TS Eliot’s memorable conclusion to his great poem The Hollow Men predicts the world will end “not with a bang but a whimper” but it is also a line which sums up the political career of George Lee.
The ‘bang’ was Lee being presented as Fine Gael’s candidate for the Dublin South by-election in June 2009 and promptly storming to the top of the poll. He spoke of his desire to effect change in Irish political and economic life, and many voters, FG members, and political pundits seemed to think the former RTÉ economics editor was a kind of Messianic figure who would save Ireland’s finances.
The ‘whimper’ was George’s sudden announcement on Monday that he was quitting his Dáil seat and membership of FG on the grounds he had not been able to influence the party’s economic policy.
Further whimpers could be heard on radio interviews on Monday. Lee, seemed to crumble under frank but fair questioning by Sean O’Rourke and Joe Duffy, (although some in RTÉ are surely enjoying some Schadenfreude over the Lee affair ) and gave the impression of a man out of his depth in Irish politics.
Galway Fine Gael members admit to being “shocked”, “gutted”, and “disappointed” by Lee’s departure, but what were their impressions of the man? Why do they think he left? And do they think this affair raises questions about Enda Kenny’s leadership skills and political judgement?
Galway East TD Paul Connaughton got to know Lee “reasonably well in the eight months we had him”.
“He brought a certain allure and flamboyance to Fine Gael,” he says of Lee’s initial membership, “but he didn’t really immerse himself in everything to do with political life. Maybe he was just new to the system but I have never seen anyone leave it so quick.”
Dep Connaughton also noticed how Lee held himself “aloof” from other politicians.
“In the Dáil TDs go for coffee and a chat about politics, but you’d see George on his own most of the time,” he recalls. “He said he had no chance to influence party policy but he had his chance each week at the parliamentary party meetings. At these meetings everybody gives their tuppenceworth. If I feel there is something to say I will stand on my hind legs and say it but George never said much.”
Galway West TD Pádraic McCormack had similar encounters with Lee. “You never saw him in the canteen, he seemed to have no close friends, and he didn’t really mix with people,” he says. You need to make alliances and have allies but he didn’t do that.”
However Dep McCormack did get a taste of Lee’s discomfort with politics at an early stage in the latter’s political career.
“I remember when he came to Galway to address a meeting in September, sitting down with him for a chat afterwards,” he says. “He wasn’t an easy man to get conversation going with but I asked him if he had any regrets about leaving his job in RTÉ and he replied, ‘Well the jury is out on that one yet’ and he was only three or four months in job at that stage.”
Lee said that among his reasons for quitting was that he was not given the opportunity to contribute to FG’s economic policy, but this assertion is questioned by FG members.
Both Dep McCormack and Fine Gael councillor Brian Walsh point out that party leader Enda Kenny appointed Lee chairperson of the party Finance Policy Committee.
“Mr Lee had been promoted to chair of the party’s economic policy committee and it was only a matter of time before he was promoted to the front bench,” said Cllr Walsh. “As chairman of the committee he would have had ample opportunity to promote his own ideas on the policy direction of the party; however he chose not to do so.”
“Being chair of the committee put him in a powerful position to influence policy but he never reported to the parliamentary party,” says McCormack.
That Lee was frustrated with the political system and the inability to effect change rapidly is understandable but it was also grossly naïve on Lee’s part to feel it could happen after just 62 days sitting in the Dáil.
Irish Independence was not won overnight. The Northern Ireland Peace Process has been slow but it is dealing with problems which are 40, 90, and 300 years old. Gay rights and women’s rights have had success, but only after many years of struggle, and are still incomplete. The effects of the Programme for National Recovery, introduced in 1987, did not begin to bear fruit until the early to mid-1990s.
“The job came as a great culture shock to him,” says Dep McCormack. “It’s hard to change things in Government, it’s even harder in Opposition, but you have to persevere, there is light at the end of the tunnel and you just have to keep going.”
“Everyone gets disillusioned and politics can be a lonely job,” says FG senator Fidelma Healy Eames, “but if you want to change things you have to stick with it. Enda Kenny was giving him time to come to terms with that. George understood the ‘macropicture’ and economics but not so much the ‘micropicture’ of being a TD and the work it entails.”
“Politics is a tough game, it’s not a nine to five job and it involves a huge amount of sacrifice and commitment,” says Cllr Walsh. “Perhaps George Lee discovered that he just wasn't cut out for the cut and thrust of life as a politician.”
Dep Connaughton believes Lee found “the day to day running of politics dramatically different from what he thought it would be” but questions how naïve Lee actually was about the role of a TD.
“Long before entering politics George was often around Leinster House, he knew the politicians, and had interviewed many of them,” he says, “so he wasn’t a complete newcomer to all this.”
Lee is gone and FG are left with various questions to answer. “His leaving will have a deep psychological effect on Fine Gael,” says Sen Healy Eames. “It will affect us.”
Cllr Walsh agrees: “It would be naïve of me if I were to suggest the party hasn’t been damaged by the events of the past few days, of course it has,” he says. “However the party ideology and economic policies that attracted George Lee to join Fine Gael haven’t changed in eight months.”
The affair has raised questions over FG leader Enda Kenny’s political judgement and is seen as having damaged his credibility. However the party has come out to support him in the face of Lee’s departure.
“The party must move on, unite behind Enda Kenny and remain focussed on our ultimate aim which is to win the next General Election,” says Cllr Walsh.
“We have been scoring well in the opinion polls and even under Garret FitzGerald, who I served under, did we get figures like them,” says Dep Connaughton. “I attribute a good bit of that to Enda Kenny. Think about it, what would you do if you got what looked like a prize possession for an election and thought it had come to stay? Enda Kenny can’t be blamed for not knowing that George Lee would quit eight months later. You never know what is coming next in politics. You would need to see the wind to see that.”
