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Ireland’s unlikely hero: Finance Minster Brian Lenihan

Battles cancer, bank meltdown, yet inspires

JAMES COOPER,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, October 4, 2010, 8:19 AM

Updated Monday, October 4, 2010, 8:31 AM

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Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan

He has 10,000 Facebook friends all wishing him well, is by far the most popular politician in Ireland but is highly unlikely to ever get the top job in Irish politics that most feel he deserves.

Brian Lenihan, 51, is the Irish politician in the eye of the storm, the Minister for Finance in a country that has become the butt of jokes for late night comedians.

He is also the beleaguered government’s top performer , the ace in the hole for the Fianna Fail/Labor coalition, vastly outshining the prime minister Brian Cowen in popularity.

He is also suffering from pancreatic cancer, considered almost incurable.

When he was diagnosed with the condition he gave a radio interview that has meant he has captured the Irish imagination and affection since.

In that interview he didn’t utter a word of self pity or seek to minimize the dreadful battle he had ahead of him.

The news of his disease had been blurted out in the media before he told some members of his own family. Despite that he never showed any animosity or desire to shut the media out.

Instead he gave the facts quite dispassionately and assured the country that he could battle his cancer and also serve as finance minister at a time when the world appeared to be collapsing around him.

He has been true to his word , battling a hostile international financial system , media scepticism about Ireland’s ability to escape the death throes of Anglo-irish Bank, and his own disease.

A measure of the respect he is held in is that he was asked by the Michael Collins Commemoration Committee to give the oration at the annual ceremony honoring Ireland’s greatest patriot.

The Michael Collins invitation had never been issued to a Fianna Fail member before. The party traces its ancestry to the men who shot Michael Collins that day long ago in Beal na Blath and have always been anathema to the Collns family and followers.

Brian Lenihan carried off the assignment with aplomb. He also has impressed with the financial portfolio and last Thursday finally came the fundamental information that the country had desperately been seeking.

The country was in hock for $65 billion and a four –year plan was in the works to get the finances back on even keel.

The financial markets seemed to steady and there was a sens at last of ground zero being reached after months of uncertainity about how much was actually owed.

It was another stellar performance from Lenihan, one that won him 69 per cent approval rating in a Sunday Independent poll.

It was the kind of numbers no other politician in Ireland could even dream of and there is no doubt he would be odds on to be leader of Fianna Fail if circumstances were different.

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GeorgeDillon | Oct 05, 2010, 03:02 PM EDT

Conjoly: For a long time now I have been coming to the opinion that I have no sympathy for the Irish--they deserve all they get. If Fianna Fail gets another term in office then I will write off the Irish as the biggest clowns the world has ever produced.

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Conjoly | Oct 05, 2010, 01:24 AM EDT

George, they should have been washed away a long time ago, my fear is that with a possible 18 months left before the next election, they'll manage to garner enough support to be re-elected..... it's happened before.... the closest political analogy for them I can think of is the Christian Democrats in Italy - which is a damning indictment.

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Dublinjas | Oct 04, 2010, 01:10 PM EDT

Dishonesty runs in this tribes family, and most of them were reared on the public purse....Time for a change..

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GeorgeDillon | Oct 04, 2010, 12:45 PM EDT

This article is truly garbage. Lenehan puts the interests of international lenders and EU bureaucrats before the interests of Irish families, Irish children, Irish sick people in hospitals. All the latter will suffer so that Lenehan can suck up to the international money lenders. The Irish people didn't lend money to anyone--it was a small bunch of gangsters, many of them with connections with Lenehan's Fianna Fail party. The Irish didn't lend the money, but Lenehan holds them responsible for the loans and demands that they pay! He's a madman, utterly unfit to hold his office. Lenehan and his Fianna Fail party need to be washed away like last night's vomit in Temple Bar.

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irishfez | Oct 04, 2010, 12:16 PM EDT

It's sad and ironic that he's battling with such a tough cancer when he could have been poised to take on the reins of the country.

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Conjoly | Oct 04, 2010, 11:58 AM EDT

It's an FF / Green coalition. Labour are in opposition. A little research wouldn't have gone astray.

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Watchman | Oct 04, 2010, 10:59 AM EDT

I knew Lenihan's dad. He was a lovely man, but made his policies (such as they were) on the hoof. The son seems to be made of sterner stuff – and I join those others who wish him well in his battle against cancer. Sadly for him, Fianna Fail are (surely) on the way out, so he may have to wait a while if he hopes to become Taoiseach. He should use the time to come up with a programme that focuses on an Ireland that genuinely takes its place as a small and progressive European nation, working with its partners, not a corporate aircraft carrier for America. I see that U.S. companies are now pressuring Dublin not to raise its corporate tax rate, as sought by Germany, backed by France. There are no doubt arguments on all sides on this issue, but the idea that Ireland should have its policy dictated by America is a further indication that our country's economic independence remains some years off.

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kateomprint | Oct 04, 2010, 09:21 AM EDT

I know Brian Lenihan has been ill and as a person I would wish him the best. He never actually tells the truth when he is on t.v. he can fake sincerity like nobody else can. I think it was an American politiician said "that if you can fake sincerity you've got it made and Brian Lenihan has got it made. People feel sorry for him because he has been ill and don't take him to task like they normally would. I think Mr. Lenihan should stay at home and look after his health and forget about the woes of the Country. All our politicians here in Ireland are silver spoon merchants, they don't know what it is like to be short of money because the majority of them come from very well off families and when they talk about people living on €196.00 per week they actually don't know what they are talking about. Mr. Eamonn Gilmore who is the Leader of the Labour Party is all piss and vinegar and will probably be as useless as the rest of them. Enda Kenny is so insipid that he can't even make an argument sound heated when he is in the Dail. People are leaving the Country in their droves and our Government are doing nothing at all to address the problem.

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TheOmaher | Oct 04, 2010, 08:53 AM EDT

"the ace in the hole for the Fianna Fail/Labor coalition, vastly outshining the prime minister Brian Cowen in popularity" Not hard considering Cowen's popularity is at the dizzying heights of 18%. By the way, Eamon Gilmore might have something to say about being associated with the last decade or so of mis-management, or any future FF/Labour coalition..

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