When asked for a comment on women in politics, a long-time party activist was succinct in his reply. "Few, but formidable".
You need to be formidable to succeed in a male-dominated area like party politics. Fianna Fáil is devoting some time at its ardfheis this weekend to the issue of gender equality.
Among the issues to be voted on is the introduction of mandatory quotas for women candidates, although at time of writing, it is not clear whether that will be passed.
In the 2002 election, only seven women in Fianna Fáil were returned to the Dáil, along with 74 men. Many of the women were from "political families", where a father or husband previously had an established political record.
One Fianna Fáil aim is to have women comprise a third of all party officers by 2014. In 2004, Fianna Fáil commissioned research on gender equality by the Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics at Queen's University, Belfast. Some interesting results emerged. For example, 47 per cent of female and 38 per cent of male party members thought that Fianna Fáil was unwilling to field women as candidates in "winnable" seats. Some 37 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women believed women were likely to put their families before politics.
Although Fianna Fáil's record is pretty dismal, it is not unique. According to the National Women's Council of Ireland, (NWCI) Ireland's level of elected women corresponds to sub-Saharan African, and at the current rate of change, it will take 370 years to achieve equal numbers of men and women representatives.
The NWCI, not unsurprisingly, is keen to improve that rate of progress, and believes legislation should be introduced which would tie funding for political parties to the introduction of quotas for women candidates.
The Nordic countries are cited as a model. Quotas seem to have made a real difference in Sweden, where they have close to equal representation.
It is always unwise to think that methods that work in another country can be transplanted to Ireland, however. The Swedes routinely accept a level of state intervention that most Irish would balk at.
Across Europe, there is an "activism gap" in politics, that is, a measurable difference between the political activism of men and women.
Dr Pippa Norris of Harvard University, along with other researchers, looked at 21 measures of political activity, ranging from signing a petition, to boycotting a product, to active membership of a political party.
Women tend to score higher on individual political activities, such as petition-signing. Men are much more likely to be involved in collective political activities. Even the fact that men are much more likely to be members of sport clubs means they have support networks to call on if they decide to run for election.
Women tend to feel they cannot influence politics at the "macro" level, and to have less faith in institutions, with the notable exception of churches. Of 18 European countries analysed, the second biggest activism gap between men and women is found in Ireland.
The Irish situation is not directly comparable to anywhere else in Europe, both because of the way our party system evolved, and the deep influence of personality politics.
When you think about it, it is not surprising that women do not get more involved, particularly in running for election. The process of candidate selection makes those who eat their young look mild-mannered. At election time, the most vicious fighting often goes on between candidates of the same party, not between parties.
A consequence of greater participation by women in the paid workforce, is that they have even less energy to get involved in politics.
The little time they have left after commuting and work is reserved for family and friends. Elected representatives make enormous sacrifices in terms of family life. The most overlooked group of women in politics are representatives' wives, who often play a vital and thankless role, while also functioning as virtual lone parents for a large part of the week.
We could improve political life for men and women by reforming the hours that the Dáil and local councils and corporations sit, not to mention changing the perception that representatives must be available 24 hours a day.
The generally negative light in which politics is viewed also has an effect on participation by both men and women, and those of us in the media are culpable in this regard.
How often do you see a commentator congratulating a politician on a job well done? The most you are likely to get is from us is a grudging "could do better". However, concentrating on the flaws of politicians to the exclusion of all else eventually has a corrosive effect.
The effects on family life and the guarantee that if you are a successful politician you will need to develop a very thick skin indeed, puts many people off even taking the preliminary steps towards political involvement.
At the risk of heresy, there is something about the game of politics, with its occasional resemblance to bloodsports, that appeals to more men than women.
Men love the minutiae of who lost to whom and by what margin. To paraphrase the title of Greg Behrendt's book on men and dating, women are just not that into politics.
Should we just shrug, then, and say that little or nothing can be done about increasing political participation, particularly by women? Not at all.
The voices of women are badly needed, and not just on so-called "women's issues". There are very few women's issues that do not affect men also.
Take childcare. Why should that be the worry of only one parent, and usually the mother? What we do not need is patronising nonsense that the world would be a better place if run by women, or even that a woman would automatically find a woman candidate easier to vote for.
Recognising that women have very different political viewpoints would be a small step on the road to genuine political inclusiveness. When feminists talk about voting for women, they actually mean voting for women with unreconstructed 1970s feminist agendas. Most women are not interested in that, and assuming that they are, only impedes the advancement of women in politics.