This is a vastly informative and humorous book by Shane Ross, 'In Bed with the Blueshirts'.
Do any of you remember ever hearing about ‘Charter for Change’? I hadn’t either, or if I had, I had forgotten it. It marks the beginning of Shane Ross and a disparate group of followers in their search around Ireland for candidates who would come with them on a journey ending in a Charter for Change, whereby this group of Independents would agree to set up, not as a political party but as a loosely-formed group of deputies, as an addendum to Enda Kenny when he had to form a government in 2016.
Firstly let me say, even the travelling around Ireland, the holding of large meetings in midland places like Athlone and Tullamore, the meeting and persuading of so many like-minded people to join them, was a great act of courage and determination by Shane Ross himself.
The result of the 2016 General Election had been a big disappointment for Enda Kenny and Fine Gael. They lost a huge number of seats and did not seem to garner any of the anticipated gratitude from the electorate for the work they had done in righting Ireland’s financial woes.
It was an interesting time for Independents. Different groups of them began to spring up, numbering from one to five to six, all hoping to be invited to join up with whatever government either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil could muster.
Into this stepped Shane Ross with his gathering crew: Finian McGrath, John Halligan, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, Seán Canney, and maybe, just maybe, Michael Fitzmaurice? In Shane Ross’ own words, they saw themselves “as an important part of a great experiment in Irish politics. It contained ten basic principles. As constructive Independents, we advocated radical and responsible government, offering stability.”
So the great adventure began with this group voting for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, and in fact providing a government in 2016 after 70 days of prevarication across all groups of parties and Independents. And so the story begins: In Bed with the Blueshirts.
What a provocative title. Life with the Blueshirts was not an easy passage for Shane Ross and his Independent Alliance, as they came to be known.
Despite all the setbacks, let me say quite clearly: Shane Ross in Government achieved some major reforms. The most important one was the drink driving legislation which led to huge tumult in the Dáil between rural and urban deputies, yet there was complete determination by Shane Ross and his group that they would win this battle, and they did. It is no exaggeration to say that there are people alive today who would not have been so if the drink driving laws had not been altered and changed by the legislation introduced by Shane Ross in his role as Transport Minister.
Then there was the whole Pat Hickey Olympic saga, and the eventual depiction of that in this book is truly astonishing. Suffice it is to say that Shane Ross’ determination to ignore insults and to plough on led, in the end, to a satisfactory conclusion.
Equally so, the saga of Irish football. Again, Shane Ross trod where no one else had dared to go, and we have the final result now of a stable committee running Irish football, and the future ahead looks clear when all the various court cases have been run through.
That was a hardy saga, and one littered with pitfalls for the Independent Alliance. But they stuck with their big idea and in the end, it was successful.
Readers will love the depiction of the interaction of civil servants and politicians, and how matters worked out between them. Shane Ross has praise for civil servants; in his own words, he says, “Civil servants are probably the most conservative group of people on the planet. They are unfailingly polite, good, decent, God-fearing citizens.” Shane had the measure of the civil servants, but they in turn had their measure of him, which led to many an interesting tussle depicted so well in these pages.
Equally riveting is how Cabinet operated. As the reader can imagine, I would have been aware of this from my own time as a Cabinet Minister, but depicted by Ross it is entertaining, lively and overall quite secretive at times.
Shane Ross was a journalist and his pace of writing is always racy, entertaining and emphatic, and always with an end objective firmly in his mind. He has a chapter called ‘Gaffes galore’ in which he outlines the various predicaments in which he found himself, mainly through sporting events and the publicity surrounding them. He is entertaining and painfully truthful in this chapter. I wonder in life how many other politicians would have faced up to what were clearly highly embarrassing situations, but which he manages to surmount with his constant good-humoured depiction of these famous gaffes.
His long-stated aim was to rule the Fortress of the Four Courts, where his bill on this matter passed the Dáil after vigorous debate, but failed to pass the Seanad due to ongoing and continuous filibustering. I expect that this is a constant regret for Shane Ross. This is now being played out in the parliamentary pantomime which we have seen over the last few weeks on Dáil TV.
This book, In Bed with the Blueshirts, is a good read. It is entertaining, honest and truly reflective. Shane Ross has shone a light on many dusty corners of Irish political life, and throughout the pages his humour, his acceptance and his acumen shine through.
A good read for the Christmas list.
