Introduction
FFPD is the current ruling party in the Republic of Ireland. Fianna
Fail is one of the traditional parties founded after the civil war in 1922
and many people best represents the character of the country through the
decades. The current party leader and government leader is An Taoiseach (equivalent
of Prime minister) Bertie Ahern. His most famous attribute is that he can
waffle about most decisions and not commit to either side. They have
done a lot of good for the country and were involved in some scandals during
Berties and his predecessor, Charlie Haughey's reign, but their participation
in the invasion of Iraq is an all-time low.
The PDs are the Progressive Democrats formed in the 80's
by Dessie O'Malley with Mary Harney currently at the helm.In the current
Irish Government Mary is An Tanaiste (equivalent of vice-Prime minister..)
to Bertie. Mary has not voiced much concern over the war. The PDs are more
noted for being an economy specific party who are keen to privatise public
services and get the economy moving.
The Irish Government and media have given
the war some coverage, but now that the glossy pictures stage of the war
is over most coverage is given to national issues which are petty in comparison
e.g. Smoking ban in pubs, introducing bin tax, light railway building plans
delayed in Dublin.
Berties most prominent but least publicized turncoat manoeuvre
was his move from staunchly pro-Europe before the war, to anti-Europe during
and after the war. In 2001 / 2002 the Nice Treaty was proposed by France
& Germany to give more centralized control to the European capital
in Brussels, Belgium and to allow more countries in Eastern Europe to join.
This required a change in the Irish constitution so a national referendum
had to be held. Bertie was firmly on the side of France & Germany trying
to convince us all that a more centralized Europe would be best for us all,
how France and Germany etc. would have our best interests at heart, and how
it would be mean and greedy of us to deny membership of the EU to the 5?
Eastern European countries by preventing the streamlining and centralizing
of power and control in Brussels.
As soon as the war started though Bertie was suddenly
all pro-US, pro-terrorism-to-stop-terrorism, anti-imaginary-Iraqi-WMDs, and
deaf to French and German protests against the invasion. When US plans proceeded
in earnest in March 2003, Bertie changed his stance slightly to say that
Irish war policy would copy UN policy, another delegation of responsiblity,
which showed his true colours. When the war went ahead without a UN resolution,
Bertie suddenly has no war policy. It seems hes just sitting on the fence
and obliging Uncle Sam all the time. "Can we fly our soldiers, guns and bombs
through Shannon to kill up to 40,000 defencless Iraqi civilians and soldiers
?" asks George. "No problem" says Bertie.
Some Irish Civilians do have a problem with it though.