Storm Éowyn hit Ireland hard, is a political storm brewing too?

FULL disclosure, I don’t always pay much attention to the folks at Met Éireann. At this stage, I’m a bit of an expert on what the local weather system between Oilean Toraigh and An Mhucais will throw at us for the day. However, when the folk in Dublin issue a red warning to the whole island, I listen.

Well, they weren’t being alarmist! Storm Éowyn was one of Ireland’s most powerful weather events since the so-called ‘night of the big wind’ in 1839. Ireland experienced its strongest gusts ever, which left 725,000 properties without power and around 138,000 people without water.

Some years back the tourist promotion people came up with the idea of the Wild Atlantic Way. The 2500 km driving route passes through nine counties and three provinces, stretching from Inishowen Peninsula in Ulster to Kinsale, County Cork. The roadside symbol is a stormy sea. Well, it lived up to its name recently.

The last time I wrote to ye from back home, I was about to go to the count centre in Letterkenny to see the votes tallied for the election here. It was good to catch up with comrades and friends I’ve known for decades.

The new kids on the concrete block were the MICA campaign. A genuine ongoing scandal for this state. When I spoke to the MICA election workers, they were good, decent, honest Donegal folk. They didn’t pick a fight with the government; the problem came to their door, or more precisely, the four walls around them.

When I spoke with two of the lads about the MICA campaign at the count centre in Letterkenny, they asked if I could source a couple of tickets for Celtic’s match in Zagreb! Ordinary people catapulted into national politics, just a pair of Mk 1 Donegal fellas.In a sense, that’s the story of the Land League and everything since it has emerged from the nation of the townlands.

I was delighted that Charles Ward, the 100 per cent redress candidate, got the fifth seat. At the same time, I was sorry to see Independent TD Thomas Pringle lose his. I interviewed him many years ago for An Phoblacht when he was a Sinn Féin candidate. A very decent man.

The result of the election across the 26 Counties was a massive letdown for this fella. Essentially, it was pretty much as you were, with the same two parties in power, with a shameful twist in the heel of the hunt. The only change was that Fianna Fáil had a better showing than Fine Gael. In essence, it’s no difference. The unedifying sight of them corralling some independents was like the worst years of the Charlie Haughey era. The term ‘snouts in the trough’ doesn’t do it justice.

Now, if I had to sum up the entire chaos in two words, I would choose two—Michael Lowry. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you, just Google ‘Moriarty Tribunal’ and you’ll see what I mean.

Independent TD Michael Lowry (70) became a Fine Gael TD for Tipperary North in 1987 before becoming chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party in 1993. In 1996, he resigned from the government and the Fine Gael party and continued his political career as an Independent TD.

The Moriarty Tribunal, established in 1997 to investigate payments to politicians and related matters, found he had had an ‘insidious and pervasive’ influence over the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone company. The idea that 28 years after those damning findings, he found himself in a kingmaker role in forming a government is shameful.

When I was a teenager, the observation that you get the politicians you deserve annoyed me intensely. Now, I reluctantly recognise the essential veracity of that statement.

Our voting system definitely reflects the wishes of the electorate more accurately than the first-past-the-post (FTP) system used in the UK and the States. The downside is that it usually results in weeks, if not months, of horse trading to form a coalition.

Neither my county, Donegal, nor my province, Ulster, is represented at the cabinet table, and only three women have full ministries. A government for everyone? I don’t think so. The thing is, we need proper people running things.

Just as we are all cleaning up after Storm Éowyn, a nasty weather system is forming in Washington, DC. Hurricane Donald could make landfall on our little island this year. Apparently, he doesn’t like the idea of US Companies doing business here. Brace for impact.

Phil Mac Giolla Bháin is an author, playwright and journalist based in Donegal. He was a staff reporter and columnist on An Phoblacht for many years. His novel Native Shore, a political thriller with a strong Glasgow Irish theme, is available at Calton Books