AFTER 23 years in business, it looks like next month will see the end for the Progressive Democrats. After crisis talks in Kildare, leader Ciaran Cannon (Who? – Ed) said the four TDs senior members who form the parliamentary party agreed that the PDs were no longer viable. A conference to decide on the party’s future seems like a foregone conclusion after the dismal assessment by its key players.
Fair play to Iain, he managed to get over 2,200 people voting in his poll for the top Northern Irish blogs this year… We (just, I imagine) retained our top spot, with Splintered coming straight in at number 2, no doubt his pet subject du jour will have garnered him a lot of fans… I’ve [...] read our review »
World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the credit [...] read our review »
Somehow I escaped reading this essential school text, with its story of racism in 1930s American South. Living in Northern Ireland, I draw parallels with sectarianism, with its similar bigotry and prejudice. To Kill a Mockingbird was part of a Unite Against Hate campaign event at Parliament Buildings in Northern Ireland, which I’ve written [...] read our review »
Four TD’s? Unfortunately, if they had that many they would probably stick around. I think it is just two; Mary Harney and Noel Grealish.
Thanks – fixed.
Alas, if nothing else they gave the world Liz O’Donnell.
There is now no liberal party in the ROI.
ROI politics continues curiouser and curiouser as the FF/FG dominance continues.
they were an anti- Charlie Haughey party, and now that he a resident of hell, the PDS are not needed anymore. they have passed their sell by date!
In other news Irish Times report today that FF have decided not to venture to NI.
The anti-charlie angle was easy to wear though. Once he was gone they spent pretty much all their existence aligned with Charlie’s party. RTE history might remember them as an anti-corruption party but real historians will ask what did they really achieve on that front. If they had pulled the plug in early 2007 then who knows what might have happened.
Did the PDs ever really get out of the Fianna Fail-lite mode.
Does this strengthen FG?
Tears are streaming down my cheek as I read this news – but then I always did enjoy a good laugh.
The epitaph on this Cannon must surely be that he went off “not with a bang but a whimper”.*
*With apologies to TS Elliot.
Johnny Guitar is spot on……Liz is an OBAG !
Not all the news is bad then.
“There is now no liberal party in the ROI.”
The PDs were liberal?
While it was great that the PD’s formed as an anti-Fianna Fail/ anti-corruption/anti-Haughey party, Sadly they were out of touch with the common working folk, which is why they went belly up. Harney & McDowell’s fault. Running aloof middle class TD’s in working class areas is a definite no no. The Labour Party will go the same way in time!
The people who laid the groundwork for Ireland’s massive increase in prosperity are now no longer required and with typical Irish gobshitery they get a good kick when they’re down.
I remember Ireland in the 1970′s and early ’80′s, I have to tell you that the Irish people owe an inestimable debt of gratitude to the PD’s.
I remember when,in the 1960s,the Ulster Liberals headed south to help set up a Liberal Party in the Republic.Time for the Alliance Party to do the same thing.