Leader of the Fianna Fail party Micheal Martin

Who wudda thunk it?

Less than two years after receiving the worst trashing in Irish electoral history and falling from 41 per cent to 17 per cent support Fianna Fail are back.

Yes, that Fianna Fail, the party that was as popular as bed bugs in a nun’s knickers when the last election came around after their ‘light touch’ on regulation destroyed the economy.

Two opinion polls show them ahead of Fine Gael and every other party, standing at around 27 per cent.
In the immortal words of Gerry Adams, “They haven’t gone away you know.”

No, and they are back, but why?

It smacks of voter desperation frankly, and anyone but the current shower, to use an Irish vernacular.

Times are still very bad, emigration is an ever-constant, the EU bankers are not really lifting their boot from Irish necks over the bank debt and the decision to guarantee Anglo and other banks loans looks like it was a massive mistake. (See Iceland)

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Despite the fact that it was Fianna Fail that took that step, they are now absolved from it. It’s like they went to Lourdes and worked a miracle.

It is hard to fathom the Irish voter. They were greedy too in the good times, and voters elect the governments they deserve.

Now they want to throw their toys out of the pram again despite the current government squarely facing up to their responsibilities and doing their best -- or so it seems to me.

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That is obviously not the view from Dublin and elsewhere and vengeance is high on the agenda.

There was a media consensus that Fianna Fail would not be back in power for a generation, if ever, and the party would have a desperately hard time surviving but like lemmings to a cliff the voters are flocking back.

Party leader Michael Martin is clearly making a good fist of it.

Still, the results of these polls are shocking. Memories are indeed very short and demands to do better are heard loud and clear.

But the Irish voter needs to look in the mirror too to discover who is to blame for all this perdition that Ireland is experiencing. Voting for Fianna Fail will hardly make it any better.

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