Check Against Delivery
A cháirde, it is a great and genuine pleasure to be with you this evening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our great party, Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party.
I’m particularly happy to be celebrating this landmark anniversary for the party in Westmeath, a county which has always represented some of the strongest foundations for our success and has provided us with generations of party and national leadership.
Through good times and bad Fianna Fáil in this constituency has been at the centre of our story as a movement – known for its commitment to our party’s values and the democratic republican tradition which has defined us from our first days.
Fianna Fáil is nothing without its members and supporters. This is something which most commentators outside the party have never really understood.
The thousands of people in every part of the country who selflessly give their time to the party. They are never scared to make their voices heard and they are relentless in pushing those of us who have the honour to hold elected office to be true to what is one of the most successful parties in the history of democratic Europe.
So, I have to start with a thank you to you all. Not just for being here but for everything you do for the party.
We had a very special event earlier, where our former leaders and their personal representatives were honoured, and I want to particularly acknowledge and pay tribute to our friend, former leader and Taoiseach Brian Cowen who is with us tonight.
Brian served his constituents, his party and his country with dignity and honour throughout his long career. It was a privilege to serve with and under him in government.
Brian is a true democratic Irish republican. One of the things which distinguished him as a leader was his respect for those who disagreed with him. He always understood that people of good faith could be on the opposite sides of an issue as long as they treated each other with respect. It is a trait that is ever more important and valuable in politics.
I’ve already briefly mentioned this constituency’s role in providing leaders for the party and the country over the decades, but the record is truly extraordinary.
You have given us our fourth President of Ireland, in Erskine H Childers.
You have given us a Peacemaker and truly consequential Taoiseach, in Albert Reynolds.
You have given us a Fianna Fáil Deputy Leader, a prolific minister and a political icon, in Mary O’Rourke.
You have given us a Minister for Justice, Attorney General, Supreme Court Judge and constitutional adviser to Mr DeValera, in James Geoghegan.
You have given us an unbroken stream of excellent representatives since the foundation of our party, when Joe Kennedy helped establish a branch of the party in Castlepollard in May 1926 and went on to serve in Dáil Éireann for almost 40 years, and you’ve continued to do so for the entirety of this constituency’s existence.
You have given us the Master of the Seanad, a trusted adviser, a master tactician and one of the party’s bona fide living legends, Donie Cassidy.
You have given us three of the hardest working and most diligent operators in today’s Seanad, Paul Daly, Aidan Davitt and Joe Flaherty.
And in our darkest days, when the very future of the party itself was in doubt, you gave us HOPE.
Because in 2011, in our part’s most daunting trial, when we were losing talented and committed colleagues and friends all over the country, there was a light in the darkness and that was here in Westmeath.
Against all odds and upsetting the predictions of all the so-called experts, you believed in yourselves and in the party and you delivered.
You believed in Robert Troy and you delivered a TD who soldiered through the hardest times, working with me and our other colleagues to rebuild, renew and return Fianna Fáil to where we are today…
The largest party in local government, the largest party in Dáil Éireann, the largest party in Seanad Éireann, the joint largest party in the European Parliament and a party that is leading in Government.
Since our return to Government, Robert has served as a Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with special responsibility for trade promotion and now as a Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for financial services, credit unions and insurance; a critically important role as Ireland takes on the Presidency of the European Union and we work to drive reform in this area.
I have no doubt that as his career develops, Robert’s will be one of the brightest in future lists of this constituency’s stars.
The centenary of one of democratic Europe’s most successful political parties is an important moment. Not only is our country one of the only states which remained democratic throughout the past 100 years, by every available measure Ireland and its place in the world have been transformed.
We face serious challenges, but no one can deny how far our country has come.
This didn’t happen by chance. It came from the choices made by the Irish people and the leadership of Fianna Fáil and its programme of progressive republicanism.
When our founders gathered on Sunday May 16th, 1926, they knew that no matter how illustrious their service to the nation had been, they were starting afresh.
That day they woke up to unseasonably freezing temperatures. Dublin was covered by thick, dark clouds. Yet records say that, as the day progressed, the skies cleared and there was a mood of excitement and expectation amongst hundreds who answered the call of Eamon de Valera to found a new political movement gathered.
With Constance Markiewicz in the chair, and many of the great names of 1916 and the War of Independence present, it might have been expected that they would have been looking back.
Exactly the opposite was the case. And this spoke to the core of why Fianna Fáil was founded.
De Valera and his colleagues were determined to find new ways forward.
They rejected the idea that programmes and methods had to remain fixed in time.
To them the essence of republicanism was not a focus on the past, but the ability to respond to the needs of today and the years ahead.
One of the laziest but most persistent comments about Irish politics is that we have been defined by civil war politics.
The fact is that Fianna Fáil was founded because we refused to carry on the civil war divide.
Our founders wanted a party which was open to new people and new policies. They wanted to show people who had been on the other side in both the War of Independence and Civil War that there was a new party which was willing to work with them to serve the people.
The programme set out for Fianna Fáil in those days emphasised core ideals which are as important today as they have ever been.
A rejection of the sterile ideologies of the left and the right.
A practical patriotism which believed in achieving both economic development and social control.
Securing Ireland’s ability to be a truly sovereign nation.
Active engagement with other countries as a voice for peace and progress.
And of course, a belief that all people who share this island have a common interest which would be best served though sharing an independent state.
They understood that our new state was failing in critical ways.
We were the poorest state in Europe.
We had a rapidly falling population, low employment and no plans for addressing critical issues like slum conditions experienced by hundreds of thousands of people.
We also had a political situation defined by inflexibility, a lack of ambition and a refusal to build Irish sovereignty in a more assertive way.
The party Eamon de Valera announced 100 years ago showed from its very first moments that it would be different.
It had zero media support, few resources, and the active opposition of a highly politicised state administration – but Fianna Fáil showed an energy and determination which rapidly overcame these hurdles.
The foundation and the cornerstone of the new party was in its reliance on a comprehensive national network of members and supporters. The party organisation wasn’t an afterthought – it was the first priority.
There are many stories about leaders like Seán Lemass travelling the country to reach out to old comrades who had turned away from politics.
But much more than this, our party threw open its doors to people from all backgrounds and never insisted on a litmus test relating to the past. For example James Geoghegan, who I referred to earlier, joined from Cumann na nGaedheal.
Within a year of being founded Fianna Fáil received over 100,000 more votes than republicans had won – and within six years this splinter group from a defeated party doubled its vote and became the largest party in Dáil Éireann.
There have been many great figures and moments over the past hundred years so there’s only time to reflect on a few. For me there are certain themes to be found across the decades, and which define Fianna Fáil practical patriotism, its core democratic republicanism.
From our party’s very first days in government we showed our determination that Ireland would be a strong, democratic and secure republic.
The scale and pace of change implemented by de Valera, Lemass, Ryan and the other members of that radical government was breathtaking, leaving behind it a lasting and positive impact.
Our government at that time represented the only example in the world of a revolutionary group which secured power and then introduced strong legal controls on its use of power.
De Valera’s profoundly republican Bunreacht na hÉireann was the first constitution in world history adopted in a free referendum.
Our party has every right to be proud of a constitution introduced in 1937 which protected minorities, strengthened the rule of law and called for peace and international law to govern relations between nations.
As this demonstrated, our party was, from its very first days, always a believer in strong international cooperation.
We made Ireland a strong voice against the drift towards war in the League of Nations – and we took a lead in supporting practical action for peace in the United Nations.
It was in this spirit that we should remember the last great public service of our founding generation.
Seán Lemass, who as schoolboy had served in the GPO in 1916, with the strong support of the party, understood that to be truly secure and to prosper, Ireland needed to be part of an effective, rules-based community of European democracies.
In a pure expression of the republicanism of Wolfe Tone, Fianna Fáil successfully argued to the Irish people about securing sovereignty through having the confidence to share it.
It is because we believe in empowering the Irish people that a commitment to education has defined us from our earliest days.
Every major expansion in educational opportunity in our history, has been initiated by Fianna Fáil.
The introduction of new types of schools. Free secondary education. The creation of special needs provision.
The creation of new third level colleges. The creation of research and infrastructure funding.
These and many more initiatives from our party have been the core reasons why Ireland today has one of the highest levels of educational achievement in the world.
It is also why hundreds of thousands of people have well paid jobs which can only be conducted by a highly educated workforce.
It is why we have a dynamic combination of innovative Irish industry and world-leading international companies.
A unique feature of Fianna Fáil from our very first days is that we have shown how you can both support business and support strong social programmes – and we have shown that a strong economy can be the basis of real social progress.
We’ve used Ireland’s success to invest in health and education. To increase pensions and other social supports. And to invest in community services.
Our commitment to building a shared future for all on this island is as strong as it has ever been. The achievement of the first ever agreed blueprint on the future of our island is something we will always be proud of.
But where others focus on talking to their own side, we know that the only way forward is through active engagement and understanding. It’s through showing a real, long-term commitment to challenging your own to do things differently and create a new agenda.
This is the essence of the spirit of the party founded one hundred years ago. A determination to find new ways forward – and this is the spirit which we bring to great challenge of leading the government of this modern, European republic.
That is why we are driving forward the investment and innovation of the Shared Island Initiative – which is creating new contacts and understanding across historic divides.
That is why we are leading our country in support of a strong Europe and democratic values – acting in both word and deed to support the people of Ukraine and the Palestinian people.
It is why we are pushing forward the largest public investment programme in our history.
It is why we are determined to make our schools more inclusive and tackle disadvantage.
And of course, it is why we are determined to accelerate the new era of home building which is underway and which is a defining social challenge of our time.
The country which our party was founded to change has been transformed in the past century.
We continue to face many challenges, but our country has achieved sustained progress of a type which even the most optimistic dreamers did not foresee.
Ours is democratic republic which has overcome great hurdles to take its place amongst the nations of the world.
The generations who worked to build and renew Fianna Fáil the Republican Party here in Westmeath, in this constituency, and across the country over the past century, deserve our thanks, they deserve our respect, but most of all they deserve our commitment to continue their record of service for the people of Ireland.
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