Who will rid us of these turbulent PDs...

The English king, Henry II once plaintively asked, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Now I'm not suggesting that Michael McDowell should be dealt with in the manner of poor Thomas à Becket, but after last weekend's histrionics at the PD conference in Cork, I detect a fatalistic irritation in the ranks of Fianna Fáil, a wondering if there is anyone capable of shutting him up.

It's not that Fianna Fáil doesn't enjoy the idea of the Shinners being put under pressure, but while McDowell's anti-republican rantings might be good for the PDs' vote battle against Fine Gael, potentially they could destroy the basis of the Good Friday Agreement entirely.

That Agreement, while never intended by the Southern establishment to put Sinn Féin in pole position in the North, nevertheless requires an acceptance of the genuine intentions of the major players.

If Adams and McGuinness were not really committed to the totally unarmed strategy, there was no reason for them whatever to begin the peace process: the war could just have carried on.

But, to score immediate political points of dubious value and veracity, it is that commitment which is derided by McDowell. If he does succeed in undermining the potential of that commitment by isolating republicans he will have left nothing behind on which any other political party would be able to build a new political advance.

McDowell and the PDs don't care: they have no record of ever having done anything to advance the peace process. But Fianna Fáil does care: Charlie Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern have all invested heavily in it. Certainly, they would prefer to see the SDLP as the main party of Northern nationalism, but that's a beaten docket as the Westminster elections will soon show.

And however much they dislike Sinn Féin, the bottom line is that Fianna Fáil knows that they can't proceed without them.

Of course, when Brian Cowen was Minister for Foreign Affairs, Government policy on the North was controlled by Fianna Fáil, with McDowell let out only for occasional shoutings. Cowen had no hesitation in telling McDowell that it was he who determined Northern policy not McDowell. But Dermot Ahern has no control whatever, and McDowell is now running amuck – hence the increasing angst in the ranks of the Soldiers of Destiny.

The problem is that McDowell and the PDs don't know their limitations. Last weekend in Cork there was no indication that this was a minor marginal party with the support of barely four percent of the electorate. For they may have very limited support, but the PDs have dominated Government economic policy for the last eight years, and are now bidding to dominate political policy also.

How come the PDs can wield such influence?

Fianna Fáil is an all-things-to-all-men party. It has both conservatives and radicals within its ranks, Thatcherite monetarists and pleasant social democrats. It can happily go into government with either left or right.

But Fianna Fáil's problem is that very few parties are willing to go into government with them. This is a godsend to the PDs, who believe that because they save Fianna Fáil's bacon and give them office that in gratitude Fianna Fáil should give the PDs power – and power is what the PDs practice.

This Government's obsessions with protecting the interests of the rich and privileged are directly the result of the PDs' presence. But even those FFers who intensely dislike the PDs' influence and the PDs' style accept that they have no choice because no other party will give them a choice.

It did look, back in 1992, as if the old sterile mould of Irish politics had been broken: that Labour would be pivotal players, able to use Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael to Labour's advantage; but it fell apart because of a petty quarrel between Dick Spring and Albert Reynolds.

In the last election, Ruairí Quinn held out the possibility that he might revert to this option. But Quinn never went out to argue for it as a positive choice, and insisted that his first choice would be a coalition with Fine Gael. It didn't work.

Now Pat Rabbitte is even more insistent that Labour's role is to tag along behind Fine Gael, despite the now public opposition of at least two major trade unions. But the opinion polls indicate that this won't work either, and we face a real prospect of a third term of PD influence and domination of government.

Labour aren't the only ones who can challenge this inevitability. Fine Gael continues to labour under the delusion that it can match Fianna Fáil and restore the old swing of the pendulum politics we used to have: Fianna Fáil, on one side; and Fine Gael, with Labour, on the other.

Fine Gael, of course, could also wipe out the PDs overnight if they would just recognise their own limitations, that they are not the equals of Fianna Fáil and that their real role in modern Irish politics is a niche one which could see them dominate a Fianna Fáil government in the same way that the PDs presently do.

But this remains anathema, and with the establishment insisting that Sinn Féin are beyond the Pale, there is no choice for Fianna Fáil. Unless they get an overall majority, they will have to accept the pushy embrace of the PDs and smile nervously while Michael McDowell destroys a key plank in their political raison d'être.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity.