A Write Off

 

It would be a mistake with Ireland’s history of Dáil majorities, to write off Fianna Fáil.

While it was always my belief that we should run a candidate for the presidency, it now seems more and more advantageous for us to perhaps keep our nose out of it. If we had run a candidate we would have been constantly battling against the press, who seem insistent on writing our party’s epitaph long before our illnesses have become fatal. The media themselves need to take a good hard look at themselves before they begin to criticise anyone else. What ever happened to responsible journalism that reported the news factually and didn’t start running with stories that oftentimes have no legs to begin with. The sensationalistic journalism that we are facing on a continual basis is oftentimes pandering to the masses rather than reporting anything of substance. Just this week in work I met a man who recently got rid of the television in his house. He believed that it was the best thing he has ever done because he can now pick and choose what news stories he reads rather than being told by someone at the RTE news desk what is most important. He said he had a smartphone that allowed him to get the news he wanted without the constant doom and gloom that the media seem to be forcing down our throats on an on-going basis. In a way I see where he is coming from, I myself followed the events in Libya from the reporters on the ground there that used twitter to update their followers on what was actually going on. The real-time updates and the human story behind some of the events were much more interesting and substantial than the reports from either the newspapers or RTE news. It seems that the media has become increasingly more focused on live events and the “story of the moment”, while at the same time losing some of the traditional skills that go hand in hand with journalism. Now, this is not true for some commentators, but there are some who seem to write the uttermost drivel and are commended for it, no-one seems able to question them anymore.

The media are very quick to write Fianna Fáil off, which in my opinion is a very stupid thing to do. Fianna Fáil has been massively successful in the post-election period at organising its grassroots through online media. On Facebook, Twitter and news websites our members are becoming more and more prevalent. There is a definite hunger out there from the grassroots to ensure that the party survives, and what better time to focus on that than now. Fianna Fáil always performs when under pressure, when our back is to the wall we tend to come back fighting twice as hard. Now, if only those at the top would take a breath and look down from their ivory towers to see the talent that we have. I was told a long time ago that Fianna Fáil was always very good at spotting talented people and then ensuring that they were kept in their box. But now is a time for that to change. We have people of incredible talent throughout our organisation that are willing to do whatever it takes to restore the name of our party. We have an incredible number of people who are out there every night of the week  working in their community, be it a local neighbourhood watch or helping out the local GAA team, what an incredible resource. Now is the time to rebuild, now is the time to stop fighting amongst ourselves and work to ensure that this great party survives to contest any elections that we’re put up against. Because at the end of it all; you don't develop courage by being happy every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

The Presidency

It was the CEO of FedEx who said that, “The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” I think this is why Fianna Fáil is in two minds over whether or not to run a presidential candidate. We’ve spent too long looking at the pros and cons of running a candidate, and not enough time arguing that by not running a candidate we would not be fulfilling our very raison d'etre. Too much has been said about the pointlessness of running a candidate because we may lose, the key word in many of these debates being ‘may’. We may lose, and we probably will, but by god we will have tried, and tried our hardest to make sure we get back into the Áras.

The fear of failure should never stop us from trying, because when we stop trying we too then cease to exist, we will have no reason to continue. That’s not saying that I don’t understand why people are wary of running a candidate. We have just come out of a General Election where we suffered immensely and are still shell-shocked from the result, but we have to move on. I for one am sick of the blame being laid upon our party by every other party in this country, sick of being told that the tough decisions are being made because of our mistakes. We should have a candidate and should speak in a unified voice, proclaiming that Fianna Fáil is far from dead, that we are not going to sit back and be Fine Gael’s fall guy anymore. If we don’t field a candidate then I believe we are just giving our critics more fuel to attack us with, and we will have more of the same opinion pieces in the papers cataloguing our downfall.

If we do not field a candidate we risk being excluded from the most important of debates in this country; What Ireland is and can be. How can the most important political party in Ireland not want to be part of that debate, how can we even contemplate remaining out of that debate, the simple answer is we cant. Not now, not ever. It seems that Irish people are embarrassed by optimism and passionate rhetoric; we saw that when Enda Kenny spoke alongside Obama, but now we have a chance to change that. Brendan Gleeson speaking about the Irish nation said we should look up and breathe the air. This can be applied to Fianna Fáil, as well, because I know I am sick of looking at the ground, sick of shouldering the shame of economic meltdown, it’s time for us to rise up and say NO. No, we won’t stay in the gutter where popular commentators have assigned us to; No, we won’t abandon our very reason for existing; No, we won’t stay silent in a debate where we have been so influential in the past. Let’s have the courage to try and maybe fail, maybe fail, again no guarantee that we will. If we don’t at least try it will be a thousand times worse than failing alone.

This debate is becoming one of Left versus Right, and there is the very real fear that we will be squeezed out of it and future political commentary. Our members want to see a spark from which they can light their candles in an attempt to keep this party’s fire burning. We can no longer hide from the media and hope that recovery will be instantaneous, because that is never going to happen.  To echo Eamon De Valera, “We, of our time, have played our part in the perseverance, and we have pledged ourselves to the dead generations who have preserved intact for us this glorious heritage, that we, too, will strive to be faithful to the end, and pass on this tradition unblemished.”

The Next Steps

Something I wrote just after the General Election:

It's been a tumultuous week for anyone involved in Fianna Fáil, aswell as disapointing and sickening.

We need to realise that the Party is more than the elected representatives, the party is more than any cabinet or individual member. Fianna Fáil is a movement that will not and cannot be allowed to be quenched. I will not say I am ashamed to be a member of Fianna Fáil, but what I will say is that i'm disgusted at how the party has been left to rot.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The leaders of our party have abandoned the ordinary members, the non-paid volunteers who are working behind the scenes everyday for this party; canvassing, packing envelopes and getting our message out there; and who strive to see its survival.

I'm not pretending to be the good samaritan or anything else but people need to realise just what this party stands for because I doubt anyone can answer that question. The time is coming when Fianna Fáil will have a chance to look at ourselves and where we are going and where we want to go, because the two are very different.

Who ever takes over this party needs to renew it to face a new world in which Europe and the wider world play a greater part than comely maidens. We all recognise the probleims which have plagued this party in the past and it's time to make a stand and demand these changes be made.

I welcome the leadership battle ensuing the party as a chance to regain a sense of what we stand for, to bring the party back to the membership and to run straight into the future.

Nay-sayers will say that we are dead and that we have nothing left. This isn't true. The party is there throughout the country, we have great candidates (where the conventions have been held) who will do good under the Fianna Fáil banner. To those thinking of jumping ship, think before you leap, that buoy in the water may not be as safe as the burning ship behind you may suggest.

Work for the future and ensure that your voice is heard, be the change you want and make sure you are listened to. Only by that process can we ensure our urvival through this storm.

Hold fast, the clouds are clearing for a brighter day and I for one want to be a part of that.

Hold fast....

Ar aghaidh le Fianna Fái