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BEFORE the 2002 general election, RTE commissioned a dramadocumentary on the hepatitis C scandal which hardly helped Michael Noonan's reputation with the public. There was divided opinion on the less-than-flattering portrayal of his role as health minister. Given that background, Fine Gael must have feared a sense of deja vu with last week's Hidden History programme on Eoin O'Duffy, one of the party's notorious grandees.
While the documentary sought to portray O'Duffy, the Blueshirt leader, as more than an Irish Mussolini, its populist title Eoin O'Duffy . . . An Irish Fascist would have been welcomed with broad smiles in Fianna Fail. The O'Duffy inheritance is hardly one that Enda Kenny will be recalling as he seeks to win the next general election.
In a quest for balance, this week RTE turns the historical spotlight on Frank Aiken, a founding member of Fianna Fail and long-time de Valera cabinet member.
Aiken's bloody part in the Old IRA is recalled in this gripping film which should be required viewing for Ian Paisley and his DUP colleagues.
The road from gunman to government is well trodden in Irish history.
Having left his murderous past behind, Aiken transformed into a conservative government minister before getting a new lease of life as a lessthan-conformist dignitary at the UN in New York.
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YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 12 / 10
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