All changed utterly in Ireland after this utterly dramatic election

Posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 08:25 PM

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The Irish election can be summed up in the experience at one polling station in Dublin at 7 a.m. on Friday morning last just as the voting began and recounted on national television by one of the guest experts, Dr. Michael Marsh of Trinity College.

First in the door was a young man with suitcase in tow heading for the emigrant plane to America but stopping off first to cast his vote against the Fianna Fail government whose policies had forced him to abandon Ireland.

If there was ever a symbolic moment that was it, a harbinger from the Gods of the carnage to come as the party that has led Ireland for most of it's 85 years was decimated beyond recognition.

From 77 seats in the 2007 election and over 40 per cent of the vote, they slumped to 20 or so seats and 17 per cent of the vote.

They have ended up with only one seat in Dublin, the capital city, the equivalent of a political neutron bomb.

Several of the famed family dynasties, the Lenihans, Coughlans, Haugheys, all took direct political hits and their legacies may be at an end.

Ironically the only famed family member to survive was Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, for many the face of the economic collapse whose cack-handed negotiations with the bankrupt Irish banks, European Union and IMF led indirectly to the $150 billion debt nightmare that the Irish now have over their heads.

Ironically, Lenihan's brave battle against pancreatic cancer may have helped him win the seat when so many lost theirs.

The mishandling of the Irish economy also destroyed the junior coalition partner, the Green Party who were completely obliterated, ending up with no seats in the next Dail (parliament).

Incoming Prime Minister Enda Kenny called it a 'democratic revolution' clearly drawing comparisons with what happened in Egypt and elsewhere, but achieved directly through the ballot box.

All changed, changed utterly as W.B. Yeats once remarked about the 1916 Easter Rising that won most of Ireland its eventual freedom.

In five years time that Rising will celebrate its 100 anniversary, a powerful moment for the Irish psyche.

Indeed, Enda Kenny has taken to referring to it as the ultimate goal of his expected five years in office, to deliver Ireland from the economic servitude it now is buckling under by the sacred anniversary.

He has an incredibly tough task ahead, it is not clear even whether he will enter coalition with the Labor Party or will have enough seats when all the seats in Ireland's complicated election procedure are finally determined, to govern with the help of some independents.

Either way he faces the mother of all battles and on a new battleground where he has utterly vanquished his usual rivals.

It is a new dawn in Irish politics, but whether it can lead to a new day still remains to be seen.

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barneyjo | Mar 04, 2011, 07:16 PM EST

@Silling - Q"How many Fianna Fail TD's does it take to change a lightbulb? (I havent come up with the puchline for this joke yet sadly)Oh I know; A "More than they'll have for a long time to come!!!" Like it?

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kateomprint | Mar 04, 2011, 05:38 PM EST

silling what are you talking about. You want Fianna Fail back. Do you really want them back after everything they have done. The ordinary people here are trying to keep their heads above water. You have Mary Harney and all the other rats that left the sinking ship getting huge bonuses and pensions when we can't even afford to keep our small businesses going.

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Silling | Mar 03, 2011, 02:29 PM EST

I think the queen will be blown up in KILL-arney and the cease fire will collapse. We will lose Gerry Adams (unfortunately) as he will have to give up his seat and go back to the north. Political unrest in the republic will collapse the coalition and in the next general election, Fianna Fail will be back. And rightly so.

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casualMBA | Mar 01, 2011, 03:32 PM EST

Niall, since you are gathering more attention than Ireland's dramatic election at the moment, hear a voice from the South ( of the U.S.) A voice removed from the womb of America's Northeastern Irish American community. Rather than succumbing to the ambassadorial charm's of London's bankers, or DC's political planners for "the Irish," I urge you to weed (still in disbelief Bill Maher made the Cover-coverage,yes - the Cover(?!!?)) the fertile field you have begun in "Wall St.'s Top 50," Irish America's "Most Influential...," etc. This Irish American constituency of goodwill can not be nurtured enough in confronting Ireland's fears, and - through concerted institutional and "ad hoc" frameworks - it debt obligations, again, through deliberate initiatives and investment in - not bricks and mortar - but Ireland's economic endowment.

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Towngate | Mar 01, 2011, 04:49 AM EST

Taho1221 : You worry too muck! neither will happen. In fact I predict that before she becomes president, mo chara Niall will be apppointed Ambassador to the Court of St James!

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Taho1221 | Feb 28, 2011, 09:32 PM EST

Niall, when Hillary becomes our next President, which will it be for you, Irish ambassador to the US or US ambassador to Ireland?

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Taho1221 | Feb 28, 2011, 09:31 PM EST

FallsRNat, if you checked your facts before opening your pie hole you would know that Niall's brother is a FG TD. Slainte!

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FallsRNat | Feb 28, 2011, 08:37 PM EST

Niall - your beloved Provos aren't in power & not likely to be for another 100 years on this showing, once FG have brought the deficit under control, they will reap the benefits of a grateful electorate. Adams & co will now have to start debating real economic issues & we will see soon if they have any substance. Kenny shouldn't worry about 1916, that's ancient history. Slainte!

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Towngate | Feb 28, 2011, 07:26 AM EST

NIALL - A CHARA: The Fianna Fail themselves are the Gods of Carnage, and have led us to a BILLION Euro Debt for every one of the 85 years of our so-called Freedom......They have been duly wiped out electorally, in what Enda Kenny describes as "democratic revolution". He boasts of our civilised ways, but forgets the 1916 'rising'- was far from Civilised or Democratic, and did not lead directly to Irish freedom. ~ ~ ~ Unless he grasps the nettle and attacks the disgracefully overpaid Heads and upper management of Public Quango's,Farming Subsidies,Government Salaries,allowances,expences,and Pensions,reduces obscenely high State Benefits by imposing Means Testing by strict investigation of personal assets and income. (There are so many sickening abuses in this area,it could almost be considered a National pastime!),he will fail! ~ ~ ~ ~ There has been a lot of talk of the Bailout Repayment problem; but NO recognition of the REAL problem of why the Bailout was needed in the first place! If the Loan problem disappeared magically, the problem that the country is BROKE and cannot pay its way or even earn its own living still remains! Has Enda the courage to present the Terrible Truth to the people once and for all? Too early to say; but if he doesn't, Sinn Fein will tear Labour apart, bring him down, and he won't even be in Office on the 100th Anniversary he so fondly dreams about! .........Btw: Vicarious congratulations to brother Fergus for his success in Louth. Slainte!

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