Politics in 2006

Mistakes Pay
Well, if this year told us anything about Irish politics, it’s that mistakes pay, big time. For example, in March Michael McDowell went purple at some statement by Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, comparing him to Joseph Goebbels…

He had to eat his words, apologising to Bruton and also withdrawing suggestions that the people who had attacked the PD HQ during the Love Ulster march looked like Green supporters.
In September he became leader of the PDs and Tánaiste.
Just as he rose to the top of his ladder, the Irish Times published documents from the Mahon Tribunal alleging that Bertie Ahern had been given money in the mid 1990s when Minister for Finance. And so, in time, it was acknowledged that indeed he had.
It was, said the Taoiseach, a ‘dig-out’ by friends when he was down on his luck after his marriage collapsed. And there was more. He also got money from a group of Manchester businessmen.
The PDs didn’t pull the plug, much to the dismay of the Irish Times, whose editor, let’s not forget, was once a PD TD. “So, we must hold our noses,” bugled the editorial. Well!
So what happened? By mid-October Fianna Fáil had soared in the polls! Ahern himself was up 1% despite 64% believing he was wrong to accept payments/donations.
The crestfallen opposition couldn’t believe it, and who’d blame them? But that’s democracy folks. It seems that the voters, for the present anyway, have had enough of the puritans – and the association between the Opposition and the other puritanical forces in Irish life is unambiguous. The Irish seem to prefer their leaders to be human.
Who’d have thought?