Go bhfóire Dia orainn! Only the Irish Independent newspaper, with its fanatical free market fetishism, could argue that Fine Gael is a party of the “political” centre and that Irish politics requires a new right-wing political movement. And who should lead it? Why, none other than FG Eurocrat par excellence, Lucinda Creighton, she that is the moral conscience of the Irish nation (ahem…).
“Michael McDowell and Declan Ganley’s consistent flirtations with establishing a new party show there is space for a right-wing, low-tax party.
As has been pointed out in these pages before, Fine Gael is as far right as Irish politics gets now and it is, in truth, a centrist party.
Ms Creighton, if she takes a sizeable lump of Fine Gael with her, could lead a new party – and some in Fine Gael feel this is what she is planning to do.
But the market she could seek to exploit is a complex one.
Fiscally conservative but socially liberal voters could baulk at her abortion stance, while pro-business Eurosceptics might be turned off by the prospect of such a Europhile leading a low-tax party.
But time can allow such differences to subside. Come election time in two years, is it so inconceivable that Ms Creighton could unite these groups under one banner?”
Wonderful, Ireland’s own coiffured Thatcherite-in-waiting? What a depressing thought, even if it is one to excite the hacks over on Talbot Street. Perhaps they have the latest polls in mind, not to mention the, er, “coincidental” release of the Anglo-Tapes that the lads and lasses in the Indo were apparently sitting on for quite a while.
Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Independents up according to successive polls, Fine Gael and Labour-DL-Inc. down, and suddenly the columns are flying fast and thick for a far right solution to Ireland’s woes (which were created by far right socio-economic thinking in the first place but hey let’s not get bogged down by details here).
Oh well, at least Squire Myers of the Big House will be happy enough. A lovely Anglo-Norman princess to eulogise instead of one of those nasty indigenous types (his view, not mine).
Related articles
- Up to nine FG deputies expected to vote against abortion Bill (irishtimes.com)
- Minister Creighton prepared to lose job as Fine Gael revolt against abortion bill grows (irishcentral.com)
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
I myself feel that the far-righted-ness of FG is laid bare in its intolerance of a free conscience (even if they feel, like you, that it’s ill-informed). If this lady feels in all conscience that her party is wrong in this matter should we insult her as a person – as you do! Enda is going to crucify her and anybody who has the affrontery to oppose him in this matter, should we be part of that mob?
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My issue with Lucinda Creighton’s political and economic views pre-date the abortion bill question by many years. The post was more about that than the issue of abortion. Ireland’s politics weigh heavily enough to the right without adding even more weight to that balance.
On the issue of abortion itself, I favour the provision of abortion services as a medical necessity. I tend more towards abortion-on-demand as a right, though strictly regulated. I’m sorry but I see medical health rights (including abortion) in the same light as I see Gay rights or Irish language rights.
Abortion is an issue for our citizens in our nation. Exporting that issue, telling tens of thousands of our fellow citizens that they must leave the nation for a medical procedure and then return to Ireland after it, is moral cowardice and an abandonment of civic duty.
However I understand the cultural or religious-based objections of others even if I don’t agree with them. That is why I have tended to stay clear of the subject and not address it directly. I have no wish to offend/hurt anyone on an issue so sensitive. However politics and socio-economic affairs is another matter. The post was attacking the idea of even more right wing politics in Ireland of the type that all but crippled this island-nation over the last several years. Apologies if you thought it was a dig at those opposed to abortion.
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I think i understand where you are coming from and would like you to understand that I am, and many others are, not coming from a religious position with regards to this question of abortion.
I happen to believe that a human life exists from the moment of conception and that that unborn person therefore has the same unalienable right to protection and nurturing as any other person. I do not believe that I, or anybody even the State or the Supreme Court, has the right to willfully destroy that life for any reason whatever – either that on an innocent unborn child or a guilty person no matter how heinous their crime. (The Catholic Church permits execution of criminals in serious cases, I disagree with this position!) I believe that this bill does not acknowledge that.
I find it offensive that somebody who seeks to protect the life of an innocent child in the womb is regarded as “conservative” or reactionary. I also find it offensive that some, but by no means all, people who claim to represent the innocent child are offensive to those who concientiously disagree with them. I fail to see how it is illiberal or how it is liberal to terminate life, innocent or not, in the womb or outside of it.
Finally the fact that “tens of thousands” of Irish unborn are aborted abroad has in fact nothing to do with the basic fact of my argument. Because abortions are carried out abroad does not mean that it is right to allow them to be carried out here, it merely tells us that there is a demand to do something which many “tens of thousands” of Irish people regard as quite simply wrong. I cannot see that it is a mere “medical procedure,” and find it sad that people have that opinion. I think it is far far more.
Having said all that I have to add that one must treat all women, especially those who are bearing children with the utmost respect. I find it harrowing that people talk about women “falling into pregnancy” and that there is hardly any talk of the men who are at least 50% responsible. In many of these cases they are said to have “destroyed” the lives of the mothers. But we too, in not caring for these women, during their pregnancy and afterwards, whether or not an abortion has been carried out, are culpable. A woman is the mother yes, but a man is the father no matter what the circumstance. Where are they? Where are we as citizens in Ireland on this? Where is the after-care offered by the state for the woman after they have “protected her life?” Is it even mentioned in the act? Look at the the appalling condition of facilities at Dolphin House, the Dublin District Family Law Office, where vulnerable and distressed women, for whatever reason are applying for barring orders. Will a woman seeking the termination of her pregnancy be provided with better conditions?
They deserve the love and care and compassion of Ireland and I’m afraid I find very little of that in this proposed legislation or in the state services as they currently exist.
I don’t know Ms Creighton nor her politics but I have found little in her speech on this matter to disagree with. I find the policies of the Government (FG/L) she represents illiberal, uncaring, unthinking and destructive.
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Hi Eoin, I agree with all of your points except the basic issue of the availability of abortion services. Until a decade ago or more I would have agreed with the “life begins at conception” argument but I no longer believe that medical science justifies that position. However each has their own interpretation. I don’t regard all those who oppose abortion as “conservative” and since I was in sympathy with that view for many years I understand the logic behind it. I would be less sympathetic to those with religious scruples about such matters but that is a different matter and the fault of my secular atheism (and at time it is a fault, I admit).
I agree that after-abortion services are dreadful, truly awful. I also agree that the lack of optional services alongside abortion (adoption, financial aid for single mothers, etc.) is shameful.
I would note that the likes of Creighton and co. are the very ones who rail against Ireland’s social welfare system and stigmatise single mothers and children born out of wedlock. They cannot have it both ways but they truly believe they can. My honest opinion is that they wish to continue the practice of “export abortions” while denying any alternative at home. For that I condemn them.
The Abortion Bill is very poor legislation indeed and illustrates they very poor nature of our political classes. More trouble lies ahead I’m sure. Irish politicians simply lack the intelligence, imagination, humanity and skill to make good law makers
Thanks for your Comment and views.
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Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
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