Des O'Malley Progressive Democrats founder has died.

10000maniacs

He tried to change the two party Irish political landscape and create a liberal version of Fine Gael/ Fianna Fail for those who didn't dig the civil war politics vibe from those parties.

Didn't work obviously as there were too many career politicians in the PD's.

And he personally held Haughey to account on numerous issues which was a good thing.

RIP Dessie.

whippet

deleted double post

paw patrol

RIP he did a lot of good for politics in ireland overall a positive influence . kinda a shame the PDs didn't continue.

although Harney made a bollox of health -

crossman47

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640790#Comment_117640790

Not in every respect. She backed Prof. keane on the cancer strategy and that has been one of our great successes.

Furze99

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199876/des-omalley-progressive-democrats-founder-has-died

He didn't succeed though as you say - even in last election when I look at our local ballot paper the choice is dominated by FF or FG or Ind FF or Ind FG and variations on same. The PDs were birds of a feather. Any real choice was and is largely illusory.

Standing up to Haughey the Crook and his bullies will be what he is remembered for best.

paw patrol

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640806#Comment_117640806

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640864#Comment_117640864

[Quote 1] I can accept that she didn't get everything wrong. I just meant overall

[Quote 2] He didn't succeed in the end but for a while he did. Rather try and fail than never try. I believe he was honest and on a brief recollection i don't recall too much of the FF and FG sleaze affecting the PDs (as many of them were ex FF) - but open to correction.

apologies haven't figured out the multi quote thing yet

touts

RIP. He filled a niche we desperately needed and still need. We needed a centre right voice proposing alternative policies on things like the economy and Dessie and the PDs provided that for a while. But the media hounded them out making them seem like facists. Now we really know what real extremists look like on both the right and the left I think history will see Dessie as a visionary.

Joe_ Public

It shouldn't be that having deep integrity should mark someone out as an influential politician, but there we are. That's what stands out for me about Dessie, as well as his eloquence and passion in advocating the causes he believed in. "I stand by the republic," remains such a powerful piece all these decades on. RIP.

Economics101

Des O'Malley was lucky: in his political heyday he did not have to put up with Twitter mobs and other sources of online abuse which are such a plague in politics to-day. Goodness knows how many decent people are deterred from entering politics in the current toxic climate.

Having said that he did have to put up with the very real menace of CJH and his followers, and he was one of the few who were brave enough to say and do the right thing. His passing is a reminder that we need fundamentally decent people to enter politics more than ever. RIP.

JP Liz V1

RIP

seligehgit

A politician of the highest integrity.

A shining light for all those considering a political career.

RIP.

markodaly

One of the most influential Irish men of the last 100 years.

Took CJ to account, called SF/PIRA for what they were (murderers) and his economic policies enabled Ireland to achieve its economic potential.

limerickabroad

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640916#Comment_117640916

RIP Des . . . a beacon of integrity in Irish politics . . .

Think this comment about the media treating the PDs 'seem like fascists' is completely wrong, tbh. - the PDs were very much known for being socially liberal and economically conservative, and were somewhat media darlings, if anything . . . didn't he split from FF on contraception, in the end?

On another point, has there been much comment from Sinn Fein today? One thing Dessie was very much known for was his loathing of the Provisional IRA . . .

Joe_ Public

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641566#Comment_117641566

Yes, true about him finally splitting over a vote on contraception which marked the occasion for his famous standing by the republic speech. I don't recall if that speech was carried live on tv, but i clearly remember the reaction it generated and being awestruck, probably the only Irish political speech i can remember giving me goosebumps. The Irish Times printed it in full the following day, almost a full page of the newspaper. Shortly afterwards, i attended a meeting of the PDs in my town and soon decided they weren't quite for me, but I never lost my admiration for Dessie from that day on.

touts

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641566#Comment_117641566

That's the point I'm making. I always thought the treatment of the PDs was very unfair. They were centre right economically and on some social issues but on others they were very liberal. But RTE etc revelled in destroying them and portraying them unfairly as hard right.

A true Republican who stood up to the thugs and criminals who sullied that word.

XLR 8

RIP Dessie Ó Malley. A genuinely decent politician and a really nice man. Our country is better for having had you and it's a sad place today at your loss.

JupiterKid

Des O'Malley was a politician of courage and conviction and although I was not a PDs supporter - the party was a breath of badly needed fresh air in a stagnant and very corrupt political climate in the 1980s when things in all respects looked very bleak for Ireland.

He was a man that stood up to former Taoiseach and corrupt bully Charles Haughey in the troubled 1980s, took a hard line on the Provisional IRA as a very young Minister for Justice in the early 1970s and founded the PDs in the mid 1980s as a political alternative to the FF/FG stranglehold on Irish politics.

RIP Des

RIP Des

He was one of the good ones and Ireland is better for having him take part in our politics

HoliyMoliy

RIP

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640806#Comment_117640806

Wasnt she minister of health whom oversaw the outsourcing of cervical health smear testing with diastorus results?

FrancieBrady

RIP Des.

Didn't agree with his politics, thought he was hypocritical for political advancement at times but he did some service.

batman75

To become justice minister at just 31 was remarkable. Showed great courage to stand up to a political titan like Haughey. Even earlier when he ran for TD against his aunt by marriage when his uncle died. For a time the PDs look like being a formidable alternative to FF and FG before their popularity waned. Always struck me as an inherently decent man and a man of principle. We simply don't have men of his ilk anymore in Irish politics.

Danzy

He had a bad personal relationship with Haughey and others but when needed he backed him as Taoiseach, backed Albert, stool tall for Bertie Ahern, Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor knew his worth.

He was loyal when and where it counted.

The mark of the man.

Yurt2

The PDs were an interesting phenomenon. Credit to Des O'Malley for bringing some class of thought to stodgy civil war politics dominated by sleeven political brutes like Haughey and pinstripe molehair suit chancers like Pee Flynn.

That said, they were a party of de-rigour economic liberalism of the late 20th century that served Ireland well until they didn't. Boston before Berlin etc etc and Harney's two tier Frankenstein health service that we're still trying to unpick.

Xander10

Came across as an honest politician. Which is something rare.

RIP

RandomViewer

Thought Noonan was in a nursing home but he showed up on the news to stick his oar in,

Ha Long Bay

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117644492#Comment_117644492

Why did you think that and what did he say that upset you so much? RIP to DOM

RamonD3

Rare indeed to see a universally admired politician of principles. When you see the going over that James Geoghegan got for being associated with Renua, it is hard to imagine the PDs existing in this climate.

Yurt2

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117644568#Comment_117644568

The PDs reached the end of the road because both FF and FG had copied their homework and all three had hitched their wagon to Blairite style economic liberalism - privatization of everything bar the cat, deregulate your granny etc. Michael McDowell took the reigns and promptly tried to carve out a strange attack dog politics going toe to toe with the Greens and anyone to the left of him economically was a Bolshevik in disguise. They ceased to have a point really and they died a natural death.

markodaly

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641644#Comment_117641644

In fairness, lots of Media still do this even today.

FG is seen by RTE and others are purely right-wing, when they are clearly not, given any definition.

Yurt2

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641644#Comment_117641644

You can thank McDowell for that. And I don't think it's correct or fair to say the media characterized them as hard right, rather tracking them as McDowell let them in a death spiral. I remember the McDowell era well, and he very clearly went after anything vaguely left-wing in very odd terms, as if Lenin's ghost was going to manifest itself in O'Connell Street and stage a Bolshevik putsch.

It was an electioneering strategy brought about by the PDs being squeezed out by Bertie's slashing of income taxes and spending like a drunk sailor on stamp duty receipts from the booming housing market. The PDs were on-again off-again enablers of this in coalition so couldn't really call a halt to it, as it was ridiculously popular with an electorate in a trance and Bertie as Pied Piper. We know how the story ends with the economy, but McDowell had to stake out some sort of ground at the ballot box and chose to go after a paper mache imaginary hard-left force that would bring doom upon us all (whereas it was the financial permissiveness and an economy out of control was the real villain, which they were active participants in). Didn't jive with the electorate because Ireland isn't Arizona or Texas, and we don't check for communists under our bed each night.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the sad story of how the PDs ceased to be.

Mad Dog Macca has mellowed in his political dotage, and he's actually a really good Senator - but his leadership spell with the PDs did a disservice to himself and the party O'Malley founded.

Hotblack Desiato

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640864#Comment_117640864

He shifted the whole axis of Irish politics out of the zombified "republican" nonsense which neither FF nor FG really believed in yet constantly spouted, and ended many statist hangovers from the pre-Whittaker era which greatly benefitted a few at the expense of the many - e.g. the £300 a flight duopoly BA / Aer Lingus to London

Not to mention calling out FF's opposition to rubbers at the height of the AIDS crisis - most of their TDs were having it away but voted the catholic line purely to oppose the then government

It's unfortunate that due to the gombeenism/stupidity of most of the electorate in that era, he was forced to hold his nose and do business with CJH's utterly corrupt FF, but for a small party in government they achieved a hell of a lot. (NB to all of today's small parties - shouting in opposition achieves nothing.)

RIP. There is no-one of his calibre in politics today.

blanch152

RIP Des O'Malley

A man who had the courage to stand up to CJH at his height and who called out SF/IRA for what they are.

crossman47

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117643448#Comment_117643448

The alternative was no scheme. Anyway, it is far from a disaster. It has saved many lives. The so called scandal was a lack of communication with women already being treated for cancer. There are so many myths now about the so called failure that the truth has disappeared, mainly thanks to mouthy poiticians and reporters looking for click bait.

RandomViewer

I heard it mentioned last year, thought Karma had stepped up,

O'Malley before my time so no views on him

mcmoustache

I normally wouldn't bother with these RIP threads but his influence on Irish politics can't be understated. The PDs were a sane, socially liberal, fiscally conservative party when our country was was full of state owned monopolies and holy Joes. People might not remember but we were in need of a dose of free market capitalism back then. Their good ideas were absorbed by the major parties and their dafter ones left on the dust heap but those changes might not have happened if not for their existence.

RIP.

Look at this ghoul.

https://twitter.com/paddycosgrave/status/1417825628615811077?s=20

Sleeper12

Never voted PDs but I do think him one of few honest politicians over the decades.

R.I.P

chicorytip

He was a man of contradictions who espoused the highest standards of conduct and probity in public life yet was willing to enter into a coalition government with a man - Charles J. Haughey - who represented the antithesis of high standards and probity in political life. This alliance of convenience will cast a shadow over his legacy. I note that another disgraced former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was among the invited guests at O'Malley's funeral. I found that rather peculiar and difficult to comprehend. Dessie must have had a forgiving and compassionate nature.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117649430#Comment_117649430

Hard to believe that there is someone as crass as that in public life.

padd b1975

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117662270#Comment_117662270

Still smarting over not getting the free buses and broadband for his smoke and mirrors ego trip.

cml387

He was Minister for Industry and Commerce when De Lorean was looking for a site for a factory. The IDA had the old Ferenka factory in Limerick in mind. Even though it was his constituency, O'Malley thought that De Lorean was looking for too much finance and nixed the scheme.

Compare and contrast Haughey's deal with the Talbot car workers.

Randy Archer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058199876/des-omalley-progressive-democrats-founder-has-died

Lol . He did what he did because he got kicked out of FF for his treachery . He wasn’t even man enough to publicly challenge CJ for leadership of the party . Always hiding behind someone else .

He set up the I hate Charlie Haughey Party (thats what the PDs were) and the first thing it did was enter a power deal with Don CJ . Oh that’s real holding CJH to account . Waffle !

His time as government Minister, bar perhaps time as Minister for Justice , is nothing to write home out . He ain’t the shining knight people are now building him up to be .

He was nothing like his uncle. He was middle of the road conservative with little to no imagination . Liberal , lol

A lot of revisionism going on since his death . Utter nonsense in fact . How many of ye commentators were old enough to remember this guy ?

I am dealing with his politics and his time as a politician and only that . RIP nonetheless

RIP

ireland was a very conservative place in the 80s and early 90s and with a very strong risk averse culture so getting voters to move away from the institutions that were FF and FG took a lot of work.

The PDs for the first 5 years or so, even more, we’re very much perceived as a “middle class” party,- the “comfortably well off slightly liberal voter” were attracted to them- which meant they were never going to have a huge following.

While small in number, the party punched well above its weight we still need parties like this to keep the FF FG parties in check - it’s a terrible pity all we have in this space is the myopic tax everything no imagination Greens .