Labour has succeeded in attracting support because it moved to the center from the radical left. I would be unsurprised if Fine Gael and Labour did not do as well as people think in the upcoming election – independents, radicals will do well. Ireland may well become like Italy. A balkanised political class, and a disaffected populace, but with the added ingredient of an economy in freefall. We need to tread softly now, for we tread on our dreams.

Media as Opiate: Internet Television, Satellite Television, IPTV...

So, here's why it won't work. People like to be told what to watch. People think, occasionally, jeeze, I'd love to see an episode of the Simpsons right now. But the waiting, the channel hopping, the yearning, is all part of the experience. How many people have massive DVD collections, but never watch them? Or have taped movies on VHS or DVD burners or whatever, but won't watch them? They are the same people who will get excited about the fact that the Godfather's on tonight, and sit in and watch it (and the ads), and get popcorn and make an event out of it, even though they have a recording with ads on VHS, an original copy of the movie on VHS, and the box set of the trilogy on DVD. The fact is that people like to be told what to watch. They like how the programming directs, and affirms their lives. The cyclical nature - see on TV, do in real life, watch on TV and smile smugly. Smugness. That's what it's all about. And, like goldfish, how quickly we forget. We see the Devil wears Prada previews on TV. We save up and buy the Prada bag (well, my wife does). Then we watch the movie when it makes it to air, and we feel smug - this movie is telling people to go out and buy what I already own.

Sheep. Stupid, woolly, opiated sheep. Happy Monday.

Europe and America

The rivets are popping, according to The Economist, in the relationship between Europe and America. The article pulls no punches. Labelling the invasion of Iraq 'bloody and incompetent', and abdicating any predilection for equivocation on the rendition scandal, it refers to 'astonishing amnesia and lazy prejudice'. Almost like something I'd write, and certainly not to be expected of the Economist. Well, we all know it's politics, but even this is going a little too far.

Question is, if all of these diabolicalisms are destroying the historical relationship between Europe and America (Sam Huntingdon would no doubt disagree), whither next? Do we re-enter a period of isolationism? That is perfectly impossible. Even China has a massive influence over Europe and America these days, to say nothing of the effect they have on each other. Modern capitalist democracies are economies first, societies second, the theory being that one pays for the infrastructure that delivers the second. Questionable philosophy, perhaps, but nevertheless exposes the nation, the country, the region to disproportionate external influence. It is the way that countries, economies and regions are organised that precludes isolationism. Even DPRK, even with its ideological differentiation, its social alternative, could not resist integration and did the deal. We're all in this together.

So if we can't hide in an isolationist shell, where do we go next? Truth is we have to get on with it, and the further truth is that we have, in fact, been getting on with it for some time.

Paul O'Connell. David Banner. Legend.

No words.

The Trial of Kareem Amer

It is such a pitiful thing. We may criticise our governments, and chastise our venerable Minister for Justice for his neglect of Human Rights, but we're really not all that badly off.

Kareem Amer, whose real name is Abdel Kareem Soliman, was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt yesterday. He was improsoned for three years for 'insulting Islam and inciting sedition', and to one year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

Michael McDowell is a mad mullah dictator who oppresses people and should be deposed as Minister for Justice in favour of anyone else. There. I said it.

But there is no courage in rant, no bravery in rage, and no conviction in blogging in a democracy such as the one it is our privilege to inhabit. Sure it's imperfect, but I won't be looking over my shoulder when I pull up outside my house tonight. Even if Michael McDowell is trying to make us think crime is a real issue :)

Sergeant Arrested and Questioned...

Did I hear this right? On the One O'Clock News? That a Garda has been arrested for sharing information with a non-Garda about a criminal proceeding?

Why don't we wheel out the old Frank Connolly precedent, and put that in the investigating officer's pipe and have him smoke it. If Minister for Justice Michael McDowell can do it, anyone can do it. Right?

Look at this post from the height of the Frank Connolly scandal. Look at this line, quoted by Professor Walsh in the Irish Times:

“The principle of innocence until proven guilty is fundamental to civilisation throughout the world. Leaking documents from a criminal investigation to a particular newspaper – that’s subversion of the State,” Professor Walsh says.

Unless, that is, you happen to be the Minister for Justice.

And while we're at it, let's arrest Sam Smyth as well.

The Hospital Consultants of Death

Now, this is a little different. Nothing to do with Michael McDowell, and a complement for his party colleague and erstwhile nemesis, Mary Harney. The hospital consultants.

Back in 1999, the consultants voted unanimously in favour of hiring more consultants. In 2004, Harney allegedly drew the battle lines with the consultants because they were bottlenecking the system and not delivering enough into public practice. They threaten industrial action over insurance, and then disciplinary procedures. Further problems arise over the HSE's refusal to offer new 'hybrid contracts', allowing consultants to work as much as they like (pretty much) in private hospitals, reinforcing the two tier system.

Here's the thing. Irish Hospital Consultants run a cartel. They are all earning three, four hundred thousand euros a year, because there are not enough of them, and because they protect their cartel status. And they even have a union - I mean, if you thought the ESB was bad, with average wages of around 80K per annum, these guys are nuts!

In ye olde times, gentlemen became either barristers or consultants, they were the only two professions that were respectable. (Barristers are going to get it in the neck shortly as well, as soon as McDowell gets one in the ear) Consultants don't work for anyone, essentially, they work for themselves. And so do barristers. There is a niceness to it all that is a sickening throwback to empire and class. It does two things - it makes the consultants very, very rich, and it protects their riches from encroachment by the great unwashed. Similarly, that layer of arbitrary protection compromises the health service, and because of their greed people die.

These consultants are earning millions, millions, millions of taxpayers money in most cases, and they are taking the money and letting people die. Brian Cowen knew it, and ran away from what he called 'Angola'. Mary Harney had the cohones to take them on, and has done so. Fair play to her, I hope she bursts them good and proper.

One final spit-in-the-eye from the IHCA - on the website, the following is what they are about:

The Association was established to promote, encourage and support the advancement of the practice of Medicine, in all specialties and areas, and the improvement of the Health Services in Ireland.

What a load of absolute horse shit. There. I did it. The first swear word on my blog. The secondary 'oh, by the way, we also dabble in a bit of this' line is the following:

It also seeks to promote and protect the interests of Medical and Dental hospital consultants in Ireland.

Does it really? Here's the thing. The only thing that this organisation is about is representing their interests, protecting the cartel, assuring their futures and keeping riff-raff out of the profession. And as for the 'practice of Medicine'? Well, their steadfast defence of their cartel has resulted in people dying. Where's your hypocratic oath now? Shoved up the fat arse of Mr. I-Don't-Give-A-Flying-Fiddlers-Fuck-How-Many-People-Die consultant.

More rage. And not even a mention of McDowell, apart from the mention at the start that it had nothing to do with McDowell.

Rugby. A Diversion.

The arguing over Norn Iron and how demonic McDowell actually is makes on depressed. But the rugby energises me.

Looks like we'll have a full complement from which to select for Saturday's game against England at Croke Park. The English are not exactly firing on all cylinders, and notwithstanding Wilkinson's rest weekend, I don't think they're going to have enough. One wag suggested to the Irish Times that whatever about beating the English 19-16, it would be horrendous to lost 19-20; Can I suggest a more futuristic result - 36-11, perhaps.

Garrett Fitzgerald, and David Adams

Two stories from the Irish Times (sub reqd), on Friday and Saturday respectively. The first, David Adams - our enlightened Unionist faux-intellectual doorknob - suggests that the media in the South have not been sufficiently critical of Mary MacAleese (aka El Presidente) when she brings up the pain of her Northern Nationalist upbringing in seeking a point of empathy with the less well off. She probably overstepped the mark when comparing Unionists to Nazis - while there were undoubtedly some similarities, there were a great many things that were unique to Naziism. In any case, the First Lady was pilloried on both sides of the border for that particular pas trop loin. But the instance in question that sent our venerable Mr. Adams into a tizzy was a speech in Scotland where she was addressing some people involved in combatting homelessness, and she again went to the well in search of a personal point of reference, coming up with the time when her family were burned out of their home in Belfast.

Now, there are a series of issues here. First, she can't be prevented from drawing on her personal history to empathise with others, which is what she needs to do in order to do her job. I suspect Mr. Adams would have been equally aghast had she brought up the famine, and how thousands of Irish families were turfed out onto their bare arses, because that was too provocative as well.

Here's the central point - Unionists don't like being reminded about how oppressive and violent and discriminatory and illiberal and racist and snobbish they were in the past. In particular, they don't like being reminded of it by an uppity taigue who managed to escape the appalling conditions that her family was subjected to, rise above it, and be nice to the same people who tried to beat her down.

In the same paper, on the same page, but on a different day, Garrett Fitzgerald blames the IRA for having dampened economic development in the North. Have ranted about this a little over at slugger. Let me go a little further here. There is a time when the establishment says 'can't we just let everything be', and it is wrong to say OK. It is wrong to let everything be, because everything is very much not OK, and the establishment is wrong. Garrett Fitzgerald presents a one dimensional econometric argument that is poorly weighted and deeply imbalanced, and proceeds to infuse the conclusion with personal comment ('I resent', etc.) that has no place.

The man may have had his time, and perhaps that time has passed.

McDowell: A Picture of Pain

With thanks to Blogorrah for pic 1, and to Skin Fliks for pic 2, we're starting to get enraged about McDowell.

Starting? Happened long ago bud.

McDowell Launches Poster Campaign Lauding Rights Restrictions

Michael McDowell today launched a new poster campaign listing all of the things Michael McDowell has done since becoming Minster for Justice. "In my tenure, I have overseen deep resentment in the Gardaí over undertrained revervists in a vain effort to make up for my own failure in recruiting more Gardaí; massive corruption in the force in Donegal; abusing the rights of Irish citizens in nursing homes; deporting Irish born babies; exponentially increasing the gap between rich and poor; undermining the judicial process by denying Frank Connolly a presumption of innocence; directly compromising the separation of powers by telling the judges what to do when considering bail terms; lowering myself to ego-baiting against Richard Bruton; mis-representing the will of the Irish people, and embarrassing the nation by not buying a wig."

He continued "we look forward to your support in the next general election."

The PD's did nothing, apparently, and if you look at the home page there is a vague reference to health turning the corner, but apart from that it is justice, crime and Michael McDowell.

How the party must hate him - he may well manage to have himself and no one else elected to the Dáil next time out.

DPRK, DPRK, DPRK, DPRK

The new 'in' word is DPRK. When conversing with people about the state of the world, an Iraq conversation, say, then toss in a sentence like 'this DPRK thing has me so freaked out.' DPRK, of course, is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It's troubling because the United States appears to have secured a withdrawal from the nuclear brink by Kim Jong-Il and his communist friends, but t a massive price. Apparently, they're giving them something like a billion tons of oil or something like that. Like, lots of the stuff.

And they are now not officially on the axis of evil any more. Presumably Iraq has also now been removed from the axis, which leaves Iran, really, as a Point of Evil. An evil constructs go, a point really isn't all that bad. I mean, everyone knows that there's evil in the world, and to identify one point of evil as more important or offensive than the next, well, that's almost racist, isn't it?

Now here's the other thing. Bush has consistently referred to two groups in his presidency. The first, the axis of evil, is now a point. The second, the Coalition of the Willing, is decidedly frosty now, but I guess with the Brits still committed to Afghanistan and Iraq, remains a coalition. Question is, should the other countries be put into a box - one, for example, where we could place DPRK. They're certainly not going into the good guys box - the Coalition. Even for a squillion tons of oil I doubt we're going to see Kil Jong-Il's boys taking on Moqtada Al-Sadr any time soon. So I guess we could call the middle ground the Alliance of the Distinctly Average. We're not evil (just like Google), and we're not good either - at least not to the point of invading Iraq (or Iran for that matter - that will probably need a Coalition of the Coerced). We're just kind of OK.

Did anyone mention rendition? Oh no, here we go.

Slugger and the Rugby

Slugger O'Toole, our friend up North, has a penchant for stirring things up a little, but one has to admit it's strange the things that stir the soul of the less thuggish element of society (assuming in an entirely elitist kind of way that most blog contributors are at least marginally less malnourished and fractionally better educated than the great unwashed, and therefore capable of rational thought and reasonable dialogue). In this instance, it's the rugby, with its 32 country protestant origins and the symbolism attached thereto.

Ironies abound in this one. The all-island nature of the game, the 'true' provincial separations and national unification with the oval ball, came about through privilege. Rugby, an English game for the fee-paying schools and young men of the social elite, has always been the protestant game. And because the protestants ran it, the protestants in the North could agree with the protestants in the south how best to run the game. And so we have this clarity of purpose, undimmed by politics, unclouded by cynicism and blind loyalism, that has brought us to a point where we have an extraordinary day out in Croke Park.

If in the six counties GAA is dominated by the Catholic nationalist, and soccer by the protestant loyalist, for so long rugby has been in the preserve of the progressive unionist. Not, of course, the late lamented David Ervine's breed, but rather the gone-but-not-forgotten David Trimble variety. These are ordinary unaspiring pragmatists, the undogmatic and pea-eating middle classes who don't even ask 'why everyone can't just get along' when politics comes up at a dinner party, they rather recoil into themselves and ask whether anyone would like more coffee. These are good people.

Now, there's a quote from Edmund Burke that goes along the lines of 'all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.' The implication is that we all have responsibilities that extend beyond ourselves into the broader realms of society; this is altogether true. However, some people are weak, one could perhaps argue cowardly. Whether that is a failing in themselves, or within their culture is not for me to say, but there is a certain amount of that shirk of responsiblity in all of us, and we should therefore not be too quick to judge.

So, back to the rugby. These good people took it upon themselves to organise games across the island, and upon partition chose to ignore politics and acknowledge that the political division of the island could not separate the sporting ambitions of men who had more in common than not. That it has persisted to see the day when rugby is welcomed into Croke Park is indeed encouraging.

But such a skirmish on Slugger. The only organisation on the island with the cohones to push a compromise anthem through, leading the way for others to follow, and it is pilloried. Such demented, enraged, mind-numbingly myopic (an innovative construct, I grant you), and pitiful arguments, occasionally descending into farcical name calling, often boiling over into heated and vitriolic rejection of another man's point, one wonders where it will all end.

One wonders whether the inanity of the subject matter gives space to the intellectual rejectionists - for example, if a Catholic kid is blown up by a Protestant pipe bomb, it is intellectually (or perhaps sensitively) repulsive to use that subject to exercise one's politics. Even arson attacks, as have happened all too often of late - dangerous, potentially deadly acts that everyone needs to condemn.

Yet for a sporting event, the most measured, meek, mild-mannered men come over all tattooed and loyalist. The calm, collected, considerate folk of 'the republican tradition' don the balaclava of indignancy and the kalashnikov of struggle. And they have a set-to.

There is a latent division, something that we all have to recognise, something that we all have to open ourselves to, that needs to be wiped away. I'm not talking about the border, I'm talking about our comfort with ourselves. There is a tribalism that is too exclusive, an identity that is too defensive, on each side that must find solace and reason.

But I guess at least we're only arguing about it, mostly, and not killing each other any more. And maybe robbing the odd bank.

The Dying Town

In the early 1980's, the first impacts of globalisation hit the Cork seaside town of Youghal when Youghal Carpets closed its doors, as the textile business moved to the far east. People were aware then that there was competition in textiles, and put it down to experience. What people did not realise was the massive competition in labour which was to follow, empowered by massive changes in technology and travel. So the manufacturing jobs that the government worked hard to secure for Youghal have all gradually disappeared as well. One local TD David Stanton estimates that 2,000 jobs have been lost in Youghal over the past seven years. According to the Census estimates from 2006, Youghal has a population of 6,420.

The litany of closures and announcements is staggering. The most recent announcement at Elba was just the latest, and one of the smallest. What is not seen is the massive damage being done to the town and its people. Small shops are closing. 'For sale' and 'to let' signs are on all of the prime locations around the central Clock Tower. Building work is slowing.

Here's a look at some announcements:
55 jobs - Elba
160 jobs - Artesyn
200 jobs - Eastman Kodak
243 jobs - Technicolour Home Entertainment
86 jobs - Couristan Carpets

The list goes on, and on, and on, and on. And as mentioned above, the part time staff in the shops, the cleaners of these facilities, the people who make the sandwiches for their lunch breaks, it all amounts to a devastating cycle of impoverishment. Some jobs have been created - such as the new Tesco and Lidl, though I suspect that other shops closed down as a result of these behemoths making their presence felt.

A few years ago I tried to get a few people interested in building a marina in the town to attract
tourism and jobs. All I got was a pat on the head and a patronising 'don't call us'. Part of it was because I didn't live there any more. Well, now I'm back. I felt that the first thing to do was to invest myself in the town - I have done this. Now, to plan.

Makeover version 1

So, again for posterity, here's a new look.

We're going to stick with this for a little while, and see how we feel.

Raging on McDowell

Again. This time over on irishelection.com.

It's getting old. The election will be over soon though, and he will be defeated.

Makeover on the way

Sheesh, this is an ugly blog. Righto. Time for a change. I have put the elves to work, and newness shall com. for the sake of posterity, I am attaching a series of screenshots so people can see the before and after stuff.

Election Auction!

My old friend Michael McDowell is at it again. Deceit on a grand scale. This morning on morning Ireland he was asked whether he was engaging in auction politics by offering OAP's €300 per week if they were re-elected, in response to Pat Rabbitte's stupefyingly brilliant 2% reduction in the lower rate of tax. You can tell when the government is spooked as first the Tánaiste, and then Brian Cowen, finance minister, get wheeled out, as the latter did on the news at one.

Anyway, back to McDowell. He of course denied the allegation, saying instead that this represented a fair deal to OAP's, a genuine slice of the wealth of the country that tehy were entitled to. The interviewer woefully failed to ask the logical follow-on question: you have been in government for ten years, why did you do nothing about this in all that time? Why have you this Pauline conversion now? (to twist Cowen's barb from the previous Sunday directed at the aforementioned Rabbitte) When exactly did you come to the conclusion that this was an appropriate amount for pensioners to receive, and why, for example, was it not €301 or €299?

This is not just auction politics, it is thoughtless politics. There are no considerations gone into this thing. Do Fianna Fail agree with this? Is this a policy that they share? The PD's don't have a programme for government, nor do they have a pact with Fianna Fail - who, by the way, are resting so hard on their laurels it's just not funny - so they can't implement anything they promise anyway.

McDowell. Makes the blood boil. A supposedly intelligent man, but devoid of idealism, of vision; a man poisoned by power, a galloping fool of a politician who will do well to hold onto his own seat, let alone the power of his party.

And as for the Fianna Fáil point - of all grassroots activists, Fianna Fáil have the oldest. They are getting older. They are more attached to the civil war than any other party, Fine Gael included - Fine Gael pretty much rid themselves of that baggage in that near existential moment in 2002 where people talked pompously of an opposition defeating themselves, an opposition voted out, and all that rubbish. Fianna Fáil after the Bertie money scandal have an air of superiority that is unparrallelled, an air of confidence, complacency and abject derision for the dissenting voice that makes one want to wretch. For God and Ireland I hope they get dumped into the ditches.

Maybe we can get better at the rugby then too, and have a Taoiseach who speaks English. I haven't forgotten his spelling mistake either - one careless, two unforgivable, and for a sitting, non-senile taoiseach? Capital.

The Rugby

Bitter. And twisted. 90 seconds to go, I mean, how cruel was that. And to think they had come so far! Not just in terms of the game, resurrecting themselves as they did from that infernal slump that has infected every start in every game of any significance for the past two seasons. But in terms of their development from a group of undoubtedly talented footballers in 2000 to a seasoned, hard team of winners, moving beyond nearly men with a Heineken Cup win against Biarritz that they owned - notwithstanding a poor start. They had come so far, and needed to beat France to prove that they had moved to the next level. They have not. Pretenders. Will they beat England? Maybe. Otherwise, dammit, this team may have peaked in the Autumn of 2006 instead of in the Autumn of 2007. Maybe, just maybe, it's a ruse by Eddie O'Sullivan. Maybe it's all about the WRC for him. Maybe it's a plan to get at the French, to bestow upon all comers a false sense of security. Maybe we'll beat the hun 48-0 on Saturday week. Or maybe we just came up short. Again.