Almost nobody resigns from Irish governments. Certainly almost nobody resigns on a matter of principle. The only person I can recall who resigned on a clear-cut matter of principle was Kevin Boland, although I cannot recall what that principle was. Dick Mulcahy and Joseph McGrath resigned from the first government in 1924 after being caught off-side on a mutiny by army officers.
Noel Browne resigned from government in 1951, but since he fully accepted the right of the Catholic hierarchy to determine matters of faith and morals, it is not at all clear what the principle in his case was. But then Noel Browne had so many principles that it was not difficult for him to find one on which to resign.
There were several "principled" resignations from the governments of Charles Haughey: Martin O'Donoghue, Des O'Malley and George Colley resigned in 1982, and 10 years later Albert Reynolds, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and Padraig Flynn resigned. But what was the principle other than that they didn't like Charlie? They were not one bit concerned about where he got his money from, although at the time there was every reason to be concerned.
Frank Cluskey resigned from the Garret FitzGerald government in 1983 over a matter of principle to do with Dublin Gas and John Bruton. Of course, there have been "principled" resignations by Labour comrades from government - Dick Spring led them out of office in early 1987 and again in November 1992, but could anyone tell us what these resignations were about? Des O'Malley and Bobby Molloy walked out of Albert Reynolds's government in 1992 but that was because Albert Reynolds called Des O'Malley names at the beef tribunal.
There have been lots of threatened resignations we know about, and lots more we don't know about.
Bobby Molloy threatened to resign from a Jack Lynch government over the redrawing of the Galway West constituency boundary. Garret FitzGerald threatened to resign from the Liam Cosgrave government over alleged misconduct within the Garda in 1976. Bertie Ahern threatened to resign from the Albert Reynolds government in 1993 over the tax amnesty.
NOW, thanks to the memoirs of Barry Desmond, Finally and In Conclu- sion, just published, we know much more about a few more threatened resignations during the government of 1982 to 1987. Barry Desmond may not have been a great auditor on the European Court of Auditors but he was a greatly respected minister for health and social welfare during the Garret FitzGerald 1982-87 government and he is some storyteller.
One of his stories is entirely new to me. It is about what seemed like a threatened resignation by John Bruton. The issue was an edict by Bruton in October 1986, when he was minister for finance, which would have removed medical cards from tens of thousands of people. Barry Desmond, who was already "pissed off" by Bruton, objected and his cabinet colleagues sided with him. According to Desmond, Bruton went "ballistic" and when his colleagues all went against him at a cabinet meeting he wrote a note to Garret FitzGerald, gathered up his papers and walked out. A socialist entered the breach and persuaded Bruton to come back.
The most vivid account of a threatened resignation in the book concerns Barry Desmond himself. This was in February 1986, when Garret FitzGerald and Dick Spring agreed that Desmond should be moved from Health and Social Welfare to Justice. Desmond had made himself unpopular in the job and it was thought that he and the government could do with a change. But he was having none of it because, he says, it would be seen as "an abject surrender to the hard core of reactionary backbenchers on the government and opposition benches". He continues: "I was determined to go down with all guns blazing. And I would ensure that some enemy crews would not see the dawn either."
The crew that he was most determined would not see the dawn, apparently, was his own crew. It is obvious from his account that his Labour colleagues were aghast at his obduracy, yet he was prepared to force them out of government. Eventually, both Garret FitzGerald and Dick Spring gave in.
What is most surprising about this story is his own exultation in the success of an outrageous piece of self-interested obstinacy. Nowhere in his own account of what happened does he suggest that there was any issue of policy or principle involved.
This is all a pity because Barry Desmond is one of the good guys. He entered politics to do some good for others and this story demeans that.
The book is very good on how ministers are seduced by the trappings of office. How is it no minister has ever resigned or, as far as we know, threatened to resign, over social issues? It cannot be that none of them cares, it is just that other things seem more important. And next week, when another grotesquely unfair budget is introduced, will it cross the mind of any minister to resign because of the unfairness? That isn't how the system works.