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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

There will be massive changes after this historic Irish election will take place

Posted on Monday, November 22, 2010 at 08:07 AM

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Read more: Irish General Election called after Greens pull out

The Green Parry decision to pull the plug on the Irish government was the only option the party had.

Recent opinion polls show this government in Ireland to be so unpopular that the Green Party now faces a parliamentary wipeout when they face the electorate.

Their only possible hope of salvation was to pull the plug on a deeply unpopular government and hope for the best that the electorate would be more forgiving as a result.

I doubt it will work but it was certainly the right thing to do.

In all my years I have never seen an Irish government so unpopular.

There is a reasonable chance that the Fianna Fail party, which has dominated Irish politics since the beginning of the state, will be effectively wiped out.

Most believe it will lose up to 40 seats from the 78 seats it held after the last election in 2007.

They have been in power 18 of the last twenty years so cannot point a finger anywhere else for the current disastrous state of the Irish economy.

The IMF loan last week was a catastrophic event for them.

Their communications strategy was to deny the loan was coming right up to the last moment before it actually was delivered.

It left for a lot of head scratching and deep sense that the party had either become far too arrogant and that they thought they could tell the populace anything, or that they did not fully understand they had no other option but to accept the loan.

The anger of the Irish electorate will now be visited on them, but as yet it is not entirely clear who will succeed them.

Fine Gael, the main opposition party is the obvious choice, but there have been many questions about their leader Enda Kenny who is considered by some to lack the political gravitas for the job at this key time.

The Labor Part leader Eamon Gilmore is far more popular but is also untested in the financial maelstrom t that Ireland faces today.

The two parties may finish sufficiently close to institute a revolving Prime Minister situation which would hardly be to Ireland's benefit.

What is clear however, is that Fianna Fail will be nowhere near the levers of power after this election and perhaps for a very long time.

The IMF takeover has seen to that.

Read more: Irish General Election called after Greens pull out

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49 Comments

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sirpeter | Dec 01, 2010, 07:32 AM EST

96fm..i mean

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sirpeter | Dec 01, 2010, 07:31 AM EST

@iveanidea..I remember it well,was he on 2fm as well?

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iveanidea | Nov 30, 2010, 06:57 PM EST

@ sirpeter my dad went to the examiner about the haubowline, carcinogenic dump, it made the front page for a few days, good job pops!!!

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sirpeter | Nov 28, 2010, 09:18 PM EST

jacers..your the worst Dy..Dy..Dy..Dyslexic i ever came across.Is..Is..Is that because all your mo..mo mooooney is gone.Do..Do Don't worry i ha..ha..have plenty fo..fo..for a round of pints.With my st..st..stutter and your dy..dy..Dyslexia we'll be.be fine.

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jacersagain | Nov 28, 2010, 05:13 PM EST

sirpeter, I want you to know that I’ve taken your advice as of yr post on de twenny sicks (zzzzz.... nnn... nnnphhha... what wat wat wat??? ) off Nofzember twenny ten. I’m having a chuckle or two w’ya. Am I is a i mean a meanloyal Oirishman iside da pale? Corse I am! And a flipin’ Pilipino spy to boot! (psssst sirpeter, it’s yr round.. d’ya have enough monry?). I’ll paaaayyyy for ya, if I can fine me money in de foreign bankers’ vvallets.

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sirpeter | Nov 28, 2010, 04:42 PM EST

Jacers..It's a sad day when you are defending creakinggate.Here's a man who refers to Ireland as Shamrockshire,he deserves a good kicking in the ooooommphwhaa-haa –aaa -as,i'm not to sure it's spelled right,but i hope it's a painful place. Question is Jakers are you loyal Irishman inside the pale who wants to keep our Irish identity or are you an Anglophile like Creakinggate who has only contempt for his Irishness.Haulbowline another hush hush project by the government and a bloody disgrace,very few Corkmen knew about that till it was too late.

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Liamkeyes | Nov 28, 2010, 03:43 PM EST

Nothing will change. Ireland will still have ":The Bertie Ahearn's and the Pee. Flynns". Incidentally, I have'nt heard from Pee lately about how his life is tough with three houses...one in Mayo, One in Dublin and one in Brussels. How rough can it get?

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jacersagain | Nov 28, 2010, 02:49 PM EST

Nice shooting in the foot post from sirpeter, he of outside The Pale. I’m a Dubliner, a Paled man and I resent you kicking my town’s gate guardian in the ooooommphwhaa-haa –aaa -as. We know de fault was all ‘cos of youze Corkmen’s lapping up to the British Navy. Haulbowline? Hah blow line! Hah hah. Let your wind blow, sirpeter, it contributes to our planet's destruction.

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sirpeter | Nov 26, 2010, 03:28 PM EST

We know where DEFAULT lies Creakinggate,up there inside the pale,that's your patch isn't it.

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Towngate | Nov 26, 2010, 02:52 PM EST

Jakers: No need to apologise. I feel your pain and respect your passion. Jog on!

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Towngate | Nov 26, 2010, 12:34 PM EST

Jakers! No need to apologise.You were obviously touched directly by Argentina's pain and I respect the honesty of your reaction. Wider blogs and broadsheet papers are now suggesting:... it's DEFAULT of the Irish! I am sure the States would like Britain and Ireland to 'leave' Europe. Britain is their biggest aircraft carrier and Ireland would do nicely as a handy Helipad(dy)! I pity the IMF/EU men trying to get sense or admission of fault out of the government if,like the basketcase below, they can't agree - even when they agree!!

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sirpeter | Nov 26, 2010, 09:31 AM EST

@jacersagain..I don't agree with Creakingate on almost anything and it's understandable why you got upset because he is a bit of a downer when it comes to everything Irish.But there is a very real chance Ireland will default over the next four years.But lets hope not.In the meanwhile have a few pints and chillax.The Irish are a very resilient people and no matter what happens we'll still be around.Basic important values will be heightened and we can expect some great songs and great craic in the pubs while we sip our pints.We will always be able afford a few pints and some great craic.Who needed most of the sh*t we were buying anyway and having to listen to people going on about their foreign holidays,it was mind numbingly boring. No one will starve and we have plenty of unoccupied new houses that will be going for a song soon.I wouldn't compare us to the Argentinians,those Latin Americans are very excitable.There won't be much violence,a bit of marching and a few baton charges,a few broken heads on both sides and then having a made our point,we'll do the sensible thing and order another round of drinks.Letting the government sort out the mess they made.

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jacersagain | Nov 25, 2010, 04:46 PM EST

@ Towngate - Apologies , I didn’t really mean to attack you – it was just your suggestion of default for Ireland’s loans that I harangued on. If Ireland was to default like Argentina did after breaking away from the US$, it would face all the problems that Argentinean people did in the wake of default – years of personal savings dropped in value by 75%, or lost completely for some, civil unrest, strikes, violence on the streets, homes and business properties damaged beyond repair, murders, children killed by suicidal parents, suicides by parents and other distraught people, all the constant worries of how to make ends meet, poverty and so on and on. And if we default, who would ever lend to us again? Who? No thanks, No to Default. We Irish would rather fight and survive than suffer woes like the Argentineans did.

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kateomprint | Nov 25, 2010, 03:51 PM EST

Thanks everybody for the great history lesson. Now there is talks that we should never have left the Commonwealth. What kind of trouble do any of think that would cause

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maryjohanna | Nov 25, 2010, 07:20 AM EST

I couldn't believe what had happened in Ireland over the last few years. The cost of living housing etc was unbelievable as pensions and salaries rose at at phenominal rate. I could barely afford to go on vacation there, from the US even though I was working full time and staying with relatives. The boom could not last as it all seemed fake. Houses were being built that there was no need for. They were getting a tax break for owning a second home not the first. I feel there is a lot of blame to go around from the banks to people buying apartments in Bulgaria. I hope they will be able to get their financial houses in order and end up with a decent stanard of living. Salaries far exceeded what people in the US would be paid for doing the same job.

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