During the year dark forces conspired in the quiet corners of Leinster house and various hostelries, strategies ruminated upon, deals struck regarding future ministerial portfolios and alliances, conversations centred around the concrete justification that this was in the best interests of the country, Enda was simply not up to the job of running the show and the party faithful and public at large shared this opinion.
In June 2010 Varadkar, Bruton, Coveney and the considerable cohort of deputies in support of their cause, publically declared their hand and espoused their moral motivation to remove Enda Kenny as leader of Fine Gael. Standing on the steps of Leinster house they threw down the gauntlet to Enda and his supporters, it was time to step down, the country needed strong leadership in these tumultuous times, Enda was simply not the man to lead the nation through these unprecedented and turbulent times! Most people agreed that Enda was an honourable guy, a nice guy but a bit too woolly and fuzzy around the edges.
Richard Bruton deftly assumed the position of Taoiseach-in-waiting, he began to wear the mantle with aplomb, growing in stature by the hour as messages of support flooded in from the party faithful and beyond. In the far corners of his mind Richard must have started to contemplate his pending glory, rubbing shoulders with the European elite as leader of his country, taking the reins of a nation in turmoil, cometh the hour cometh the man. In the background, away from the ever probing glare of the media, the young pretenders discussed strategies and ministerial briefs and most likely salivated over the pending political assignation of Mr Kenny.
I myself, having a prurient interest in the comings and goings of political life, didn't rate Enda very highly in terms of leadership, motivation and indeed strength of character. I felt during 2010 Enda was a 'dead man walking' in political terms, it was only a matter of time before the political hangman readied his noose to put paid to Enda's relatively short foray as leader of his party. I didn't rate his performances in the Dáil and on TV, he came across as wooden and contrived, one felt there was a puppeteer’s hand directing his every nuance and word.
I simply could not envisage this man attending the summit of leaders of the EU, I could not see Enda going téte-a- téte with Sarkozy or crossing swords with Merkel on the macro economics of the European Union. I thought Enda to a nice guy, a good lad from the bog, nothing to write home about, he didn't have much more time as leader, he had been a good 'filler' leader for Fine Gael but there was serious stuff coming down the line and it was now time to get their house in order. You could trust this man with your sheep but not your country.
And so on to the events of last week which have been nothing short of breath-taking in political terms, let's quickly take stock; the Cloyne report was finally published and we discovered that the Vatican apparently directed the hierarchy of the church in Ireland to keep quiet about the sexual abuse of Irish children by Irish priests, the report found the Vatican put the welfare of the church before the welfare of innocent victims of abuse, the contents of the Cloyne report are sad and reprehensible, the media reported the findings and we the public at large once again hung our ends in sheer emotional exhaustion at these latest revelations which exposed further the murky and entangled relationship between the Irish state and the Catholic church.
We shook our heads once again at this new example of how vulnerable children were abused and how a pervasive and perverse silence existed which kept the perpetrators free of recrimination or charge.
I myself felt angered and saddened as I thought of the victims of abuse and their families, I wasn't anticipating much of a response from government, I thought we would get some standard wringing of hands and some pious platitudes about the need to protect children. I braced myself for a vacuum of action, nothing would come of this, it would eventually pass into the record books as another tome detailing our twisted relationship with the Catholic church.
But last week something extraordinary happened in our country, something impossible, an event of epic proportions, something that had not been contemplated, Enda Kenny stood up as in the Dáil and made a statement as leader of our country and representative of its people, this was not the Enda Kenny of last year with carefully choreographed speeches and fudgy policy statements, this was Enda the warrior out to face down enemies of our state, this was Enda the invincible and this was Enda the unprecedented.
Enda started his speech in the Dail and you very quickly knew there was something huge happening, his visceral and surgical rendition of the wrong doings perpetrated by the Church and indeed the Vatican was instant and concise. Enda spoke about the 'dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day', he said that the Catholic Church needed to be 'truly and deeply penitent for the wrongdoing it perpetrated, hid and denied.'
He continued; 'Instead of listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal, 'Mr Kenny pointed out that the Vatican's reaction had been to parse and analyse it, with the eye of a canon lawyer.’
Enda's voice was wrought with emotion and determination throughout his speech, the Dail chamber remained quiet as the deputies no doubt began to appreciate the fact that this was no ordinary speech, this was not a rendition from the Taoiseach whereby he would kick this thorny issue into touch.
Enda pulled no punches, his words stung like barbs and hung in the air like a thick dusty smoke which was not going to dissipate anytime soon, he quickly got into his stride and performed like a true statesman.
When Enda finally sat down having delivered his ground-breaking words he must have felt a sense of pride and dignity having faced down one of the most powerful organisations on the planet, a heretofore untouchable entity which in the past had literally held the state and its public servants and representatives in its paralysing grasp.
Like many others I felt a sense of justice having listened to Enda's delivery and also a sense that the state had grown up somewhat, this monologue heralded a coming of age for our country.
Colm O'Gorman, founder of the organisation 'One in Four' and himself a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a catholic priest, aptly summed up the feelings of a nation when he referred to Enda's speech as 'ground-breaking and extraordinary and a speech that historians would hopefully refer to in the future as a defining moment when Ireland was offered the opportunity to become a Republic' and he poignantly added that he had hoped for a speech like this for the past ten years.
And so we bore witness to the transformation of this politician, a mere mortal man who decided to take the more difficult path and in doing so won a new born respect and gratitude from the citizens of this state and especially victims of abuse everywhere!
And one can't help wonder if Enda, before he delivered his speech, summoned up some divine inspiration from the good book; 'Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, it is he that doth go with thee' Book of Deuteronomy.
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Thanks
Alan x
Alan Carroll © 2011
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