Politics: If you have ever wondered what makes politicians do the things they do, or even why they become politicians, then both these books will give you plenty of answers.
Let me start with a disclaimer or, as required in political life, a declaration of interest. I feature in Olivia O'Leary's book and I am one of more than a dozen politicians that Katie Hannon interviewed, extensively, for hers. While the two authors have covered similar ground, their approach and the outcome is very different. Both are political journalists and the experience of the day job has obviously informed what they have written.
Many people will have heard Olivia O'Leary's distinctive radio voice reading her sketches of Irish life in politics on RTÉ Radio 1's Five Seven Live. They can now have the pleasure of reading the same material in 43 short, succinct, pithy and either highly entertaining or deeply provocative mini-chapters. Her many years as a political journalist in both the print and broadcast media come through in her observations of political behaviour, her shrewd assessment of individuals and her descriptions of political dramas. This is a commentary on political life, a critique of human behaviour and its interface with political power in a mature democracy.
Because, let's be clear, neither work could be written, right now, in the new democracies of central and eastern Europe, most of whom have just become members of our European Union. Ireland has had a continuous parliamentary democracy going back as far as Daniel O'Connell, albeit with a limited franchise. Our political culture has taken deep roots and evolved, particularly since independence more than 80 years ago. The relationship of politicians and political parties to the public is profoundly shaped by that long experience.
O'Leary is not without opinions and sometimes they come through. If I were to make any kind of comparison, so as to give a quick shorthand description, then the name and voice of the late Alistair Cooke comes to mind. These are "letters from the world of Irish politics", first broadcast but now written down. No home should be without its own copy for reference and delight as well as the wry smile that will undoubtedly be generated.
Katie Hannon has not worked as long as Olivia O'Leary as a political journalist. Her experience has been mostly confined to the tabloid side of the print media. While her project may originally have had its inspiration in Jeremy Paxman's book, The Political Animal, this is a different product and, in my opinion, a better one.
Unlike O'Leary she lets her story tell itself through the words of the various deputies, senators, councillors and others that she interviewed. The way in which she has threaded this disparate and disjointed set of recorded conservations into a continuous and coherent narrative is impressive. The discourse flows easily, and the observations of so many different participants are elegantly put together. In allowing politicians to describe their reactions to the various aspects of political life she also uses their experience to explain to a reader, who otherwise might not know, just how the political system actually works.
Whether it is the intensity of a by- election, the vagaries of our system of counting votes, the rules of procedure in Leinster House, or the role of the Ceann Comhairle, all are explained during the course of her exploration of why politicians actually become politicians. But her range covers far more. Becoming a cabinet minister, dealing with the Civil Service, surviving in a large party where your enemies are your colleagues, are all described and explored. Cleverly, she uses the words of her interviewees, at times to devastating effect.
Dr Jim McDaid's own description of how he became involved is interesting. He had no involvement in politics or Fianna Fáil, and was approached to stand by the local organisation. Within days of his successful election, confronted with the realities of a political life, he wondered if he had made a big mistake.
Moosa Bhamjee got the Labour nomination in Clare in 1992 because the woman who really wanted it could not get leave of absence from her employer and not because no one would take it, as Hannon suggests. Moosa's famous slogan was "enough of the cowboys, time for the Indians". But he found life as backbencher frustrating and the work of a government deputy less than stimulating. Although she does not describe it, he did have a weak political organisation. But his comments also reveal a naivety that seems strange in a psychiatrist. They demonstrate the need for a proper period of apprenticeship in politics, just like any other trade and profession.
Hannon has held a mirror up to the politicians and describes what she saw. Her father, back in Co Kerry, was an active Fianna Fáiler, so his daughter, at the tender age of 13, got the job of party personation agent in an isolated polling station during an election. So, from early on, she had her own sense of politics and politicians.
While Hannon has faithfully recounted the answers she recorded, it is her possibly unasked questions that could be most revealing. For Hannon, politics is all about process and not project. It is about winning rather than achieving. Whether it is her background, or her professional career, or maybe even both, she has concentrated on a populist interpretation of what politics is about. The project seldom features, not because it was not addressed but because, perhaps, she was less than interested in its description. In some ways this is like a grand book of Irish country houses that confines its narrative to exploring the kitchens and the bathrooms. But it is most revealing, even at times depressingly so, of just what those rooms of Irish political life contain. In that, Katie Hannon has made a unique contribution towards an understanding of how our democracy functions.
Ruairí Quinn, TD, an architect and urban planner, is a former member of Dublin City Council and Seanad Éireann. He was leader of the Labour Party 1997-2002 and is currently the party's spokesperson on European Affairs