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Micheál Martin at Leinster House yesterday. Leah Farrell

A Tánaiste, a pedibus and Mambo No. 5: A day that brought Ireland to the brink of a Christmas election

Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin were told to be ‘grown up men’ and sort this out – but eyes will be on the Tánaiste this weekend.

WINTER IS COMING.

That was the catchphrase being bandied about Leinster House yesterday as the cold chill set in both inside and outside the national parliament.

Fridays are usually a sleepy day on Kildare Street. Generally TDs hit the road on Thursday night to take care of their constituencies so by Friday they are out-and-about dealing with local issues like potholes and broken traffic lights.

Instead, many were pacing the halls yesterday, giving their two cents to the wandering reporters who were gathering scraps of information about whether Ireland was really on the brink of a Christmas election.

There was a conveyor belt of press conferences on the plinth: Labour, Sinn Féin, the Independent Alliance and the Greens.

The day kicked off with a surreal moment at the Labour press conference when Brendan Howlin was nearly drowned out by a hen party travelling down Kildare Street on a pedibus singing along to Mambo Number 5.

A welcome distraction no doubt from the ‘will they, won’t they’ speculation rife around the national parliament.

Sinn Féin were next up and they were very clear.

The Tánaiste had to go.

They tabled the first motion of no confidence in Frances Fitzgerald on Thursday. They suggested she resign, or if push came to shove, Varadkar should sack her.

Where were the Independent Alliance in all this? The partners in government remained quiet throughout the week as pressure mounted on Fitzgerald.

But they rallied together today, walking down the Dáil stairs like troops heading into war.

Barreling down the steps, Finian McGrath told this reporter to get her coat. No, it wasn’t a signal that anyone was leaving. “It’s freezing out,” he said. In all the excitement, the back-and-forth and quality tunes from the hen party, the 6 degree chill wasn’t noticed.

What did he make of it all? “It’s a right old mess,” said the Minister of State.

Government crisis RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

Standing in front of a huddled group of reporters, cameras, and photographers, he then declared: “Finian McGrath – Dublin Bay North” before the Independent Alliance confirmed its confidence in Fitzgerald.

So was the nod to an incoming general election just for a cheap laugh from the surrounding hacks?

Transport Minister Shane Ross urged Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin to engage in “meaningful negotiations” to avoid it.

He said the Independent Alliance were disappointed in the “cavalier way” the crisis played out, stating that a snap election is not in the interests of anybody – politicians or parties but, most of all, the public.
Playing well the role of scolding father, Ross described Martin and Varadkar as “grown-up men”, telling them to just sort it out.

This whole issue escalated Thursday night when Fianna Fáil said they could not vote confidence in Fitzgerald.

Jim O’Callaghan told RTE’s Six One News that there was no way the Confidence & Supply agreement could continue if Fitzgerald stayed in place. The broadcast was reportedly being watched live in the Dáil bar, where there were loud outbursts from some Fianna Fáil members when he made the strong statement.

Sinn Féin had previously submitted a motion of no confidence. But the pressure notched up a dial when the Fianna Fáil frontbench gathered in conclave yesterday morning to sign off on submitting their own.

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After an hour and a half, there was no white smoke but the message was clear from the Fianna Fáil TDs gathered in the Leinster House coffee dock after the meeting.

“Oh, the motion is going in as we speak. It’s on.”

Grabbing a warm cup of coffee with his party colleagues post meeting, Eamon O’Cúiv was crunching the numbers. He said he’d been through many an election, and no one could deny his wealth of experience.

The veteran Fianna Fáiler said Leo Varadkar may choose to get the motorcade to bring him to Aras an Uachtarain there and then – which would result in a general election on 16 December. Or, he could dissolve the government next week which would mean an election on 22 December. Not ideal.

(The first option is obviously now been and gone.)

Gathering around a small table to mull over their steaming brews, the Fianna Fáilers appeared content that they were not for moving on their so-called redline issue.

With each mention of the word ‘election’ the impending doom was evident on most reporter’s faces as they realised the hope of getting any holidays was quickly being etched away.

Politicians, surprisingly, were far more optimistic and eager to go.

TDs were spotted removing boxes of Oireachtas envelopes from their offices, while some Fianna Fáil TDs joked (or perhaps not) that they had just ordered election poster plastic cable ties in bulk.

But the message from all the politicians was oft-repeated: The only people who can sort the debacle out is Varadkar and Martin – or, of course, Frances Fitzgerald herself.

News soon leaked out that Leo and Micheál were to meet in the afternoon. An air of hope spread through Leinster House. Perhaps there had been enough grandstanding by the two big fellas. Perhaps they had both done enough for their parties. But the question remained. Who was going to budge?

Seated in a quiet corner of the Dáil cafeteria prior to his meeting with the Taoiseach, Martin was seen in deep discussions with two of his most senior advisors.

At around 4pm he set off for the ministerial corridor. However, after only 27 minutes, it was done.

Martin was seen by this reporter walking down the Dáil chamber stairs. His face and mood unreadable. Is a short meeting good or bad, pondered the journalists.

Only time will tell. More meetings are scheduled for the weekend and despite wild rumours circulating today, the outriders to the Phoenix Park are not on standby, according to the Taoiseach.

A weekend can be a long time in politics.

If we make it to Tuesday, and there is still no movement our advice would be: Be careful if you hear a knock on your door this Christmas, it might not be carol singers.

As it happened: Government could fall as Fianna Fáil tables a motion of no confidence in Frances Fitzgerald>

Explainer: Why we are on the verge of a general election>

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33 Comments
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    Mute Yun Wyn
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    Jul 10th 2020, 1:20 PM

    Very true especially when they decide who and what to censor. Joe rogan has a podcast with Twitter exec and pushes them on the issue

    37
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    Mute Richard Russell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 4:32 PM

    The campaign has started to shut down free speech and citizen journalism We can have free speech as long as it is nuj free speech only the voice of the selected few will be heard

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:24 PM

    And you really think our own government haven’t used misinformation or bots for their own use esp during elections…..i agree social media needs dealing with, but when you have countries where people have little faith or trust in their own governments, its hard then to trust them in turn to do what’s right when it comes to social media

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    Mute AOL
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:06 PM

    Never mind social media. Not a true journalist left in any country. Every article is a copy and paste job. We should be holding all media to account

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    Mute Gary Sheahan
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:52 PM

    Well, and I know this won’t be popular – but I feel well equipped to discern (most) of what goes online and practise a healthy level of cynicism and, on that basis, I say leave them at it. Take and keep the jobs they bring and generally promote ourselves as the safe and primary destination for FDI in the EU.

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    Mute Dáibh
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    Jul 10th 2020, 2:29 PM

    Misinformation is one of the biggest scourges in the world. Especially the last five years with Trump and Brexit. It needs to be dealt with it and the government should take the lead on that for the exact reasons laid out in this article.

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    Mute Bob Rock
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:04 PM

    @Dáibh: Couldn’t agree more. It’s not been taken seriously enough by many governments around the world in my opinion. the only ones seemingly taking it seriously are countries like Russia and China and they’re using it with devastating results.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 5:57 PM

    @Bob Rock: yes we should start Defunding RTE the state broadcaster is a prime example of an institution which pushes a certain narrative. I can’t remember the last time the news, prime time or any radio interviewer actually pushed any minister or official for the truth. Now that the state has bailed out the broadcaster and Denis O Brian owns a large chunk of local radio stations I think it’s imperative that citizen journalists keep asking the important questions such as asking the new minister for children his stance on lowering the age of consent for children, or should under 16,s be allowed to remove parts of their bodies without parents knowing.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:03 PM
    1
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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:57 PM

    @Dáibh: I believe Brexit and Trump happened because of the media and social medias attempts to scilence views that do not followed a center left agenda. When views are scilenced and not listed too, or simply dismissed as an ist, the scilenced vote.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:14 PM

    @Tony Humphreys: it’s the tip toe of totalitarianism

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    Mute Mikhail Ramendik
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:08 PM

    While a certain amount of regulation might be necessary, I think this article actually showcases the dangers of the idea – because it repeatedly mentions Libya and the author is Paul Tweed.

    Paul Tweed is known to dislike Libya’s pre-2011 government because of its links to the PIRA, one of the sides of the well-known civil conflict in Belfast where he is based. https://www.irishnews.com/news/2015/10/21/news/belfast-lawyer-urges-britain-to-back-ira-libya-victims-301570/

    For all I know, somehow he never seems to talk about the government behind the other, equally vicious side of that civil conflict.

    In 2011, the government of Libya was overthrown by unprovoked invasion of a coalition of Western countries. The result of this action was massive suffering in Libya, including outright slave markets on the streets.

    Thankfully, Ireland did not directly participate in that deplorable invasion.

    Libya is in the middle of a civil war now between the GNA and the LNA. Should Ireland break its neutrality now by telling social networks which side of that civil war should have a voice and which one should not?

    I would hazard a guess that Mr. Tweed supports the GNA. I might be wrong here. But in any event, judicial participation, by censorship, in Libya’s civil war is exactly what Ireland should NOT be doing.

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    Mute James Gorman
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:30 PM

    We need to ban anon SM accounts

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:24 PM

    @James Gorman: in the context of individual users, that choose to not use their actual name on social media, there is zero real anonymity.

    The manipulation of public opinion or the dissemination of propaganda by private groups for profit, or government agencies to push an ideological or political agenda, is carried out not with anonymous users but non-existent ones, that are farmed on a massive scale using computer networks of virtual machines and or thousands of mobile phones on they use software to simultaneously publish, share or like whatever message the client wants spread in realtime.

    That said, the answer is not the type of blanket censorship that the author or others are suggesting, which it basically the same logic as cutting down forests to prevent the activities of arsonists.

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    Mute Tom Keenan
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    Jul 11th 2020, 8:06 PM

    The people who run the world are worried about ordinary people finding out about how things really are on the internet hence the calls for censorship. The internet must become like the mainstream media,keep people ignorant so they can be manipulated.

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