You may have missed this classic monologue – with barely a pause – from poet Theo Dorgan on the Eleventh Hour last Friday.
Plausible soothsaying or wishful thinking? You decide:
Theo Dorgan: “I think we’re going through a great change. The Irish people have dealt the first decisive blow to the old politics. The biggest political party and the biggest political organisation on the island has been dealt a death blow. And next time out the exact same thing will happen to Fine Gael.”
Daire O’Brien (presenter): “Unless…”
Dorgan: “No no. No unless. I’m absolutely predicting this. Nothing in this election has persuaded me that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or a great chunk of Labour understands just exactly truly a) how desperate the situation is, b) how powerless the old politics is to deal with it, and c) what’s coming down the line behind Dylan [Haskins] and the other young candidates who are coming.
“I think Fianna Fáil is a dead piece of roadkill at the moment. Its only hope is that the great lost leader of the Labour party, Mícheál Martin, takes a decisive leap to the centre and to the left and recovers its 1930s roots.
“Fine Gael is going to absolutely lose the run of itself in office, and it’s already riven with contradictions; you have Lucinda Creighton saying the basic rate of tax is 55% and Michael Noonan saying this is bizarre when Pat Rabbitte repeats it in the Dáil.
“There is going to be I think a decimation of Fine Gael the next time out. People are going through a strange, slow-motion crash of the state. They’ve dealt with one of the great monoliths. They’re now scrupulously giving the other monolith in the old politics its shot, and when that proves itself – as it absolutely will, I’m completely certain of this – a busted flush, then the new politics will happen. So it seems to me this is an interim moment in a long, unfolding process of change…”
Watch full show here
