| The High Horse with Daire Ó Criodain |
| Written by Daire Ó Criodain | |
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BERTIE Ahern will resign as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil today after almost 11 years in the former office and 14 in the latter. Ahern’s legacy falls into two categories. Politically, Fianna Fáil is much stronger and more united than when he became leader in 1994. His predecessors espoused strict political monogamy, scorning lower preferences from voters whose first preferences went elsewhere and enthusiastically detesting coalition. Bertie embraced and cultivated alliances as he needed them. He consistently extracted a bigger return of Dáil seats from a historically low if steady first preference vote, and constructed rock solid governments enduring for full terms involving all parties except Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. Better to have most of the power all of the time than all of the power less of the time. By being compatible with almost everybody, Fianna Fáil have expanded and appropriated the centre ground of Irish politics. Registration is required to view this content, registration is FREE |
