Politics:Bertie Ahern once told Olivia O'Leary, with obvious exaggeration, that only three copies of The Irish Times were sold in his constituency. "We've worked out who buys the first two and we're still working on the third," he told the journalist grimly.
As this was long before the newspaper published details of how Ahern took a substantial amount of money for his private use in the early 1990s, it just goes to show that the Taoiseach always had a jaundiced view of this newspaper and, in all likelihood, of most others as well.
The anecdote is told in Olivia O'Leary's latest book, Party Animals, and is just one example of how the author manages to get inside the world of politics and illuminate it with telling observations in this series of sketches originally broadcast on RTÉ radio.
The author has affection for the politicians she observes but she is not taken in by their own estimation of themselves. Her observations on the Taoiseach's brand of "socialism", his studied "ordinariness" and how it appeals to voters of all classes are astute.
She also points out that this is the same politician who introduced the tax amnesty for the rich, who presides over a tax system where rich people pay little or no tax but where people on a little more than the average industrial wage pay a tax rate of 42 per cent, or "where rich businessmen like Des Richardson raise money for this truly socialist Taoiseach and where he mingles happily with the riches of Irish multi-millionaires in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. And, indeed, how ordinary is a man who lives a life totally in the public arena, who never takes public transport, and who has been cosseted by State-provided care for so long that only recently he discovered that his driving licence had expired without him noticing it?"
The author is equally incisive about other leading politicians. She tackles the puzzle of Enda Kenny, who emerged as party leader in 2002 after what was probably Fine Gael's darkest hour. Kenny had been in the Dáil for more than 25 years at that stage, but had hardly distinguished himself. Yet in two years he transformed the party from one whose obituary was being widely written to one that is genuinely in contention for power at the next election, regardless of recent opinion polls. She has spotted a tough streak in Kenny, behind the nice-guy image, but she is not impressed by his hardline stance on law and order, even if that is what the voters expect from Fine Gael.
For the author, Bertie and Enda do not compare to the titans of modern Irish politics, Charlie and Garret. "Why do they seem so much bigger, more distinctive, than our party leaders today?" she asks, and then provides the answer. "Well, largely because they were such challenging and divisive figures. They divided opinions in their own parties and outside too. They were forged in a harder school and they were warriors, fighting the great set battles on Northern Ireland, on the economy, on contraception, abortion and divorce."
The author's great strength is that even though she may sigh for the great battles of old, she gives careful attention to the battles of today. Her judgments do not come from the top of the head but are formed after careful and close examination of the events and personalities she writes about.
Party Animals By Olivia O'Leary O'Brien Press, 231pp. €11.95
Stephen Collins is Political Correspondent of The Irish Times
