Health Minister Mary Harney told delegates in in Mullingar this morning that she ‘feels like Gorbachev in 1991. I’m basically a Minister without a party. It’s time to face facts.’
‘The PDs were born by the vexation of Dessie O Malley’s soul, to oppose wickedness and deceit-uttering tongues. We cut rivers from rocks. Our eye saw every precious thing, and refrained from taxing it. We walked with uprightness.’
Ms Harney recalled the highs and lows. The media honeymoon in early 1986. The subsequent decline in popularity and dismal opinion polls of 1988. Their policies had found no favour with the electorate – she recalled the Godless constitution fondly.
Then there was the threat of extinction in 1989, the loss of Michael McDowell and Geraldine Kennedy. The party would have petered out were it not for the intervention of an unlikely benefactor. How O Malley praised Haughey’s ‘courage and skills’ for going over the heads of his party to create the first Fianna Fail coalition. But it wasn’t until 1997 that the PDs came into their own, and for a decade brought a Reaganite sensitivity to the health service, and a Thatcherite tolerance of Berlin as well as Boston.
‘The PDs are a testament to the democratic process,’ said Ms Harney. ‘What power we wielded, what change we brought, what moulds we broke, and will such a small percentage of electoral support.’
‘We have always said that self-interest blinds some, but enlightens others... We did what we came to do, and after twenty-three years, despite I believe it is time for us to call it a day. Let us consult together with one consent. We were born amid a stubborn and tumultuous generation. We leave Ireland happier, more prosperous, more pacified, more jealous of their graven images, more stout-hearted, more glorious and excellent than it has even been.’
‘The PDs were born by the vexation of Dessie O Malley’s soul, to oppose wickedness and deceit-uttering tongues. We cut rivers from rocks. Our eye saw every precious thing, and refrained from taxing it. We walked with uprightness.’
Ms Harney recalled the highs and lows. The media honeymoon in early 1986. The subsequent decline in popularity and dismal opinion polls of 1988. Their policies had found no favour with the electorate – she recalled the Godless constitution fondly.
Then there was the threat of extinction in 1989, the loss of Michael McDowell and Geraldine Kennedy. The party would have petered out were it not for the intervention of an unlikely benefactor. How O Malley praised Haughey’s ‘courage and skills’ for going over the heads of his party to create the first Fianna Fail coalition. But it wasn’t until 1997 that the PDs came into their own, and for a decade brought a Reaganite sensitivity to the health service, and a Thatcherite tolerance of Berlin as well as Boston.
‘The PDs are a testament to the democratic process,’ said Ms Harney. ‘What power we wielded, what change we brought, what moulds we broke, and will such a small percentage of electoral support.’
‘We have always said that self-interest blinds some, but enlightens others... We did what we came to do, and after twenty-three years, despite I believe it is time for us to call it a day. Let us consult together with one consent. We were born amid a stubborn and tumultuous generation. We leave Ireland happier, more prosperous, more pacified, more jealous of their graven images, more stout-hearted, more glorious and excellent than it has even been.’
400 delegates are expected to attend today’s meeting and a result is expected around teatime. The party is due €250,000 a year in State funding until the next election.
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