After the biggest Presidential election debacle in Fianna Fail's history, how long realistically does Micheal Martin have left? Will he resign or will there be a heave against him?
all this hoo haa is just a distraction from what the. Govt should be doing today and every day - but sifting thru FF dirty linen is much more fun
and more doable than dealing with housing and closing national security gaps.
Can't see him resigning, too many of the front benchers owe him their positions and I'm not sure many of them wouldn't survive a new leader coming in, so they won't turn on him. It would also be madness for the FF party to agree to him staying on till the handover and then stepping away as that makes him a lame duck leader, while anyone with leadership ambitions will be out to undermine their opponents in party.
Special Parliamentary Meeting at 7pm tonight.
The excessive delay in this report is causing even more harm to Martin. Jim stepped away over 10 weeks ago. Martin tried to get it to Xmas in order to distract people but people just think he is manipulating the findings of the report. There are leaks already. FF will never change. Dodgy, sneaky, dishonest.
The centralisation of FF seems to have been in parallel with FF's decline in that it gradually stopped being part of local communities and the FF cumanns became branch offices of FFHQ. There are many things wrong with FF and, under Martin, it is still on the same level of support that it was on in 2011. Whoever replaces Martin will have a lot of work to do with reorganising and revitalising FF. Will Martin be forced to resign as leader before a motion of no confidence?
It is a resigning matter but wouldn't it be better to try and use an opportunity to get some changes to party procedure to make it less centralised, in regard to presidential candidate selection at the very least and more binding broad policy Ard Fheis motions.
It is amazing to see journalists letting politicians away with "I don't accept that" as an answer. The review was supposed to be available on the 12th.Perhaps Martin is hoping that the sheep in FF forget.
It appears FG were using FF spin doctors to coach Humphreys on interviews and debates. It just sums the 2 parties up - all spin and bluster, no real substance. Connolly was herself throughout the campaign and throughout her life.
I saw an interview with Martin and Big Jim. Martin didn't accept the election review was late even though it's taking much longer than Gavin's campaign itself. I didn't feel Big Jim was showing any ambition to take over either. He might be too soft for FF leader.
https://www.thejournal.ie/extremists-are-attempting-to-undermine-state-and-inflict-violence-taoiseach-says-6874804-Nov2025/
Who’s he talking about? The extremists he brought in or the extremists he created by bringing in extremists. Zero responsibility from him of course.
Why is it taking so long? Is it to give time for Martin, Chambers and O'Brien to get their stories straight or is it just a ploy to put it on the long finger and hope that it is forgotten about and they carry on as normal?
The FF election report/review is as bad as their election campaign. Gavin isn't even providing any input so it's mainly Martin and Chambers. Most teams would have that report completed in 2 days. They are a joke.
modern day ff is spineless.oh for the halcyon days of bitching,backstabbing and Gerry Collins going on rte news begging Albert for the sake of the party not to burst it by shafting haughey..
Ff in 2025 stand for nothing.
Getting more like FG every day with all those leaks.
Apparently the half that did clap are unhappy that someone leaked that half didn't clap.
RTE's cpverage is unintentionally funny. Half clapped and clapped out.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/1112/1543669-fianna-fail-presidential-election/
Most times in life the easiest option will be taken.
MM already knows the score,he won't be let stay on after the handover and there won't be a heave before.
Really is as simple as that.
And Nina Carberry. And Maria Walsh. And Mairead McGuinness. And Sean Kelly. And Ciaran Muloolly.
Some celeb MEP candidates have not got in - Niall Boylan, Orla Guerin come to mind at different ends of the media.
Parliamentary party meeting this evening I believe. Should be fun.
Kenny was an effective backroom operator even if he was less impressive as a leader or minister. Look at the two disasters that followed Kenny (Varadkar and Harris). Those two are more like Martin in that they had the ambition and a lack of ability. Ahern understood Martin's nature and ability.
In fairness Cynthia NíMurchú was more than just a celeb name. Like our new president she had a professional legal career behind her so wasn't steps removed from current affairs.
I am still getting over the fact that Nina Carberry (remember her) was elected as an MEP.
If it wasn't for the party being destroyed in the 2011, I don't think would ever have become leader. There were are lot more stronger candidates than him but they decided to bail out after that election. I see him as a bit like Enda Kenny, only became leader by hanging around long enough. He was never that impressive as a Minister, I think he was called the "minister for reports" or something similar.
Because it frequently works. Particularly for MEPs.
Because people vote for people that they know or recognise. The addition of photos tot he ballot papers means that people are more likely to recognise celebrity candidates than ordinary political candidates and many people only make up their minds on their voting choice in the last few weeks before an election. Some who may not be political anoraks might even make up their mind in the polling booth. Carberry and Walsh were good FG examples.
Martin has done more damage to FF than Bertie Ahern. Under Martin, FF has lost its unique identity and much of its centre/centre Left support that kept it above 30% in the opinion polls. He essentially facilitated the rise of SF because he changed FF's position from being the main opposition to FG to being FG's supporter. Apart from the economic reasons for the collapse of the 2.5 party model, there has been a failure of political leadership in FF under Martin that has nearly destroyed FF as an independent party.
In my opinion Martin will survive until the European Presidency and then maybe will retire. 15 years is a very long time to be party leader. Thatcher was 16 years Tory leader. The grumbling will continue though and that will be an unwelcome distraction.
I think Simon Harris is more secure because the big beasts returned at the last election, leaving young, less experienced TDs.
Why do they stupidly assume we would vote for celebrity candidates.
Gavin was known to support FG in the past and right now I can't see any difference between FF and FG. In fact last night on the Tonight Show Hildergard Naughton asked would there be a unified left candidate running in the upcoming Galway by election. Beaker who was presenting the show asked Hildergard would there be a unified Government candidate and she replied no. Beaker was getting at the hypocrisy of asking about a unified left candidate when FF and FG who have been more or less tied to the hip since 2016 won't do the same, and that its hard to distinguish between FF and FG.
I'd say he refused because he got badly burnt and just wants to disappear and have nothing to do with politics.
The problem for FF at the moment is that a lot of them talk the talk but don't walk the walk.
