Whatever the reasons for the Taoiseach's desire to bring Niall Blaney into the Fianna Fáil party, there is an undercurrent of emotionalism, writes Stephen Collins
The reintegration of the Fianna Fáil family in Donegal, after a 35-year separation, has provoked mixed emotions in the party. There is some anger in the Fianna Fáil constituency organisation at the return of the prodigal son and some puzzlement among Fianna Fáil TDs from other parts of the country about the strategy behind it.
Some of the TDs who came to Leinster House yesterday for the fourth in the series of party meetings, designed to allow backbenchers to air their views, wondered out loud afterwards as to whether the Taoiseach was letting his heart rule his head in his enthusiasm for bringing Niall Blaney into the fold.
They argued that as Fianna Fáil had two seats in Donegal North East and, as Mr Blaney voted with the party in the Dáil, the party effectively had three seats out of three in the constituency.
"There is no way we will hold all three seats with young Blaney running as a Fianna Fáil candidate, so we are effectively giving away one seat before the election is even called," remarked one TD.
The counter-argument is that following the decision of former minister Jim McDaid to retire from the Dáil, there is no way the party could hold two seats at the next election without Mr Blaney on the ticket along with the sitting TD, Cecilia Keaveney.
There will be some irony if the two are elected for Fianna Fáil next time because both their fathers represented the Blaneyite organisation in the Dáil.
Niall's father, Harry, was elected to the Dáil in 1997 following the death of his brother Neil Blaney, who was a TD for the constituency from 1948 to his death in 1996 and who founded the Independent Fianna Fáil organisation following his expulsion from Fianna Fáil after the arms crisis.
Ms Keaveney's father, Paddy, was also an Independent Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal North East when he won a byelection in 1976.
For a brief period in 1976/77 the constituency had no Fianna Fáil TD but was represented by a Blaney and a Keaveney.
Whatever the pragmatic reasons for the Taoiseach's desire to bring Mr Blaney into the party, there is an undercurrent of emotionalism involved as well, and he has put a lot of effort into bringing it about, as Niall Blaney acknowledged yesterday.
Neil T Blaney was a towering figure in Fianna Fáil before his break with the party. In the 1960s, while serving as a senior minister, he was also the person who was given the task of organising byelections for Fianna Fáil around the country. His "Donegal mafia" became a byword for ruthless and efficient party organisation as it moved from one constituency to another to fight the Fianna Fáil cause.
Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey were both involved in the arms crisis of 1969/70 but in the aftermath of their separate acquittals they took different political roads.
Mr Haughey worked his way back up through Fianna Fáil but Mr Blaney was expelled in 1971 for "conduct unbecoming" when he refused to vote confidence in Jim Gibbons. Nonetheless, the two continued to have a political relationship.
When Mr Haughey became Fianna Fáil leader in 1979, Mr Blaney had some influence with the new taoiseach. He was credited with being the person who persuaded Mr Haughey not to resign in January 1983 and to fight his internal enemies to the finish.
Then, in 1987, after the inconclusive 1987 election result, he supported Mr Haughey in the vote for taoiseach.
As the vote was tied, Mr Haughey would not have become taoiseach without that support.
There were attempts during the 1980s to bring Mr Blaney back into Fianna Fáil.
A deal was negotiated by Brian Lenihan and it foundered only when Mr Haughey felt he might not have been able to get full support for it in the parliamentary party.
There were other abortive attempts at reconciliation before Mr Ahern finally pulled it off.