Fergus Finlay's book Snakes and Ladders has proved a couple of things to me - that hindsight is not 20-20 vision and that two people can experience the same events, deal with the same people and end up having very different memories of what actually happened.
Earlier this week I was strolling through Heuston station. (They have done a great job of redeveloping it, by the way.) Being one of those who finds it difficult to pass by a bookshop, I headed into Easons and came out with a copy of Fergus's book. By the time the train had reached Galway, I was just past page 150. This is an easy book to read and an interesting one, not just because it's a political tome. I suspect even those who are only peripherally interested in politics will find it engaging.
I must own up and tell you that the first thing I did was check the index so that I could see what he had said about me. I was curious to know what judgments he had made about me particularly, given his perspective. Having sated my curiosity I was able to concentrate on the rest of the book and found a number of observations with which I agreed. Crisis management, he says, is the principal skill required by politicians, particularly by those with Government responsibilities. Having worked in a number of Government departments, I have rather vivid memories of late nights in the office when it seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong. While all of this was going on, the Minister had to remain calm and respond to the crises in a measured and businesslike fashion.
He also reinforces Gemma Hussey's argument that Garret FitzGerald was not always capable of running brisk Cabinet meetings due to his obsession with unnecessary detail. The idea of 12-hour meetings is frankly frightening, even with the inducement of chips being served.
There are a number of points with which I don't agree. He describes Alan Dukes's Tallaght strategy as "just stupid". That isn't fair and his judgment seems to based purely on the political strategy rather than its actual worth. The Tallaght strategy was a courageous statement made in the interest of the nation which ignored the more narrow interests of the man's own political party.
Over the years it has become recognised as just that, but Alan Dukes has never really received the credit he was due for it.
I object strongly to the eulogising nature of the book when it comes to Dick Spring. By the time I was halfway through, I was beginning to wonder whether Dick had any faults at all. It seems that he was almost always on the side of the righteous, and on the rare occasions when he wasn't, it seems as if Fergus made sure he got there real quick.
This got particularly irritating when it came to dealing with the Emmet Stagg incident. Because of my own knowledge of what really happened in this situation, I take exception to its portrayal in the book. Fergus makes the comment that "all his Government colleagues, publicly at least, stood by him". This is insulting to Fianna Fail as it implies that we, in some way, machinated against Stagg in private.
The truth is that the Fianna Fail Ministers decided to do the honourable thing and support a colleague through his personal crisis, a fact made perfectly clear from the outset even before the incident became public knowledge.
What sniping against Emmet Stagg that did go on came from within the Labour Party (often from those who saw an opportunity to become a Minister of State in his place). Fianna Fail could have demanded Stagg's head and it would have been given, but there was no head-hunting expedition on that occasion.
The most fascinating section of the book describes how the Labour leadership dealt with the party's left wing and the Militant Tendency in particular. The clinical way in which the plan to root out and deal with the dissidents was devised and executed will make other party leaders envious.
Many might call what happened a denial of party democracy but the outcome showed how well they understand the maxim "keep your friends close and your enemies closer still". The principal agitators did quite well out of it. Michael D. Higgins and Mervyn Taylor became Cabinet Ministers (both of whom I liked and trusted) and Emmet Stagg became a Minister of State.
The book also reveals the oddly circular nature of politics. Fergus tells us about the resignation of a Labour deputy. That same deputy this week resigned again, this time from his position as chairman of the parliamentary party.
There are a couple of questions to which I was hoping to find the answers, but they aren't there. One concerns Padraig Flynn. Fergus does a great job of describing Padraig in action during the difficult discussions about the £8 billion EU structural funds.
I wasn't present but I've seen the behaviour and flamboyance described on many occasions and Padraig himself loves telling those sort of stories about himself. However, I wanted to know if Labour had vetoed his appointment to Cabinet in the beginning. There are no hints here.
The second one relates to a strange statement Fergus makes, when detailing the Orla Guerin/ Dick Spring rumour. He claims: "I know it was discussed at a gathering of parents at an exclusive boarding school, miles away from Dublin, in the presence of a senior Fianna Fail lawyer, who also allowed it to be spread."
I keep asking myself who that senior Fianna Fail lawyer was and where this exclusive school was? I can't help but wonder why such a relatively obscure event got included in the book. At that time, the untrue rumours concerning Dick and Orla were chattered about all over the country (as such rumours always are).
If Fergus Finlay were to reveal the identity of the lawyer involved, it might help to illuminate and perhaps explain the motivations behind the events between September 7th and Friday November 11th, 1994.