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.