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THE COMEBACK KIDS - the TDs from Bertie Ahern's last government who are back at the top table

Quite a few TDs that lost out during the 2011 election purge have managed to regain their seats.

photojoiner Rollingnews.ie / Wikimedia Commons Rollingnews.ie / Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons

IT’S BEEN A seismic week for Irish politics, but at the same time that Fine Gael’s support has dropped in Dáil Éireann and Labour’s has nose-dived, a number of familiar faces have re-emerged.

Six TDs who served in Bertie Ahern’s last government after the 2007 election have been re-elected to the 32nd Dáil. Who would have thought that would happen five years ago?

Here’s the list of comeback kids in full:

27/2/2016. General Election 2016 - Counting of Vot Seán Haughey celebrates winning his seat at the RDS RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

Sean Haughey

Haughey is the son of Charles Haughey, one of the most controversial Fianna Fáil politicians of them all, and grandson of Seán Lemass, so he’s essentially royalty among the Fianna Fáil old guard, but that hasn’t stopped him regaining the seat in Dublin Bay North that he lost in 2011.

Some months ago in a High Table interview with TheJournal.ie Haughey said that “politics is a bug you can’t kill, but hopefully I’ll kill it eventually”.

His addition to the ticket last September saw leader Micheál Martin sharply criticised from within his own party, but the decision seems to have been the correct one given his re-election.

Haughey served as a TD between 1992 and 2011 (having been a Senator before that), and was a minister of state for the last four of those years. His smooth re-election in Dublin Bay North saw him make light work of the 20-candidate strong roster in the so-called ‘constituency of death’.

eamon Eamon Ryan Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

Eamon Ryan

This election has been something of a triumph for the Greens after the party was cast into the wilderness in 2011, with every single one of their TDs losing their seats at that time following their role in government during the economic crash.

What Ryan as leader has achieved is certainly impressive – the Greens have earned almost 4% of the vote nationally and guaranteed themselves state funding once more. He himself has emerged victorious after a particularly vicious dogfight in Dublin Bay South at the expense of household names like Lucinda Creighton and Labour minister Kevin Humphreys.

Ryan himself was a TD from 2002 until losing out in 2011, serving as a government junior minister in his second stint. Taking over from the carnage of John Gormley’s leadership, his has proven to be a steady hand at the tiller.

16/9/2015 Thomas Byrne Dail Scenes Thomas Byrne Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

Thomas Byrne

The Meath senator served as a TD between 2007 and 2011 before losing his seat last time out. His short stint with the party seems to have done him no harm, and his strong performance in the Seanad (where he served as spokesperson for his party on public expenditure and reform) in the interim set him up well for a return to the Dáil this time around.

Byrne previously lost out to Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee at the Meath East by-election of March 2013. He has also lost out for European seats in both 2009 and 2014.

His election this time around was well-expected. Byrne topped the poll in the Meath East constituency, being elected on the first count.

john curran John Curran at the RDS Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

John Curran

The newly-elected TD for Dublin mid-west formerly served in the same constituency in the Dáil between 2002 and 2011. He also served as chief whip for the last Fianna Fáil government between 2010 and 2011.

Curran had a comfortable enough passage back to the Dáil last weekend with little or no fuss – he finished up with beating the quota after the final count with Labour’s Joanna Tuffy and Fine Gael’s Derek Keating coming a cropper in the same constituency.

His smooth election was something of a surprise – Dublin Mid West wasn’t one that Fianna Fáil would have targeted especially, which gives an indication of just how well Micheál Martin’s troops have performed in this election.

12/8/2015 Fianna Fail House Repossessions Issues Darragh O'Brien Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

Darragh O’Brien

The newly-elected Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Fingal (he was the first candidate to be returned on the first count) was formerly a deputy in Bertie Ahern’s last government, taking office in 2007.

O’Brien subsequently lost his seat in the carnage of February 2011. Like Byrne, he had only served one term in Leinster House and seems to have reaped the benefits of that fact in being returned with ease this time round.

He has been a senator since April 2011 after being nominated by former Taoiseach Brian Cowen. He’s currently Before entering politics, the 41-year-old worked in financial services for 15 years.

eamon Eamon Scanlon RTESligoLeitrim / Twitter RTESligoLeitrim / Twitter / Twitter

Eamon Scanlon

61-year-old Scanlon served as Fianna Fáil TD for Sligo-Leitrim between 2007 and the savaging his party took at the hands of the electorate in the 2011 vote.

That had been the Sligo native’s first stab at Dáil Éireann having previously served in the Seanad between 2002 and 2007. After losing his seat five years ago Scanlon re-emerged as a Sligo county councillor in the 2014 local elections.

His re-election at the final, 15th, count in Sligo-Leitrim last weekend is something of a triumph for his party – in eliminating Fine Gael’s Gerry Reynolds when his cause had seemed to be lost, Scanlon has ensured two seats for Fianna Fáil in the constituency, alongside senator Marc MacSharry who topped the poll (and who himself is the son of party royalty Ray MacSharry).

Read: A lot more people want Micheál Martin to be our next Taoiseach than they do Enda Kenny

Read: The Independent Alliance had a “constructive” meeting with Enda

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26 Comments
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    Mute Jon Mackey
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:18 AM

    Says quite a lot about the Irish electorate and their short term memory

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:09 AM

    ” back at the top table.” = ” back at the trough.”

    192
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    Mute hw007
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:18 AM

    I reckon Fianna Fáil will break all promise s again !

    106
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    Mute Liz Finn
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:23 AM

    Well they’ve done just that at least twice before so I reckon it’s a safe bet hwoo7.

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    Mute Daz
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:38 AM

    THE GOOD TIMES ARE BACK BABY. WHAT COULD GO WRONG

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    Mute Mick Hannigan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:46 AM

    If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always had and that’s what we have done, voted back in idiots who helped cause all our problems in the first place, I call them idiots more like we the people are idiots

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    Mute Pauline Long
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    Mar 6th 2016, 12:23 AM

    Yes ” madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result?s” Einstein

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    Mute Les Behan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:27 AM

    This election proved something I have been saying for years now : “The Irish electorate are a bunch of fickle mush heads.”

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:58 AM

    I wish I could give you one thousand green thumbs. It is the ELECTORATE that puts these greedy pigs in power. We ALONE are responsible for the state of the country. We resent any kind of taxation in spite of the fact that it is how we provide infrastructure. We just cannot let go of the “oppressive taxation” memories.

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    Mute Iúrach
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:20 AM

    Do they each get their own gravy boat?

    53
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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:46 AM

    Michael Martin is the main player and he was a Bertie underling.

    How come nobody mentions the developer Owen O Callaghan any more and how his “donation” ended up in Micheal Martin’s wife’s bank account ?

    http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/02/11/so-why-did-that-money-end-up-in-your-wifes-account-mr-martin/

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    Mute john kinsella
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:33 AM

    I wonder what Owen O’ Callaghan would call a water company if one just in his lap?

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    Mute Rowan Murphy
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:09 AM

    Posed as an innocuous article. Teeing up the shot and walking away.

    44
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    Mute John Ward
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:20 AM

    It seems that the IQ of our “cute hoor” professional politicians is significantly higher than the bulk of the electorate. The average here is 92. Just think what kind of vegetables actually have a vote!

    41
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    Mute tomas o beag
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:33 AM

    Smug f***kers people have very short memories

    35
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    Mute Cally
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:41 AM

    Maybe its just me but the worst result was ryan getting back in…already he was on primetime…supporting water charges…they cant help themselves with trying to tax people..the greens…no chance of saving our planet but boy can they tax you…

    23
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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:15 AM

    But they (FF) did a great job in Government for themselves…they lined their own pockets with as much of the countrys money as they could grab before going out of office and told the rest of us to grin and bear it when the countrys cupboard was bare…obviously they have got the scent of money again now that the recovery is underway.

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    Mute Tommy Berry
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    Mar 5th 2016, 4:31 PM

    No, the cupboard wasn’t bare , the Bert was inside it.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:05 AM

    The Foxes are back in the henhouse…financial blood will be spilled and lost again and we the electorate will live to regret the result of the 2016 election should FF form a government or even hold a minority government to ransom.

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:08 AM

    They are back and back BIG STYLE

    17
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    Mute Paul Dunne
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:47 AM

    ff would and will do it all again beacuse they think they did a great job in government.

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    Mute John Campbell
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:05 AM

    Don’t be worrying too much. They were elected by a core vote of Old Fianna Fáil voters. They have 44 seats out of 158. They are snookered whichever choice they make , liquorice all sorts coalition or propping up a minority government. Why? Because they will have to support tough decisions for the good of the country NOT the Party and they will not have a free hand on stuffing every State and semi-State body with Party hacks.

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:45 AM

    Five years for treason with a lush pension. Where would you get it. If our Litigation laws weren’t so strict we could all be reminded more stringently through the media before elections of the Candidates past performances.

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    Mute Ivorpabst
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    Mar 5th 2016, 3:34 PM

    Callely should have had a go – he would have made it, given the national amnesia which returned the likes of Haughey etc.

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    Mute Seán Domhnall O'Sullivan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 11:22 PM

    Completely embarrassing and cringe worthy for Ireland.

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    Mute Aisling Farrell
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:33 PM

    Another Haughey. God help us.

    3
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