Following the close of nominations at midday today, it was announced that Eamon Gilmore will be the new leader of the Irish Labour Party. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Eamon and wish him all the best. It's quite clear that Irish Labour need to do something to pull themselves out of their current stagnation- their vote hasn't collapsed, but they are exactly on fire either. The Spring Tide is becoming a distant memory, and Eamon now faces the challenging task of improving his party's fortunes.
Like his predecessor Pat Rabbitte, Eamon comes from the sticky wing of the party, but commanded support for his candidacy from such Labour grandees as Michael D. Higgins, Ruairi Quinn and Willie Penrose
Now all that remains to seen is who becomes his deputy...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Congratulations Eamon Gilmore
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8 comments:
The Stickie coup d'etat has yet to be overthrown by decent Labour folk.
They won't be getting my vote for another few years so.
Reg-
Does the fact that they are no longer stickies, but have now opted to be Labour politicians, not excuse any past 'errors of judgement'?
They were pretty big errors!
Rabbitte's oratory aside, I don't see what the DL rump have brought to Labour, other than their ex-communist control-freakery and anti-republicanism.
It's a fair point- one would have though that the annexation would have brought greater combined benefits than would have been achieved had they remained separate.
Personally I don't see much evidence of anti-republicanism- they may be anti-provo, but that's a separate issue. Plus they did have that voting pact for the Seanad.
They aren't exactly strong on the national question though, to be fair, although if they venture north I suppose it remains to be seen whether this postion will be of benefit to them.
In terms of control-freakery, I thought lack of strong organisation was one of Labour's biggest problems!
"They aren't exactly strong on the national question though, to be fair"
That's what I mean by anti-republican! I don't care if they're anti-provo.
Would that not just make them 'arepublican', if such a term exists? It also depends on your definition of republicanism- I don't think Labour can be described as monarchist. They may not fit the mould of traditional Irish republicanism, which in reality is actually nationalism, but I wouldn't say that makes them automatically 'anti-republican'. 'Tis a question of semantics I suppose
Reg the Labour Party are the oldest party on this island and to be fair have held true to their constitutional aspiration of a 32 county socialist republic.
Moving things along. Interesting piece in the Sunday Business Post which I have reproduced on www.oconallstreet.com.
El Mat,
I'd consider the PDs to be arepublican. The Stickie wing of the Labour party are anti-republican (in the Irish sense of the word).
Anon,
I have no problem with the traditional Labour party.
Ronan O'Brien's article is very interesting and refreshing. I pretty much agree with all of his points bar the "class matters" one - best not to go there.
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