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Dev Og still a bright spot
Posted on Friday, January 28, 2011 at 05:20 AM
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There was this skinny young fellow from Dublin who came down to Connemara in the early seventies to manage the small and struggling co-operative project in Corrnamona in the heart of the mountains.The place was dying on its feet in a mountainy region with one of the highest emigration bleedings in all of Connemara, and the times were hard. The lad looked vaguely familiar when I met him first when doing an article on the area for The Irish Press.
The fact the lad was from Dublin was not strange at all. The strong Gaelic-speaking community in Dublin at that time provided many of the young energetic managers that came to the Gaeltacht areas like Corrnamona.
They came with their degrees and energies to the region where the native tongue was that spoken by their parents above in Dublin. Usually they did well, spent a few years in Connemara and then disappeared back in the general direction of Dublin and bigger jobs.
The vaguely familiar looking lad was a bit different though.
He was a mighty bit of stuff altogether. Inside a few years he had so energized the co-operative that it was on a 24-hour shift, humming all the time.
It was going so well that local boys and girls did not emigrate any more in the numbers of the past. Many came home from England and started their own projects under the co-op umbrella. There was a buzz about the whole place and its hinterland.
Instead of leaving Galway the young fellow courted a girl from down the road in Spiddal, married her, started a family in Corrnamona and immersed himself in all the life of a reviving community.
He was a Fianna Failer and he contested for a Dail (Parliament) seat the first chance he got and was easily elected. That night the Twelve Pins were ruddy with bonfires on the skyline.
That was the political beginning for Eamon O'Cuiv, the man the locals christened Dev Og from the beginning.
That was why he looked familiar. He was, and is, the living image of his fabled grandfather Eamon De Valera, founding father of Fianna Fail.
I covered that first election campaign of his. It was almost surreal.
He was skinny, tall, bespectacled, and he wore a long black overcoat just like the grandfather. West Galway was a Fianna Fail heartland, and I actually saw old party members begin to weep when they saw him canvassing their townland.
His physique was a great help back then for sure! I think he came in near the top of the poll without any problems.
He was not a great orator in either language. He did not have any special charisma about him apart from the family resemblance, a palpable decency and the common knowledge that he was doing such great work up in the mountains.
The people said their thanks by electing him. They would have believed that he would be a good solid backbencher and constituency worker for them in the monolith of a party that had still to go through the tainted Charles Haughey era, the questionable Bertie Ahern years and all that has happened since.
If the Dev Og ran good "clinics" that would cut some red tape for them; if he was useful to his constituents, that would be enough. They were grateful.
The Dev Og was all that. He did not explode like a bright new lantern in Leinster House. He worked away solidly and quietly.
Unlike most of the other new TDs (Dail members) whose campaign trails I followed professionally in those years, he did not lose "the run of himself" once elected and given a little power. He remained a principled and decent man.
His career developed very slowly from the backbenches of his party, but eventually he became a junior minister and, in more recent times, a full minister in the government.
Being in charge of the social welfare portfolio, it fell to him last year to detail the spending cuts in that area. That would not have been an easy task for the Dev Og.
He was never a Fianna Fail star at any stage. He was seen as a good solid regional representative with a safe seat.
And it is typical of the man that when Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen challenged his own party last week to back him or sack him, and leading ministers backed away from the challenge, that it was the Dev Og, out of nowhere, out of principle, who was the first to openly throw down the gauntlet.
Others plotted in the background until Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin was flushed out into the open by Cowen's challenge. Cowen won the challenge despite the fact that the nation at large has already turned its backs on him. He is a Dead Man Walking and his party, as I wrote here last week, will be obliterated in the election.
The Dev Og just might prevail against the odds in the feverish battle for leadership of whatever rump of Fianna Fail still exists in three months time. He probably won't, but the irony is that maybe alone among the contenders, he could be the man to rescue his grandfather's party.
Decency and principle are in short supply among the Soldiers of Destiny just now. About all the others are somewhat tainted by association with the incredibly mismanaged and possibly corrupted recent past.
I love elections. The Irish generally love elections.
The upcoming one will be a humdinger because there have been so many fascinating developments already even before the date is fixed.
On a personal level, I supported Fianna Fail for more than 30 years and was a member of my local branch for years. But I departed from them in disgust as the Haughey era imploded and have not voted for them since.
Dammit though, I have a huge respect for the Dev Og because of his inherent decency. He is a good and honorable man in a party that has latterly disgraced itself and ruined our country.
I wish him well.
Note: On Wednesday (January 26) O Cuiv failed to win the position of leader of Fianna Fail. The final count found O Cuiv in second place with 22 votes while Micheal Martin won the position with 50 votes.
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ClarDubh | Jan 29, 2011, 06:49 PM EST
Marie Antoinette never said “Let them eat cake", Sam Spade never said ‘Play it again, Sam’, Sherlock Holmes never said ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’. That’s NOT really the point; The term ‘dancing at the crossroads’ is shorthand for the De Valera vision, even though there is no record of him using those words, and everyone understands the reference…that is everyone except Georgie Boy, who sees his mission as intimidating and insulting other posters, oh and where was ‘Dev's vision of happy people’ when he precipitated the civil war?
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GeorgeDillon | Jan 29, 2011, 01:14 AM EST
TomSwinford: You really shouldn't post here if it makes you mad when someone corrects you. I pulled you up on your absolutely false and dishonest quote that you put in De Valera's mouth. And then you responded with another dishonest supposed quote from De Valera. I'll give readers the full text of that speech as made by De Valera (not made up by Tom Swinford): ---" The Ireland which we would desire of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of a right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the soul; a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and valleys would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youth, the laughter of happy maidens; whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of old age." Note that where TomS invents "comely maidens", Dev actually said "happy maidens". Why did you change Dev's words, TomS? You don't think it acceptable that Dev wanted the young people of Ireland to be happy and healthy? And where's the reference to the "barefoot garsuns" that you cited? Oh, you made that up too? Listen TomS, it's good news for readers that you are no longer going to post here, because nothing you say can be believed. And by the way, what do you have against Dev's vision of happy people who value things other than material goods? Go to Ireland today and you'll see how happy the materialistic pursuits you prefer have made the Irish!
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breffnyblue | Jan 28, 2011, 07:32 PM EST
Cormac,I am a peer from your youth, but just over the Border-we brought in the eggs and brought back the razorblades!- I understand the idioms and the tuigim the nuances agus is maith liom gach focalwhen you stay with local topics that are in your wheelhouse, such as this one on Dev Og.
I hope you have some good good advice left and the energy to deliver it to whoever gets elected-you expended alot of needless effort on our people in Washington over the years. Beannacht leat a chairde .
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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 28, 2011, 06:14 PM EST
TomSwinford – A Georgie Boy critique should be worn as a badge of honour. He badmouths a lot of folk, and boy has he some bad mouth, banging on about Mass Immigration incessantly, and he has a big problem with comely maidens, maybe he needs to go out and find one?
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TomSwinford | Jan 28, 2011, 05:45 PM EST
George, again you are 'over the top.' I was not attempting to quote Dev or even to paraphrase him - just trying to present an idea of his idyllic vision of Ireland that never was and probably never will be. Dev often spoke of Ireland in lyrical, if not mythical terms. He saw Ireland as a place of "cozy homesteads, sturdy children,athletic youths and comely maidens, living happily in frugal comfort". At a time of extreme poverty and widespread malnutrition this was pure fantasy. Dev detested the notion of an industrialized Ireland - and fought it until he was booted upstairs to the presidency in 1959 where he could do no more harm - to be succeeded by Seam Lemass as Taoiseach, one of our most competent. George, in both language and intellectual weight of your posts you are a bottom-dweller and I have no wish to join you in the gutter. I will not respond again on this matter.
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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 28, 2011, 05:24 PM EST
I know the area around O’Cuivs manor very well, and he typifies what’s good and bad in the FF approach to politics, he certainly brought a lot of investment and much needed jobs to Cornamona, Cloghbrack, Clonbur area and virtually single handedly stopped the emigration cycle, he got big road improvements grants as well, and the roads and general visual appearance were enhanced out of all recognition. BUT it was achieved with ‘pork barrel’ type policies. So I can see why his stock is so high in his own area…but his type of FF clientilism has a very big downside, as seen lately. He’s also not averse to the odd stroke…in one election he dropped the O from his name, so he got to the top of the ballot paper as Cuiv.
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greensod | Jan 28, 2011, 04:26 PM EST
Slip on the high boots,get a good shovel.You are going to need it, to move this pile of manure.Read the history on Dev,get the real story on him, the truth.This is fiction.This is how the voters of Ireland have been misled for generations.If Dev og is soo great,why did he sit on his arse and let the windbags get rich as they destroyed the country.
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GeorgeDillon | Jan 28, 2011, 02:30 PM EST
Tomswinford: "pastoral paradise of laughing maidens and barefoot garsuns". Would you care to tell us when and how often De Valera spoke in those terms? I say you're utterly ignorant of Irish history, Dev never said any such thing. "Barefoot garsuns"--what an idiot you are, Tom. Don't invent a lie and then put it in someone else's mouth. Incidentally, I find nothing wrong with such a vision--the European Green parties have been putting it forward for decades. Is there something wrong with healthy young people, Swinford?
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dessieglynn | Jan 28, 2011, 01:02 PM EST
Another crooked F.F. politician. All they ever thought about was lining their pockets with money. Why do you think I left Ireland??? Only to find crooked politicians over here.
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GeorgeDillon | Jan 28, 2011, 12:21 PM EST
O Cuiv claims to be a lover of the Irish language, but a year or two back he supported Mass Immigration on the basis that the foreigners were going to learn Irish!! This shows him to be an utter fool, since there is not a spot of evidence that the migrants have any interest in Irish. O Cuiv's an amadan.
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TomSwinford | Jan 28, 2011, 11:55 AM EST
The more I learn about deValera the more I understand the man - and after reading Cormac's story on the grandson the better I know Dev Og. Nevertheless, being blessed with great principle, great conviction and great decency do not mean that you still can't be dead wrong about great things.
deValera's vision of Ireland: a pastoral paradise of laughing maidens and barefoot garsuns was pure fantasy but it prevented him from taking desperately needed actions to begin to lift Ireland out of crippling poverty. Gandhi, too, was a man of great principle and character but his vision for an unindustrialized, pastoral India would have left hundreds of millions in abject poverty. Such great men may indeed be revered but we would do well to keep their hands far away from the levers of power.
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irishman6 | Jan 28, 2011, 11:09 AM EST
Each time I read another artical by Cormac I learn more about Ireland and it's wonderful people. Please keep up the great work young fellow!!
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battychief | Jan 28, 2011, 10:44 AM EST
Another classic Cormac! Every week I wait for his writing. When I start reading I think my pulse slows down. I had one of his books, but I loaned it out and it was never returned. Keep up the great work.
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LIAMPHOTO | Jan 28, 2011, 09:59 AM EST
A very fine honest person, and I wish him well in the forthcoming election, I hope all the greedy gangsters who hung around the tent at the Galway Races and lined their back pockets at the Irish people's expense, get their just rewards.
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