Des O'Malley Progressive Democrats founder has died.

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 -

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

R.I.P

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

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.