The PDs meet in Cork next weekend, their first conference since Galway in April 1999. Much has happened in the meantime, and it hasn't been good. With a general election in less than 18 months, it had been looked forward to as a boost for a coming campaign. Things have not worked out quite according to plan, however, and Mary Harney's six months of talks aimed at Michael McDowell's return to the party he drifted from, eventually left and now wants to take over, following his failure to retain his Dublin South East seat in 1997, has hit the dust in spectacular fashion.
The leaking of the AG's terms for return to the party - and his criticisms of it - have been bad for both McDowell and the PDs, but it has shown that the leadership was willing to meet him more than half way. There was much surprise at McDowell's alleged belief that he got his appointment as AG purely on his, undoubted, merit. If McDowell believes Bertie Ahern would have made him legal adviser to the Government without Harney's persuasion, say political sources on all sides, he is not in touch with reality. His espousal of a united Ireland was also a shock, considering his opposition to the President, Mrs McAleese - on the grounds that she was too green - when Harney backed her for President.
The PD door is still open for McDowell, and efforts will continue as both the leader and the hierarchy want him back. All the same, though, there is speculation that since he can hardly return to Fine Gael, seems unwilling to negotiate with the PDs, favours a united Ireland and has a new friendship with Ahern, he might, no matter how bizarre it sounds, join FF.
The McDowell hiccup is the latest in a series of politically damaging occurrences to have hit the PDs in the past year. Next weekend, the party will again attempt to leave the damage in the past and, however difficult it is while in Government, regain a place in the polls the party only seems to reach when arguing with the senior partner. It will do so now by setting a political agenda and building up winning candidates in selected constituencies. The money has been raised, a marketing guru is in place and a fundraiser appointed. Time will tell.