Fianna Fail – fault-lines?

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So in today’s continuing Eurodrama, Fianna Fail deputy leader Eamon O Cuiv had to step down due to his refusal to support the Fiscal Treaty. Interesting, especially as Fianna Fail is due to start its annual party conference (the “Ard Fheis”) on Friday. Will the grandson of Eamon de Valera lead the way to a new Irish euroskepticism?

Meanwhile, The Independent points out in an editorial today that on March 31, Ireland will have to pay another €3.1 billion on its ongoing €30 billion bailout of Anglo-Irish bank. For a country with a GDP of somewhere around $200 billion, that’s not chump change. Indeed, there are rumblings of the government will have to cook up what is called here a “mini-budget” (a budget revision) the summer involving more cuts, although (hopefully) no new taxes.

For leading parties Fine Gael and Labour to succeed, they will have to try to forestall the mini-budget until after the referendum. How they will managed to wrench out a Yes vote from this will be, um, interesting. And why, yes, I do mean that in the Chinese sense.

2 thoughts on “Fianna Fail – fault-lines?”

  1. I am on a roll.

    I get the Labour party (even if it is misspelled), they are no doubt socialists, like the American Democrat party and the British Labour (sic) party.

    But Fianna Fail, and Fine Gael. What are they about

    Why does anybody want Fianna to fail? Did she do something bad?

    And Fine Gale? I assume Gael means Gaelic, the Irish language. Does the party want to fine people who speak Gaelic, or not fine them? or do they think Gaelic is a fine thing?

  2. Robert, FF and FG are the successors to the two parties of the Irish Civil War that followed independence. Fianna Fáil (Irish for “Warriors of Destiny”) emerged out of the anti-Treaty party that wanted to keep fighting the British, Fine Gael (Irish for “Tribe of the Irish”) out of the pro-Treaty party that wanted to accept the concessions provided in the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 (including the partition of Ireland, Dominion status for the Irish Free State, and British navy bases remaining in the State). Eventually, FF did succeed in turning Ireland into a republic.

    Policy-wise, at this point, there isn’t much of a difference between the two, they just tap into different patronage and support networks and old rivalries keep the distinction alive.

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