Oliver J. Flanagan - The Bitterness Erupts

The humiliation of Garret FitzGerald has been one of the sweetest triumphs for Oliver J. Flanagan in his long Dail career. For over 14 years he has harboured feelings bordering on loathing of his current party leader and his recent triumph has more significance in purely personal terms than in political or even theological ones.
It was in 1968 that Garret and Oliver J. first clashed.

It was over an outrageous statement made by Oliver J. at the time about the purchase of land by foreigners. "Too much of our land has fallen into German hands", he said. "We have no room in this country for Nazis and we are
not going to entertain them here."

FitzGerald retorted by demanding the resignation of Flanagan and Liam Cosgrave rose to a rebuke of the LaoisOffaly deputy. There was a clash between FitzGerald and Flanagan around then, also, about patronage. Flanagan said that Fine Gael in office would favour its own members and supporters for jobs at the disposal of the Government. Garret, characteristically, rose indignantly to the bait and denounced Flanagan and, again, Cosgrave was forced in to siding with FitzGerald. At least on that score, Flanagan proved the more prescient.

It was Oliver J. however who, with great sanctimoniousness, proposed FitzGerald for Taoiseach on July I, 1981. He did so as the "father of the House", a title which nowadays weighs very heavily on him. He then recorded an admiration for FitzGerald and, no doubt, there was a sincerity in what he said at the time. But far more reflective of his views was the speech which he made on the opening day of the next Dail on March 9, 1982. Then he launched into a 45-minute discourse, some of it quite hilarious and only part of that intentionally so. But beneath the humour and balderdash about the sovereignty of Parliament etc, was a venom directed against his own party leader.

Perhaps the only person Oliver J. has really admired in politics has been James Dillon and even here the admiration has not been continuous. Early on in his Dail career he attempted to quiz Sean McEntee during question time on
some issue or another but was repeatedly obstructed by the Ceann Comhairle because he tended to make speeches rather than ask questions. He was advised by James Dillon - then also an Independent TD - to preface his remarks with the words "would the Minister not agree". Shortly afterwards Oliver J. forgot himself and got into trouble again with the Chair. McEntee suggested that he abide by his "friend's" advice. Dillon retorted cruelly: "the Minister has failed to insult me".

But it was with Dillon that he joined Fine Gael in 1950 - he had been a member of Fianna Fail before being elected to the Dail in 1943, by which time he had styled himself as a Monetary Reform candidate. It was Dillon who brought him into Government in 1954 as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture. It was Dillon who put him on the Fine Gael front bench in 1958 as spokeperson on Lands.
 
More critically, it was Dillon who interceded with Liam Cosgrave in 1975 to have Oliver appointed Parliamentary .Secretary to the Minister for Local Government to ensure that he would be eligible for a Parliamentary Secretaryship pension. Presumably, it was on Cosgrave's own initiative that Flanagan was appointed Minister for Defence in December 1976.

The esteem in which Oliver J. is held by Parliamentary correspondents is reflected in the comment of one journalist on the press gallery on the day of his appointment to the Cabinet - this journalist was booked to appear on RTE that evening. He said: "I am going to say on television tonight, 'folks, we have reached a new low' "

Oliver J's careerr has hardly been distinguished. He was described as "reckless and irresponsible" for his behaviour in the celebrated Locke's Distillery inquiry in 1947. David Andrews described him, on his appointment to the Cabinet in 1976, as "the clown prince of the coalition".

While his service to his constituents, in terms of representing them to Departments of State - and, incidentally, he always writes to civil servants, not to Ministers - has been legendary, his representation of their concerns and interests through his contributions to Dail debates has been less noteworthy. His speeches, especially nowadays, are long winded, jumbled, entirely unresearched and of interest solely in terms of the performance they entail.
But they can also be vicious, especially against FitzGerald.

This was particularly so at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting of April 20, where his venom was clearly on display. But his ignominious piece of work was in 1974 when he secretly and anonymously circulated documents in his constituency damaging to his party colleague and then TD, Charlie McDonald. The latter had "erred" by voting for his party's Bill on Family Planning. Flanagan used the facilities of the Knights of Columbanus for this particular dirty trick. His membership of that organisation was until then secret, but he has managed to turn adversity into advantage in that regard and, in the process, managing to have himself declared Knight of St. Gregory the Great.

He now has FitzGerald on the run and he is relishing every moment of it. Not indeed that FitzGerald doesn't deserve to be on the run, having given quite explicit commitments to introduce a pro-life amendment to the constitution prior to the 1981 and February 1982 elections and committed himself to introducing the Fianna Fail proposed amendment by the end of March 1983, prior to the November 1982 election.

FitzGerald got hooked on the abortion amendment campaign by a quiet, almost anonymous Galway medical student, Maria Stack, in April 1981. She created a great stir after the Fine Gael Ard Fheis of that month by saying that
she favoured abortion in certain circumstances - she had just been elected Vice President of Fine Gael.

At the time FitzGerald seemed on the brink of power. Fianna Fail had collapsed hopelessly from the electoral predominance they had established in the 1977 election, when it looked that it would take at least two general elections to nudge them from their 20 seat majority pedestal. Throughout 1979 things had gone hopelessly wrong for them. While Haughey seemed to offer them some redemption in late '79 his performance throughout 1980 and early 1981 was such as to indicate that they were headed for a massive electoral disaster.

Meanwhile FitzGerald had assiduously been building up Fine Gael organisationally - in policy terms virtually nothing was done. Preparations for the imminent general elections were being made meticulously - it was to be the first fully and professionally marketed campaign in the history of the state. All glitter, no substance.

The April 1981 Ard Fheis had been a triumph for FitzGerald. That Sunday night after the Ard Fheis he managed to avert what he believed could have been a catastrophe for himself in terms of internal party politics. He took off for America the following morning but when he arrived home later that week a storm had broken over the Maria Stack remarks.

The Fine Gael electoral strategy - all froth and no substance - was susceptible to unanticipated faux pas and this was identified as potentially one of these. Therefore, the abortion issue had to be buried once and for all. Coincidentally, the Pro-Life campaign was getting off the ground and FitzGerald was the first party leader to meet a very formidable delegation, led by a group of gynaecologists from the main (Catholic) maternity hospitals.
FitzGerald was a sucker for this group for many reasons. First they were highly respectable middle class people, many of whom he would have known from the dinner party circuit of Dublin 4.

Secondly, FitzGerald was a sucker for any representations on a "moral" issue - his primary hobby is dabbling in moral theology. But thirdly, he was then almost desperate for office and the opportunity to put himself on the right side on the abortion issue was irresistable.
 
FitzGerald was positively effusive in his response to the Pro-Life campaign group. He not alone agreed to their proposal to amend the constitution to include a pro-life guarantee for the unborn but he commended their public service in drawing attention to this.

Again, prior to the February 1982 election, FitzGerald was not going to allow any "diversion" from the main thrust of the campaign - i.e. the credibility of the Haughey Government - to be clouded by any debate on the abortion issue. He said that on the basis of legal advice then obtained that he found the Fianna Fail proposed wording acceptable. Oliver J. Flanagan could hardly ever have hoped to have caught FitzGerald so red-handed on such a sensitive issue.

The dissident group within Fine Gael on the issue comprises people genuinely anguished on the question, but also a hard core, who, although they might also have principled opposition, are charmed with the opportunity to discommode the Taoiseach. These include, apart from. Oliver J. himself, Tom O'Donnell and Michael Joe Cosgrave.

O'Donnell was deeply embittered by FitzGerald's treatment of him in 1981. In order to salvage his image both within and outside the party following the poor result of the Donegal by-election of November 1980, FitzGerald restored O'Donnell and Ritchie Ryan to the front bench - they had been taken off it following their election to the European 'Parliament in 1979. Then when FitzGerald became Taoiseach in July 1981 he failed to appoint either O'Donnell or Ryan to the Government. O'Donnell said at the time, with some justification, that he felt "used" by FitzGerald. Michael Joe Cosgrave has been embittered since the 1977 election when FitzGerald was part of the plot to impose Ted Nealon on Cosgrave's constituency.

The extent to which this affair has undermined FitzGerald's position within the party and Government has yet to be calculated but, undoubtedly, it has done considerable damage. The affair has shown him to be weak, vacillating and, to some, dishonourable in his breach of several solemn commitments.

Because of the longevity of his service in the Dail and because he is Oliver J, Oliver J. has managed to turn the knife in FitzGerald's wounds with considerable effect of late. It will be entirely out of character for him to help dislodge the knife, once this issue blows over - if it ever will.

But perhaps it's not going to be all joy for Oliver J. His constituency colleague, Tom Enright, a man not previously noted for his independent mind or independent voting record (i.e. independent of Oliver J.) revealed he would break the Laois-Offaly whip and would vote for the Fine Gael amendment.

If Oliver J. cannot keep the likes of Tommy Enright in check, well what hope is there of stemming the permissive hordes?