Miriam Lord: Renua Ireland? It was hard to get past the name

At least it’s a start.

Ireland’s new political party is off the fence and walking the walk in a virtuous circle, holding a new conversation with engaged citizens in an open and empowering and positively positive fashion.

With added sunshine.

They have a logo.

They have a name.

They have a brand.

They have ethics.

They have a few policies.

And they have Lucinda Creighton – the Woman in the White Suit.

With added Eddie Hobbs.

After 14 months of speculation and expectation, she unveiled her new departure for Irish politics at a launch in TCD’s Science Museum.

She got one big question out of the way before the serious business of getting off the fence and walking the walk.

“There is something that everybody wants to know: everybody wants to know about our name, about our logo, our branding, so I think it’s probably wise to do that first,” she began, smiling in giddy anticipation of the treat to come.

This was a wise move. Honestly, we were pure sick with the excitement.

Fanfare

The former Fine Gael minister of State stepped back and looked up at the big screen. There was no cheesy music or anything. What was to follow would be fanfare enough.

And there it was: a colourful, Twitter-like birdie and a name.

“Renua Ireland.”

Silence.

From the potential candidates, the enthusiastic young volunteers, the experts “people at the apex of their professions” who are advising the fledging movement, and slack-jawed journalists.

The jokes began immediately on social media.

In fairness, it was difficult to get past the name.

A woman who talked later to Joe Duffy was a little concerned. Irene Flannery's health food shop in Dingle is called Renua. She's adopting a wait-and-see approach. Then there's the gas-boiler servicing company in Monaghan.

Renewa, contoured cervical pillow manufacturers (who knew?) can have no complaint.

Creighton set out her stall, advancing 16 policy programmes “which will give a taste of what’s to come in the weeks and months ahead”.

In the area of arts and culture, the party’s pledge to “reverse the barbarism of the last two decades” was intriguing.

Lucinda is a luminous leader. An impressive, passionate, persuasive speaker.

It is time for a new politics and Renua’s first boss is the woman to help bring it about. But she is very keen to insist that the party is not about one person. They have thousands of volunteers and the party “is empowering a collective. We are empowering the Irish people”.

Renua is the party of “openness”.

Had the golfers not got there first, they could have called themselves “the Irish Open”.

Openness is their version of John Bruton’s famous “pane of glass”. He promised his government would operate as if behind one. It didn’t end well.

But this time, Lucinda and Eddie and the others who aren’t particularly well known yet, promise it will be different. Potential candidates will be subject “to full fitness and probity testing”.

They are majoring on standards and ethics.

“No party has the sort of high ethical standard that we are adopting,” boasted Creighton, unleashing a battalion of hostages to fortune. “We will govern in sunshine.”

All the other parties, similar in intention but mired in unavoidable human venality, must be feeling a bit miffed.

Well-known mortgage adviser and financial expert Karl Deeter has agreed to become ethics officer.

“I was asked to come on board to help create a code of ethics for our politicians,” he explained in a short promotional video.

Wicklow TD Billy Timmins is one of the fresh, dynamic faces in the Renua line-up. He's Lucinda's deputy leader.

A mere 17 years in Dáil Éireann (he inherited the seat from his dad Godfrey), he was also in the video. “I got involved with Renua Ireland because I truly believe it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

There were two people on the platform to begin with. Creighton – in that statement white integrity suit – and Eddie Hobbs (salmon pink shirt, no tie).

Fluent cliche

Eddie is big on walking the walk and speaks fluent cliche.

“We believe in a virtuous circle of supporting social and economic policies that make sense” he said of their “positive” politics.

“We can’t proceed simply on the basis of rhetoric, but on the basis of walking the walk.”

Eddie hopes that in 20 years’ time the launch day will be “seen as the day Ireland finally cut loose the last rotten anchor to the past . . . This is the beginning of the first Irish open political party and everything we do will be open to those who want to be plugged in.”

While Creighton spoke clearly and passionately about what she wants for Renua and the people of Ireland, the same couldn’t be said for Hobbs. An answer to the question of whether he will run for election had to be dragged out of him.

It’s a maybe.

And it was a little unsettling to hear Lucinda fudging on whether or not the party might go into coalition with Fine Gael after the next election. She’s not personally inclined to do it, but. . .

Renua Ireland “Let’s Champion Human Inventiveness” has a lot of work to do. They say they have the people and the passion and the ideas to shake up the Irish political system.

That would be no bad thing.

But first, they have to prove there is more to them than their luminous leader. Lucinda Creighton: the Woman in the White Suit.