You ain’t been nowhere unless you’ve been to Carlow-Wicklow. And the good relations between TDs in the Coalition March 25, 2010
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.trackback
Amidst the noises off, and indeed noises on, about the reshuffle from Fianna Fáil backbenchers, particularly – and how could it be otherwise – the more vociferous of that species, I was fairly entertained to see the following comments.
“It was our last throw of the dice before the next general election and I think it was a missed opportunity. And I’m not happy with the fourth Minister going to the Greens, especially when they pushed for a reduction in Junior Ministers,” Mr Alyward said.
But wait a second… remind me again who else was amongst those wailing and gnashing about the two GP Junior Ministers?
Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Wicklow John McGuinness today accused the Taoiseach Brian Cowen of weak leadership and called on him to consider his position.
In an interview broadcast on KCLR96FM this morning, Mr McGuiness said this week’s Cabinet reshuffle showed “a lack of vision, strategy and imagination.”
And…
Mr McGuinness’ comments come shortly after a number of other backbenchers voiced disquiet over the recent reshuffle, with many describing it as a “missed opportunity.” Fellow constituency TD MJ Nolan said yesterday he was “very disappointed” for voters in his constituency “who consistently supported Fianna Fáil candidates”.
And not to be outdone was the aforementioned Deputy Aylward…
Speaking after a parliamentary party meeting last night Bobby Aylward, another of Mr McGuinness’ Fianna Fáil colleagues in the constituency, was among those who confirmed there was disquiet on the backbenches when no Ministers were dropped, two junior ministers were promoted to Cabinet and four Ministers were moved to different departments.
Carlow-Wicklow. Hmmm. Three of them, Deputies, McGuinness, Nolan and Aylward, all stepping forward to register their upset. Except, except, of course there is no such constituency as Carlow-Wicklow, just the rather less exotic Carlow-Kilkenny.
And who else lives there? Why none other than… newly appointed Junior Minister Mary White, Green Party TD.
Meanwhile one FF TD was spreading sunshine…
Dublin North TD Darragh O’Brien was one of the few TDs contacted by The Irish Times who spoke in favour of the reshuffle. “On balance I’ve no issue with the reshuffle. I’d actually welcome it . . . I don’t have an issue with the Greens,” he said.
Good man yourself.
Although, given the ire from others of his colleagues why would that be? Dublin North, Dublin North, he says? Consulting wikipedia all is revealed…
It’s all about the transfers, and from one of the few GP TDs likely to pull in a serious vote.
Now that’s what I call politics!
Meanwhile screenshots of two versions of the same story on the IT website this morning… the Carlow-Wicklow version and the Carlow-Kilkenny one…
I like the ITs notion of disrupting the cosy localism of Irish politics and all that dreadful clientism by inventing new – and possibly unadjacent – composite constituencies (I know Wicklow and Carlow do have a border).
How about Clare-Monaghan? Dun Laoghaire- Donegal? it would combine the best of the current system with an alternative to a list system – maybe, as a candidate, you would have to win a certain number of votes from the bit of the constituency that wasn’t yours in order to be elected – so Ciaran Cuffe would have to go to Glenties and explain why they should vote for him too, alongside his reliable trustafarian vote in Kingstown, and Pearse Doherty would have to recommend himself to the C.o I. matrons of Monkstown as well as the council estates of Ballybofey….
Glenties you say. Imagine having to run agin Pearse Doherty… I think that’s a brilliant idea.
Sort of a dual mandate…
You see? It’s that sort of lateral thinking that will solve the current crisis…
Well actually there techincally is a constituency Carlow-Wicklow – It is in fact known as Wicklow and takes in all of Wicklow and a small portion of East Carlow
If you have a look at the map on the labour website – you can see the part of East Carlow that is included
http://www.labour.ie/wicklow
I suspect all of this posturing by John McGuinness is more to do with saving John McGuinnesses seat than anything else – he accuses Cowen of putting Tribalism and Party before the country but in reality this is just to up his own profile – create some sort of image of him as being anti-Cowen and at the end of the day John McGuinness is putting John McGuinness before his party, before tribalism and before the country
Absolutely. I had to laugh at McGUinness of all people invoking the shades of Dev and Lemass. Far too social democrat for him.
McGuiness still taking PR advice from former Freedom Instituters/Libertas members?
‘Cos it’s showing.
The Paper of Record outdoes itself again. A mythical constituency called Carlow-Wicklow, and with no fewer than three FF TDs in it? (Who’s the fourth, the King of the Leprechauns?)