Tony Gregory… 1947 – 2009 January 2, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.trackback
So what to say? A giant figure, unique, a master politician. We’re going to hear and read a lot of that stuff over the next few days. Much of it is true. I’m not even going to parse out the political implications such as they are for the constituency, the left and the Irish political environment. Not today. Not tomorrow.
For myself this has hit me a lot harder than I expected even though I expected it sooner rather than later. Or to put it another way it’s a shock but not a surprise. I’ve known Tony on and off for almost a decade (first met him on a protest in the middle of a road in East Wall) worked with him reasonably closely for half that time. It is hardly a surprise to most of you that I canvassed for him, after all his organisation (something I wouldn’t consider myself a member of, but a sort of detached supporter or supportively detached – mind you at least three other parties have a place in my political affections) was and is an eclectic grouping. Community activists, former OSF members, former CPI, IRSP (1st incarnation – Tony wasn’t much taken with later versions…), Republicans and leftists and some not really leftists at all. And so on.
Personally I owe Tony big time. He did me a good turn years back that – in its outworkings – had profound effects for me. I never quite said that to him, not his style, not mine either, but true nonetheless.
But then he was a very private person indeed. During his illness, one that first manifested itself – ironically in view of his victory – in the months after the 2007 election, he brought a successful complaint against a newspaper for intrusion. And the illness took him with awful speed. From a fit wiry man in his late 50s he lost weight at an alarming rate (and hair! – something I suspect might have caused him a moments more thought than he’d like to admit). The emaciated figure during Lisbon was a surprise to many who hadn’t seen him in a while. His pleasure at that victory was self-evident and who could blame him? The amazing and awe-inspiring fact was that he was still on the go throughout, was still going into the Dáil until the last month or two, albeit at a reduced rate.
He wasn’t exactly humble, but he wasn’t pushy or egotistical in the way some politicians are. Which is not to say he wasn’t egotistical. Someone I know was in the car with him one day asking about Seamus Costello and he turned and said “Listen, if he were alive today I’d still be driving this car but he’d be sitting in the seat you’re in and I’d be driving it for him.” I’m not so sure. Nor did I entirely buy it when he once mentioned that had he lost his first run for his seat he wouldn’t have run again. And he wasn’t entirely without broader ambitions. He briefly contemplated a European Election bid and rumour had it more recently that if he’d been offered the Ceann Comhairle’s position he might have accepted it. Who knows?
There was of course a facet of his personality which was – well, difficult. He wasn’t a team player. No surprise then his organisation has no successor of his stature. He could be brusque beyond rudeness, impatient to the point of alienation.
He could also be infuriatingly cautious. He would never leap forward. And this reflected in his politics. He was much more influenced by a broader left ideology than a specific brand or ideology, and he was determinedly of the left and of that ground between Labour and the further left. But that said he had no real interest in broader left lash-ups. That’s not to say he didn’t get on with people, Joe Higgins and he were closer than might have been expected.So was Finian McGrath until he made the cardinal error of trying to do a Gregory Deal redux. There can only be one…
The boundaries of his political world sometimes seemed to be the Liffey, Phoenix Park and the northern fringe of the constituency (more irony, abutting McGrath’s area).
I’ve noted before that that was hugely problematic from my perspective but for him it as the source of his political strength, the justification for his work.
I’m going to miss a lot about him. His thoughts about constituency politics. His utterly cynical view on national politics and indeed the left, not necessarily in that order. The fact that he had a fairly complete selection of Starry Ploughs in his attic from the first year or so of the IRSP that he promised he’d get around to getting down for me but never did. A couple of years back well before his illness I toyed with the idea of collating some of his thoughts and those of the people around him. But I never got as far as suggesting it to him. And how could I? He’d never have gone for it, too much like an epitaph to him. The idea his work would be complete would be ridiculous to him. And it’s true. He was working up to the end… As he might say himself, what the fuck else would you expect him to be doing?
Addendum… it’s a funny thing, but knowing his horror of any sort of intrusion into his private life when I first wrote this I was leery about mentioning individuals. But seeing as his brother Noel’s name is all over the media, I’ll just say my deepest sympathy to him and to all Tony’s comrades friends and supporters.
I’m sorry to hear that may he rest in peace. What a character he such amazing work for the inner city I seem to remember he was thrown out of the dail once because he refused to wear a shirt and tie. it didn’t take long before he was back in giving it loads.
And was imprisoned as well, I think with Christy Burke who was a councillor at the time…
I was on nodding terms with him even before he was first elected – my parents ran a shop across from O’Connell’s and a stones throw from his original office; the first time I voted in a General Election, I voted for him – and in every subsequent one. This despite the fact that, like you, I always thought he was completely wrong to pursue the independent path – and wrong about ‘the national question’.
Perhaps, in a way, the warm tributes from his political enemies that will follow the one already on record from Enda Kenny are testament to the limits of that course – if he’d posed a serious threat to the (im)balance of Irish party politics, the likes of Bertie would be much less kind about him.
Like I say, i was on nodding terms with him for the best part of 30 years but never had more than a few words with him – but my impression, widely shared, and impossible, i think, to fake, was that he was an honest and decent man.
Yeah, that raises an interesting point sonofstan. I could canvass for him and yet not support a range of issues. Incidentally, his view on the national question seemed to me to be intriguingly vague.
That’s something I’d definitely agree with you about as regards the limitations of his approach, although in fairness there is a closing of ranks when a politician dies, from whatever quarter.
I was highly amused by Ahern’s contribution. The two loathed each other… almost instinctively. He always pointed out that because DC seemed to have ‘name’ politicians other parties sometimes thought that it was a celebrity sort of a constituency whereas his view was that it was a very very local constituency.
Honest and decent. But bloody hard work sometimes.
his view was that it was a very very local constituency.
Very true – except possibly it’s two, or even three, very local constituencies in one – bifurcated along the Dorset Street/ Drumcondra Road axis, with maybe a further subdivision along the boundary of the old Cabra constituency.
What a big loss he’ll be.
As a teenager back in the 80s he always stood out for me as an inspirational figure, a real (whatever that is) leftist in contrast to the dullness and compromise of coalition-era Labour.
I spoke to him just the once. Back in my student union days I tried to get him to take part in a debate in my college for a seachtain na gaeilge event. When I phoned his office, he answered himself (which threw me completely), listened to about half of my well crafted pitch before telling me he’d far more important things to be doing than messing around with some spotty students, or words to that effect, before hanging up the phone. Brusque indeed. But he certainly had his priorities right that day.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
It strange how things hit you. I only dealt with Tony on a few occasions down the years but his death is something which has really bit into my soul. He was my local TD throughout most of my life and although not directly part of his inner-city power base a man respected throughout my Dublin 7 community. He seemed to stand alone for a sense of social justice beyond personal advancement or piety party politics – arguably the greatest politician ever to emerge from the local area it says all we need to know about Ireland that when I attended O’Connell’s school´, as he did, there was a picture of archbishop O’Connell, Ray Burke and Pat Kenny given pride of place beside the principles’ office but none of the man that people were most proud of having emerged from that institution. People can say Tony played parish pump with the Haughey deal but I prefer to see him, as I think he and his supporters did, as a man who went into the gangsters pit and screwed him for the people – or at least tried too. Never a man to suffer bullshit it says it all that in death B Ahern is now a ´good firend of Tony´s – Bertie wasn’t saying that when Tony faced down his machine, metaphorically and at least once more than that. I remember talking to Tony around the time of Bertie´s political demise and to say he wasn’t shedding a tear for the gangster would be an understatement.
Tony´s life is one that deserves a full and fair appraisal, and hopefully this work can be undertaken soon – from republican student radical to hard bitten street wise political operator – however the thing that will always mark him out for me was his passionate espousal of animal rights, its an issue I talked with him about on a number of occasions and I think clearly marks out a man driven by inner beliefs beyond the pursuit of votes of ego.
Tony Irish politics and society needed you more that ever now and it is our tragedy that your voice has left us.
May your memory put kept with all those truly inspired by the Republican-Socialist ideals. I true Working Class hero
Pete, that’s a fine overview of the man. As the day has gone on the reality that I won’t meet him again, that he won’t be around the constituency, won’t be giving out in a way that sometimes enraged but more often inspired is really hitting home. It’s a bad day for Dublin Central and it’s people and the Irish left.
And can I echo the idea that he was a Republican Socialist.
[...] over at Cedar Lounge has posted far more eloquently than I ever will on Tony and his leaving us : ‘Tony Gregory’ by WBS especially so as he had travelled some part of the road with the man (starting out on the East Wall [...]
Can I add my condolences. A pity that the Irish Times obituary today, (paper of record and all that) has totally played down his republican history. Just so people know, Tony was a founder of the Republican Club at UCD, a member of the Republican movement in Dublin prior to the 1969 split and a member of the Official Republican movement until 1974. He then followed Seamus Costello into the IRSP for a period. He remained one of the few TDs to endorse campaigns against Section 31 and for the release of the Birmingham 6/Guildford 4 etc throughout the 1980s. At the time only a handful of elected politicians would stick their necks out on these issues. He was, as you say WBS, cautious on many occasions, but he supported the divorce bill in 1986 and walked out of the Dail in 1984 when Ronald Reagan was about to address it. He was jailed for supporting the street traders with Christy Burke and was active on the drugs issue (criminally ignored by many on the left) from the early 80s.
Slan Tony.
Can I echo you DandC. I thought todays IT piece was unbelievably cursory as regards precisely what you say. It wasn’t an accident his leaflets and posters had Starry Ploughs on them. I once heard him say that he learned everything he knew about election campaigns while in OSF, although fir obvious reasons he wasn’t fond of them or their later incarnations. For the IT to ignore that is to buy into a much more comforting narrative of Gregory as a sort of “Pride of Cabra” rather than a man who held and persued a very distinct Republican Socialist approach. I also agree that in the instances you choose he did display real leadership. I should rework my analysis perhaps to reflect that,and perhaps a sense that it was in later years that that was to a degree submerged.
I’d have other problems as well with the IT piece but they’re for another day.
On the isssue of Tony´s Republican involvement I think it might just be worth a mention, in passing like due to the oh so delicate sensibilties of out betters, that he was a volunteer and later education officer within a northside unit of the IRA Dublin Brigade (Official). These roles he fullfilled from 1968 to 1973 – he himself attested to the pivitol role this period played in his political development.
The Irish Times cleaned up (read lies) take on history must not stand.
Very sorry to hear this. One of surprisingly few decent human beings in the Dail.
I agree that it’s irritating to see his record and views sanitised by the mainstream press. He had many political flaws, but he was, particularly at some points of his career, a great deal more radical than he is being portrayed as at the moment. Joe Higgins said something about that in his tribute too, I believe.
Absolutely spot-on tribute to a man who could try his allies’ patience with his sometimes acerbic tones but could always be forgiven by testing our political enemies even more so with his determination, outspokenness and thorough socialist conviction.
As Christy Burke said: “There’ll never be another Tony Gregory.”
He was a fighter to the end.
RIP, Tony.
Mark, do you have a link to that tribute by Joe Higgins?
Leveller, can I say back that you’ve got it exactly. He might have been a bit difficult with allies, but he knew *precisely* who the enemy was.
No, I haven’t seen the full press release, just the bit quoted by the Irish Times. The section quoted by the IT was:
Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins said Mr Gregory’s electoral success over nearly three decades was a “testament” to his resilience and the willingness of working people to elect “fighters”.
“It is a paradox – but one that stems from that decision [to support Charles Haughey] in 1982 – that more emphasis will be put on the short-lived Gregory Deal than on most other aspects of his political life when, in fact, Tony Gregory detested the right-wing policies of the establishment parties, including those of Fianna Fáil.”
Thanks for that. Did you read the ‘appreciation’ in the Sunday Business Post today by Ahern? I didn’t know whether to laugh cynically or cry.
Tony might have had something to say about Joe Costello’s tribute in the Tribune too but thats another story!
Hadn’t caught that… Sounds interesting.
Costello left out the republicanism as well. The Dail is now without much of a left. Finian I think has blown it. Seamus healy is still outside but might make it back in. I don’t think the Left will make much of a showing in the next election. Maybe Gregory was right in thinking that trying creating a national far left alternative was a waste of time.
If an election was held tomorrow, there would probably be two left wing TDs elected, with another two just about in the running. The fact is though that there won’t be a general election tomorrow and, given the current economic crisis, the political situation could be very different.
Where to start. I never met Tony Gregory in the flesh but I’m so sad to see him gone. All of this thread confirms that he really was a once off. We need more once offs like him!
I went to O’Connells school in the seventies. Very few local kids went there then. I and most of my classmates travelled in from the suburbs. On our way to the bus/train stops we passed through some of the still standing tenements that probably informed Tony Gregory’s politics from his youth. They informed mine too, such as they are. And I went to UCD and didn’t take part in student life either! In my case, that was partly based on an alienation similar to what I’ve heard ascribed to Tony. More of it was that I was a very spotty, shy 18 year old!
I wasn’t a member of any party when the Gregory Deal was made. But I thought it was a fantastic piece of work because it benefited the most deprived area in the state. Of course, the media and his political opponents on the right portrayed it as “goodies” for his constituency. As far as I could see, his constituency had been deprived of any goodies for generations. They deserved their turn. Likewise when Tony led and suppored the Concerned Parents Against Drugs, I admired and supported (from afar) his stance.
Yet when I joined the WP, I heard both of these derided. And swallowed the Party line. Shame on me and on the WP.
I live now in Dublin Central – the posh Glasnevin end. But loads of people I know out there, basically anyone with a bit of a social conscience, have told me that they always gave Tony “a vote” i.e. a one or two or three. I would say that these votes, as much as his core inner city vote, ensured his return to the Dáil at each election.
We need people in the Dáil and elsewhere who, like Tony did, refuse to “play the game” and to become “part of the club”. That’s not easy for anyone to to do.
God, if there is one, rest him.
That’s an excellent tribute, far better than anything I could have done. What struck me about Tony was his mixture of being very solid on a few core issues like the North, but a great tactical pragmatist as well. Not an ideologue but a practical politician, and that’s what changed my mind on the Gregory Deal – in retrospect, it was a perfectly legitimate tactic to improve conditions in some of the state’s most deprived areas.
The other thing that came to mind was the influence Costello had on Tony, especially in terms of his work on the ground in Bray. Costello’s personal standing in Wicklow was such that had he lived I could easily picture him having become that sort of campaigning constituency TD, like Tony was. (Or in some ways Joe Higgins, although Joe has always had a tighter ideological party around him.) The sort of character you need in politics, and the lack of radical independents now is a lack you can really feel.
WBS (post 4 above): “Incidentally, his view on the national question seemed to me to be intriguingly vague. ”
Splintered (post 23 above): “What struck me about Tony was his mixture of being very solid on a few core issues like the North”
I would always have taken Tony’s view on the north to be early seventies Official Sinn Féin republican socialist. Which is why he would get a two or a three from me as opposed to one. I am filled with hope by WBS’s description of Tony’s view on the national question as intriguingly vague. Tell us more, WBS.
I went to O’Connells school in the seventies. Very few local kids went there then. I and most of my classmates travelled in from the suburbs.
I was there in the seventies too….. although we lived close enough for me to be able to hear the first bell in bed and still get there in time!
I arrived there in 5th year after spending most of my childhood in smaller towns and the culture shock of the inner city was huge – as was the atmosphere in OCS: I don’t know if this is your memory, but I recall an amazingly politicised place; in my class, there were members of both wings of SF, Labour, a Communist as well as a few crypto- francoist right wing Catholic types – the guy i sat beside later became a prominent anti- abortion campaigner. Break times were filled with earnest debates, and I was forced to do a lot of reading very quickly to catch up. Compared to the apoliticism of most kids now, it seems astonishing in retrospect.
I think splintered and Joe detail very important aspects of his work. I’d entirely agree that he was a tactical pragmatist, but an educative one too. His approach was one that was very much rooted in what was possible. Re the WP attitude to him, I too encountered it, and always put it down to a sort of jealousy, not least because he went the IRSP route. Which is ironic I guess considering the trajectory of some of those most dismissive.
RE the North, I think your first belief is closest to the truth Joe, he was sort of OSF on steroids, radical activism in the south, a different sort of activism in the North. That said he also thought, at least this is what I heard him say, that the war was well over.
And can I echo splintered’s point that we really are feeling it now that the Dáil has seen both Higgins and Gregory leave (obviously in different circumstances) in just over 18 months.
Jim Monaghan (Post 20) says:
“I don’t think the Left will make much of a showing in the next election. Maybe Gregory was right in thinking that trying creating a national far left alternative was a waste of time.”
Jim, maybe Tony was wrong on this.
Are Independent/lone (”maverick”, the Indo or Herald called Tony) TDs really going to make an impact long-term?
The trouble is that the Irish Left is small but also splintered (CLR supporters, Indies, Labour lefties, CPI, Shinners, SWP/PBP, SP, some Greens, and so on).
If we cannot unite under some sort of broad banner (yes, I know it’s fraught with difficulties), while keeping our own independent activist/party/personal perspectives, then we’ll be forever lamenting lost opportunities and individuals such as Tony Gregory while the Right laughs at us and continues to rule the roost forever more.
There’s something to what you say LotL. It’s the nature of that banner which is where a lot of this breaks down, but it is absolutely true.
Jealous because he went IRSP? I’ve never heard anyone express jealousy for not being involved with that crowd, and their subsequent bloody disintegrations. Opposed to that decision, and suspicious of him for it, certainly.
individuality is the lefts greatest strength, its not a weakness as you put it leveller
I was away when this happened although it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Very sad news. I had a working relationship with Tony for several years and found him very easy to get on with despite our political differences. (Which we easily joked about! When the Dáil debated an SF motion on Irish unity a few years ago, Tony was one of only a handful of TDs to vote against the Government’s typically self-serving amendment, which of course passed overwhelmingly thus making our motion redundant. When I ran into Tony immediately afterward the first words out of his mouth were “I didn’t get the chance to vote against yours!”)
I never bought that rumour that he might take the Ceann Comhairle position, it didn’t seem at all his style.
Think it would also be appropriate to pay tribute to his Leinster House PA Valerie Smith. I hope she doesn’t find herself on the dole now.
Garibaldy, not jealousy because he joined the IRSP (and left fairly rapidly after although that too is an interesting tale no doubt) but because he wound up as a representative in the Dáil *despite* taking that route (I never heard it expressed as same but I can’t help feeling that was the attitude). And to be honest, in all fairness many good and sincere people made that decision and then decided it wasn’t for them. Nothing suspicious about it at all (indeed one could argue that Gregory et al saw the light at a very advanced stage).
Very true re Val Wednesday (and that’s his approach to a tee in what he said to you).
sw, individuality surely should be the lefts great strength.
“I don’t know if this is your memory, but I recall an amazingly politicised place;”
Yeah Sonofstan, there was a fair bit of politics in my class too. Three very active Provisional Na Fianna members. One non-member SFWP supporter. One Fine Gael Socialist (pro-Israel). And me keeping my mouth shut but interested – a bit more nationalist then than now. And the rest into women and drink!
If the anti-abortion activist you mention is the one I’m thinking of, then you were in the A class that did the Leaving in 77, I was in the B.
Just thinking of those three 70s Provos now – one is in the Bank, another a teacher and the third a public servant. Afaik, none of them kept up their formal involvement much post-school.
Back on topic – Tony Gregory was the greatest ever past pupil of OCS in my book. As WBS said, he was practical and into what’s possible.
And that to me is where the far left fall – too far up their/our own arses to get involved in nitty gritty local struggles. The reality surely is that if the Left wants to get anywhere in Ireland is has to get down and dirty in local communities – that means going some way down the advice centre route. What’s the point of going up for election if you haven’t done the groundwork that gives you some chance of victory?
On the WP and Tony. To me, he was what a WP TD should be – active and involved and of the local community. As WBS says, I think the WP hostility to him was of the “it should have been us” variety. And of course the hostility went both ways. I remember him quoted re the Murrays (who were convicted of killing a Garda during a robbery in Killester). Tony said the Officials/WP put the guns in the hands of the likes of the Murrays and then washed their hands of them.
Anyway, today, maybe we shouldn’t get into all that. And just remember a great man.
“I don’t know if this is your memory, but I recall an amazingly politicised place;”
Having also attended OCS in the 70’s and doing the leaving in ‘81 it was a very political place to be in, particularly in 80/81 where discussions took place on a daily basis, particularly around the hunger strikes and indeed the OSF position was not the same as the one articulated on the outside by the party and the Officials were quite vocal in support of the prisoners.
Also in OCS primary major discussions took place around internment in 72 and the shooting close by of Sheamus Costello.
Many of those continued there involvement in Republican Socialism and are still active, having endured arrests and jails over the years.
If the anti-abortion activist you mention is the one I’m thinking of, then you were in the A class that did the Leaving in 77, I was in the B.
Just thinking of those three 70s Provos now – one is in the Bank, another a teacher and the third a public servant. Afaik, none of them kept up their formal involvement much post-school.
Yes, spot on.
I wonder if OCS was exceptional at the time, or if other Northside schools/ Inner city Cork/ Galway/ Limerick ones were the same?
One other factor I remember is that there were quite a few northern ‘refugees’ who had been rehoused in Ballymun (chiefly) in the school – but they can’t all have gone to OCS.
There’s an 8-page special on Tony in tonight’s (Wednesday’s) Evening Herald.
I haven’t read it yet but there’s another piece from Bertie Ahern as well as bits from Joe Duffy and Christy Burke.
Everybody agrees that Tony Gregory was a remarkable man and fought and won many struggles for the disadvantaged of DC.
Would anybody care to list the top ten achievements?