Mayo Fianna Fáil councillor warns only a leadership contest can ensure his party’s future
A long-serving Fianna Fáil councillor in Mayo has warned the party can only survive if it triggers an immediate leadership contest.
Cllr Brendan Mulroy, a Westport-based councillor since 1999, believes the widening disconnect between party leadership, grassroots members and the public can no longer be ignored.
He said an “open and transparent” leadership battle is now essential.
“If we want to keep our party alive, it is important we have an open and transparent leadership battle,
“Let everyone come out and lay their cards on the table. That is the only way Fianna Fáil are going to survive.
“If we want to survive into the next generation and the one after that, we need to be very transparent, and we have to bring the people with us,” he said.
Cllr Mulroy said frustration within the party has been building for some time, pointing to the fallout from the Jim Gavin presidential bid.
“The reality is, Fianna Fáil have let the people of the country down in the last couple of days, and they let the party down when it came to the Presidential election,” he said.
Cllr Mulroy recently described himself as a ‘very disgruntled Fianna Fáil member’ and said his work in the disability sector and his role as a councillor brings him face-to-face with the daily pressures people are under.
He was critical of how the Government handled the fuel protests, arguing that ministers failed to respond quick enough to the cost-of-living pressures that drove people onto the streets.
“These aren’t strangers who went on the protests; these are people I grew up with, who I went to school alongside, and who I have known for years,” he said.
He said the situation reflects a deepening disconnect between party leadership, members and the public.
“[The Government] could have come out clearly and said ‘we understand how bad things are for people’,” he said, adding that excise duty should have been cut immediately.
Instead, he believes the Government’s response exposed a “total disconnect” with people on the ground.
“I don’t think we [the Government] are living in the real world, and the protests proved we weren’t,” he said.
Cllr Mulroy was particularly critical of the decision to deploy the army to assist in removing protesters from port blockades, describing it as a “sad day for democracy”.
He noted that many other protests have taken place without such measures being threatened, and highlighted the Citywest protests in Dublin last year.
“Dublin was nearly put up in flames. But when the ordinary decent people of Ireland went out, they were met with this threat,” he said, but stressed that his criticism was not aimed at frontline services.
“No one deserves to be abused, be it a member of An Garda Síochána, an elected representative or a member of the public,
“I would not stand over anyone abusing An Garda Síochána, it is wrong, they are there to protect us,” he added.
I can’t stand idly by and let my party self-destruct, which it is on course to do unless we have a leadership battle
A member of Fianna Fáil for 27 years, Cllr Mulroy pointed to his party’s handling of the presidential campaign as evidence of a leadership out of touch with its base.
When Micheál Martin endorsed Jim Gavin as Fianna Fáil’s candidate, he said it was “a massive kick in the face to the members of Fianna Fáil who had no hand, act or part in that” and described it as an “unqualified disaster.”
“The card-carrying members of Fianna Fáil were deeply hurt by that. They were given no voice whatsoever,” he said, adding that the fallout from the campaign “absolutely” still lingers.
He argued that the leadership “didn’t learn anything” from the result, leaving the party facing similar internal unrest now.
“They didn’t listen to people on the ground over the last two to three weeks. Hence why we are where we are today - which is a very angry and disgruntled country,” he said.
Cllr Mulroy said he is far from alone in his frustration.
“My job is to represent the people who elected me, and the people who elected me are not happy,” he said. “I can’t stand idly by and let my party self-destruct, which it is on course to do unless we have a leadership battle. A change in leadership now is badly needed.”
He believes Fianna Fáil is facing a critical moment, with the party’s future at stake.
“We are in a situation where we have had huge upheaval in the country over the past week, people are rightly angry and rightly upset, and where we go in the future - that is very much up in the air.
“For the Fianna Fáil party, if we want to have any future at all, we need a leadership battle,” he said, adding he would ask the party membership and elected representatives to back that call.
“At the end of the day, if a leadership battle is held, the best person will win.”
Asked about a statement issued by Fianna Fáil’s three youngest TDs, James O’Connor, Ryan O’Meara and Albert Dolan on Wednesday evening, Cllr Mulroy said it reinforced his sense of the growing disconnect within the party.
“When I read that [statement], the first thing that came to my mind was, since they have been elected, they obviously have been completely outside of the loop,
“They haven’t been part of the leadership of Fianna Fáil, or their thinking. It is quite clear from the letter that they have been asked to support stuff that they probably haven’t been consulted about,
“Without them saying it themselves, they were probably asked to back up and support the indefensible,” Cllr Mulroy said.
“In Fianna Fáil, we always had good, clear plans where you could come out and say what you wanted. You had open vision in an open party, but you were speaking from a place of authority and information because the information you were getting was correct,” he explained.
He added that, without speaking on their behalf, the TDs “seem to be at complete odds with the leadership of Fianna Fáil”.
“They were basically being told to go out there and tow the party line, and from their point of view, they had had enough and came out with that statement,
“It is clear to see after that statement, things have started to move very quickly,” he concluded.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.