Labour party leader Alan Kelly

Marhay70 wrote: »

I was a trade unionist all my working life and always voted Labour until 2011. The rot set in after the merger with Democratic Left in 1998. From that day Labour seemed to veer to the right and try to become a centre party rather than of the left. Then came the era of Gilmore and Rabbitte, Kelly reminds me a lot of Rabbitte, same sort of "I know all and you know fcuk all" attitude, I don't see Labour prospering under his leadership, in fact, if a government isn't formed and a second GE is called, I can see them being eclipsed completely.
If however, they decide to throw their lot in with FG again, which I reckon Kelly will do, then the same fate awaits them.

Yep, I had it down as the last days of Dick Spring

Rather ironic how Labour when nutter the moment Pppp De Rossi, Gilmore and Rabbitte and their Democratic Left Party merged with Labour and essentially took over

Never understood Labour’s fascination with Fine Gael of all parties , especially the Pat Rabbitte days . I know they got into bed with Ff but unlike FF , FG never hid their right and centre right ethos

For a bit of craic , people should look at the archives of this website , 2009-2011 . The amount of love Labour use to get , especially from naive people who couldn’t see that Labour were chasing the middle class vote

Back then , they were recruiting a lot of photogenic girls who wouldn’t have known their pretty little arse from their elbow when it came to trade unions and were more at home in the Law Library. There was definitely a careerist move by many of the young Labours gang - people like Michael McNamamara of Clare , being more at home with a party like Fianna Fáil than any real history with Labour .

And now , many of these councillors of 2009 and TDs of 2011 aren’t even members of Labour . Rats and sinking ships .. (McNamamra fell out with the leaders so that’s different)

“Give them a chance” was the rally call - despite serious questions to be addressed about their promises - again like SF

In the depths of the economic downturn , and to be fair to the likes of Howlin n Rory Quinn they did the dirty work , Gilmore was declaring that gay marriage , and not homes or job shortage , as the most important number right cause of the rather young 21st century . Now , yes, it was a rather important issue and it got the support it did in the ballot , but you don’t make that claim . Just shows what their priorities were

Labour are done . Not sure there is an appetite for parties like this in Ireland . The social democrats , ie Labour version 2 who do seem to have one or two decent skins once they get rid of the dead weight co leaders , but they like People before Progress and Arise etc ain’t getting the votes and seats

Oddly enough , I thought Woke boy O’Riordan, would have been selected a leader. He is a more natural Labour stock . He did some good campaigning around Raheny - Artane with protecting the St Anne’s park and the only real reason that he lost his seat in 2016 was because his area around Sheriff St, where he was a popular teacher , got carved up. Perhaps his public utterances during the abortion referendum and his pro immigration stance (hardly out of tune with traditional Labour or socialists) burned some bridges . Doesn’t seem to have a thick skin either

I would have thought he’d be a better candidate to get the youth back into the party and have genuine position on social issues

By all means Kelly is savy enough on the PR front , check out his brother , but for a guy from Tipperary , he’s hardly Labour stock ?

Pat Rabbitte had a remarkable u turn of a career . Compare him to what he was light in his student days (all the more reason to never take student Union politics seriously) , his time in Democratic Left he was a very disappointing an inept leader despite all his bluster and fancy words . You’d have been forgiven to think that he was a Fine Gael man from the Declan Costello wing of the party

Seth Brundle wrote: »

The people of Raheny who obviously want to end the housing crisis but don't want those new builds near them?

I don’t like O’Rioardan because of his priority on wokeness . I have come across him and his work a few times around Rahney , and ..... he is a very very capable Public Representative . He played a big role in the campaign for St Anne’s Park , which must not be touched as it’s a vital green area for all the community even up to Kilbarrick (not just the posh boys in Clontarf)

If he realised that people don’t give two ****s about the political correctness , he’d be leader . He really still has the school teacher mentality of “do as I tell you” and not the type to entertain “lesser” souls challenging him. Considering that he’s now been in public office for over 10 years, you’d think that he’d hide that personality better

Say what ya like about Enda Kenny , he was pretty good at doing the “man for every seasons” once the camera was off and he could talk to anyone and fake sincerity and tell you what you want to hear - a key skill for politicians