Martin in Athboy to storm Cassells gate
The real Taoiseach was in town last week. The one from Cork. And it wasn’t Jack Lynch.
The people of the Rebel County liked to call the All Ireland-winning hurler ‘the real Taoiseach’ after he had departed the seat of power. It was one of those Cork things, like calling the Examiner ‘De Paper’. But now, another Fianna Fail leader from Cork actually is the real Taoiseach.
In a reverse Tallaght Strategy (younger readers, see Alan Dukes and Charles Haughey, 1987-’89), even though Fine Gael is in Government, Fianna Fail is in power.
The FF leader is literally pulling the puppet strings of parliament, with the cabinet dancing to his tune. On Wednesday evening, the first day back of Dail Eireann after the recess, the green tea drinker travelled to Athboy to officially open a constituency office for his party’s new TD for the constituency, Shane Cassells, before opening a second office on Kennedy Place in Navan.
Earlier in the day, FF had been accused of having “more positions than the kama sutra” on water charges, by Sinn Fein’s Louise O’Reilly, obviously a well-read lady. In Athboy that evening, the only water bothering Micheal was the rain, but a canopy outside the new constituency office at Newman’s Mill, which looked suspiciously like it had been borrowed from a local undertaker, kept the leader dry.
We’re not sure if it was the rain, but a rendition of ‘The Banks’ seemed to bring a tear to the leader’s eye, as he was welcomed to the riverside office.
“How oft do my thoughts in their fancy take flight …..” he sang along to. Probably as often as an independent minister throws a wobbly, we’d think.
If Michael Martin needs someone to do the warm-up before his Ard Fheis speech, he need look no further than Eugene Craughan, the chairman of the Meath West Comhairle Dail Ceanntair of the party. Think Maire Geoghegan Quinn or Brian Lenihan senior warming up for CJH. Eugene didn’t even need an autocue. He delivered a rousing welcome to the party leader he said had ‘ignited the organisation’, and on trips to schools, factories and towns around the constituency had given members a new impetus and energy, and an ability to deliver. He made it possible for the constituency to deliver a new deputy in the form of Shane Cassells.
The party leader in return thanked the grassroots in the constituency for their drive and commitment which saw a great local election result and was followed by the general election, when the party returned with 44 seats. That led to FF facilitating the formation of a government, and securing agreement on issues like health, education and rural development. Deputy Cassells’ uncle Peter ‘Cass-ells’ even got a mention, for his report into third-level education funding.
Third-time lucky Deputy Cassells revealed that by opening a constituency office in Athboy he was keeping an election promise that he would base himself in the geographical centre of the Meath West constituency, where queries are now flowing in from all over south and north of the county, as well as from Westmeath.
He thanked each and every one of the party workers for getting the shoulder behind the wheel eleven months earlier, when things were in the balance, and returning a Fianna Fail TD in Meath West. He hoped to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Brady and Noel Dempsey and “make an Ireland for all,” quoting the Fianna Fail election slogan.
But before they made an ‘Ireland for all’, there was a rub about another All-Ireland. Calling upon party veteran, Billy Growney, to make a presentation to Micheal Martin, Eugene Craughan reminded the gathering that it was 19 years to the day since Meath beat Cork in the football decider.
Then, maybe because he’s the real Taoiseach, they presented him with a hurley.
Meath Chronicle print edition, Saturday 8th October 2016