It was a close call but Enda came out victorious in the end. Our man is back in the hot seat, and by ‘our man’ I mean yours and mine, all of the citizens of Mayo — and not just those aligned to Fine Gael. Because when you scratch your head and think about it for a bit, having the leader of the main opposition party resident in and native of our home county packs a major punch politically, particularly as he now lies poised more than ever to assume the role of taoiseach-in-waiting. How can the people not row in behind the man? The reward will surely be largesse and investment and growth for the county that has literally been frozen in time after the boom/bust mess-up.
Deputy Kenny has shown his true mettle. He delivered a plea bargain speech that he promised would ‘blow the heads’ off his party colleagues and in the end it worked. They voted him back in and set the Mayo man on a new path of character-building pressure-cooker performing. Maybe all Enda needs is a good crisis to get him going. At the rate things aren’t exactly moving in the current economy, crisis is certainly the operative word so if Enda now manages to take it all the way to claim the coveted seat as taoiseach of Dáil Éireann, he will have every opportunity to prove his latest heroic form as consistent.
In light of such a week of tumultous changes to the Mayo political scene, as well as some question marks now hanging over the heads of some of our own public representatives, questions must also be asked regarding the performance of the local population in general, such as, what exactly had any of us been doing anyway to actually keep Enda Kenny in his seat as leader of Fine Gael?
Honestly, ask yourself, regardless of your political persuasion, did you at any point appreciate the fact that our own homegrown country star, Enda, had been leading the strongest opposition party in the country for the last eight years and that he was also set to lead us possibly as the new taoiseach of the country? Even out-and-out Fine Gaelers who showed up at every photo opportunity to be seen alongside Enda — apart from arranged media briefings and scheduled public appearances — how much effort did they really invest in promoting their own fellow as heir apparent to the taoiseach’s throne?
If anything the good people of Mayo haven’t been slow in joining in on the ridicule of Enda — his huge hands in your face waving monologues, his folksy ways, his deadpan, droll, responses to questions that seemed more exciting than the man himself. He made perfect target fodder. Nothing he did was good enough. His point-scoring in the Dáil didn’t go the distance when once outdoors on the steps of Leinster House he refused point blank to answer touchy-feely questions on policy, taxes, water charges, and precisely why he would not form working relationships with other parties.
Hence his depth of character was continually questioned. Depicted as a political weakling on the economy, bit by bit the profile of our one-time minister for tourism who showed such largesse to his fellow Mayo people back in the day — was chipped away at until inevitably, the swing came last week.
But now Enda is back in the driving seat. It was a close call of 38 votes to 32, but all that is irrelevant now. Enda Kenny is the leader of Fine Gael and he’s from Mayo. That’s something that’s definitely worth advertising.
