Yes seriously. I don’t write these ‘heart on my sleeve’ pieces for fun.

If you take the rest of the paragraph it puts the quote into context and also my last comment in the trail underneath.

I don’t doubt there was corruption in the past however in my decade or more of activity within the party from ogra and college days up to my recent local election bid, I have not seen it. I have seen a lot of hard working grassroots activists and a lot of decent able and aspiring politicians (struggling to get off the ground), all pay for the sins of the past. As I said in the piece, perhaps naievely I thought the party had finally shrugged off that baggage – but the perception still remains in many minds. I do not believe it to be true of the party and membership today.

In fact a point I made recently in other fora, parties of government always attract a disproportionate share of me feiners, perhaps one up side of a spell in the wilderness that some of the freeloaders might go pick on another party to sling their slimy hooks on. And good riddance.

Seriously?

P.

Thanks for the feedback.

Thing is, my experience of Fianna Fáil is not drawn from jaundiced media columns or the admitted prolifigacy in scandal sheets but rather from over a decade of working with and within the party at a variety of levels and locations. I have been a member of cumainn in Trinity College, my home place Wexford, briefly in Dublin South and finally and most permanently in Sallins (where I am cumann Cathaoirleach). I have also ran for election quite recently and have many friends and party associates of similar demographic and profile. In this time I have not come across these corruption issues or seen it go on. On the contrary the kind of people who stock a cumann are typically ‘salt of the earth’, grass roots types, who are quite likely to be also the driving forces between their local GAA, Tidy Towns, Community Games etc etc at the same time and to which they give freely of their own time and for no monetary reward. If there were any cabals of power and consumption they certainly weren’t at the party faithful level.

Similarly when I look at other election candidates of my own generation (and I stress the generational issue as I can only speak of my own time involved but I can speak on that authoratively) I have many friends and contacts of similar vintage to myself who ran for the party last year, and these are all ideologically driven, intelligent, educated individuals in whom community service along with a strong patriotic streak are the defining qualities. Probably most striking, and in stark contrast to the perceptions mentioned, the majority of these candidates and including myself, were self funded in our election campaigns. No corporate donations or at least nothing that was not completely transparent perhaps in the form of a fundraising event but largely ‘supported by gallant allies but relying the first on own strengths’ we used savings or credit union loans or whatever other means were at our disposal but we did not, and I would say of my contemporaries, without exception, we were not bankrolled by anyone else or any other vested interest. I strongly believe we could have been the generation of change that would have restored the party and been damn hard working and effective local councillors, the irony is we were rejected by the people before we ever got a chance.

James

To try again, treating James’ points sincerely, then I have to say that I find it to be a highly wishful set of proposals with no hope of ever being delivered upon. It looks good and sure to get most people nodding sagely in public at its wisdom and worthiness. However, to genuinely think that such ideals could ever become part of the FF DNA, for me, is to become quite fanciful in one’s expectations.

To illustrate my point, can you name even one member of the parliamentary party that would seriously entertain such proposals? And, by “seriously”, I do not mean the usual old empty “lip service” to any discussion about change and reform, I mean “who would inherently agree with such proposals and would actively champion their implementation”?

Indeed, as FF becomes increasingly dominated by its conservative, rural support base, a reactionary agenda and ever more “parish pump” politics looks like being the more likely way forward for a party that has known little else. With respect, I think that progressive thinkers like James and you are more likely to become marginalised over the next decade, rather than actively encouraged!

I am not so boneheaded not to appreciate that I could well be wrong in all of this. However, I have been around too long to be optimistic about such things any more.

Indeed, on that note, I would be pretty much as jaundiced about Fine Gael and Labour would not trot too far behind again They all make noise in opposition about reforms and changes. However, that really just comes back to the “lip service” point again. Someone wears a new tie these days and it gets heralded as “radical change”.

/rant

Think you are missing James’ point. He’s not looking for a new party, he wants to get the existing party sorted out. Setting up a new party isn’t what angry FF-ers want.

I guess that what I am really saying is that if there must be a centre-right populist party in this country, why not a new one – free from the multitude of vested interests, free from the back-scratching deadwood membership, and, above all, free from the sickening and morally bankrupt legacy of the past few decades?

I hope FF TDs and HQ folk are reading this.