December 26, 2010

VOL 27 NO 52

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Roll up, heads bowed, it's the Sunday Tribune Political Awards 2010

From tweet-fingered devilment to tenacious fightbacks, it's been a year of collective and individual drama in and around Leinster House. Political Correspondent Conor McMorrow hands out the medals on the threadbare red carpet

Leo Varadkar gives his reaction to receiving the Kama Sutra Award

Tweeting Dan Boyle broke new ground with his devastating use of technology

Mary Hanafin: took 'demotion' well by building on her profile

Kirk McCambley: here's to you, Mrs Robinson

Bertie Ahern: appears to have lost his common touch

Thanks a millin: Michael Noonan (left) with Richard Bruton

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IT HAS been one of the most tumultuous years ever witnessed in Leinster House. Who would have thought that a government minister would be 'tweeted' out of office? Or an IMF official called Mr Chopra would become a national celebrity?

Who would have thought that Fine Gael would appoint a second frontbench Gaeltacht spokesman in a row that could speak barely Irish? Or that Sinn Féin would fair better in an opinion poll than Fianna Fáil? Or Eamon Gilmore would write a book Leading Lights: People Who Inspired Me and include a chapter on Maggie Thatcher?

As the curtain draws on another year, the Sunday Tribune has reviewed the goings on in Kildare Street and come up with a list of political award winners for 2010…

Shrewdest Politician of the Year - Phil Hogan

Carlow/Kilkenny TD Phil Hogan must rank among the canniest operators in the Dáil. Hogan, labelled 'Fine Gael's svengali', not only took Enda Kenny's side during Richard Bruton's failed leadership but he orchestrated Kenny's survival. As well as lobbying TDs and senators to back the leader in the heave, the wily operator spent days on the phone ringing councillors across the country, as he knows them all, to ask them to lobby their local TD or senator to support Kenny.

The Grin and Bear It Award - Mary Hanafin

Taoiseach Brian Cowen appeared to have demoted his Minister for Social and Family Affairs when he appointed Mary Hanafin to the Tourism, Culture and Sport portfolio in his cabinet reshuffle in March. But Hanafin took the demotion on the chin and she was possibly the most visible cabinet minister throughout the quiet summer recess when she made the most of every possible media opportunity. By the autumn she had reasserted herself as one of the cabinet's most able media performers and if she does not become the next leader of Fianna Fáil, she is certainly likely to be deputy leader to Micheál Martin if he gets the nod.

Political Thriller of the Year - BBC Northern Ireland's 'Spotlight' programme

It is regularly claimed that due to the success of the peace process, the North has become less interesting for journalists, and it now represents a regional backwater where not much happens anymore. That all changed on Thursday 7 January, when BBC Northern Ireland broadcast a Spotlight special about Iris Robinson. It was more like a Hollywood thriller than a current affairs programme. The investigation uncovered details of how the wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister, Peter Robinson, had had an affair with a teenager called Kirk McCambley, lent him money, then looked for it back, and she was also alleged to have been involved in suspect property deals. Superb TV.

Tweet of the Year - Dan Boyle

Willie O'Dea will forever be remembered as the first cabinet minister in the history of the state to be 'tweeted' out of office. In mid-February, his political bacon appeared to have been saved when the Dáil passed a motion of confidence in him with the support of the Greens. A few hours later, senator Dan Boyle tweeted: "As regards to Minister O'Dea, I don't have confidence in him. His situation is compromised. Probably be a few chapters in this story yet." Boyle was correct. There were a few chapters left in a story that concluded with O'Dea's resignation.

The Kick a Dog When It's Down Award - Margaret Ritchie

Fianna Fáil has embarked on a sustained foray into the North in recent years. And given that Fianna Fáil and the SDLP are seen to occupy the same political space on the two sides of the border, there had been speculation about the SDLP merging into Fianna Fáil, as the Northern party has suffered a decline. But Margaret Ritchie became the new leader of the SDLP on 7 February and any prospect of an ailing Fianna Fáil swelling its party ranks through a merger with the SDLP were immediately ruled out by the new leader. Her party's new direction is one well away from that of the Soldiers of Destiny.

The Planet Bertie Award - The Green Party

In 2007, Green Party leader John Gormley famously gave his "Planet Bertie" speech at the party's annual conference. Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar launched a blistering attack on the Greens for their "sickening and appalling acts of cronyism" in February after it emerged that over a third of the Green councillors who lost their seats in the 2009 local elections have been appointed to state bodies and other plum positions by the government. The Greens appear to have landed the party shuttle on Planet Bertie.

The Kama Sutra Award - Leo Varadkar

Last month Sean Sherlock, Labour TD for Cork East, accused Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar of having "more positions than the Kama Sutra" on how to deal with the budget deficit. But Varadkar earns the Kama Sutra Award for his change of position during the Fine Gael leadership heave. On the Friday evening after Richard Bruton refused to publicly back Enda Kenny's leadership on the previous night's RTé Prime Time programme, Varadkar appeared on the plinth in front of Leinster House to back his leader. By the following week, he was one of the group of TDs to publicly back Richard Bruton's failed heave.

The PD-bashing Award - Pat Rabbitte

The PDs may have been consigned to history, but Labour TD Pat Rabbitte's disdain for the defunct party lives on. Interviewed on the two-part documentary The PDs: From Boom to Bust, Rabbitte labelled them a "barrel of badgers".

The Comeback Kid Award - Michael Noonan

Noonan's budget-day attack on the government was just one in a series of strong performances from the man who was the main beneficiary of Richard Bruton's failed leadership heave.

Error of Judgement Award - Bertie Ahern

Lauded for his ability to tap into the public mood when he was at the top of his game, Bertie Ahern has had a dramatic fall from grace. His decision to degrade himself by participating in a News of the World advert was ill-judged. The optics of a former taoiseach sitting in a cupboard promoting a British tabloid newspaper displayed a failure to judge current sentiment.

The Book of Kells Award - Desmond McCabe

The ninth-century Book of Kells is one of the most famous historical manuscripts in the world and historians believe it took decades to finish. In Trim, not far away from Kells, there is currently a historian who appears to be operating at the same speed as the monks did over 1,200 years ago. Desmond McCabe has been paid over €420,000 since 2000 to write a history of the Office of Public Works. By November he had only finished two chapters. Labour's Pat Rabbitte wryly accused him of being "a bit slow at the old writing".

The Bolt from the Blue Award - Newsweek magazine

Brian Cowen is frequently labelled the worst taoiseach in the history of the state in the media, and opinion polls suggest the general public concur with that. So eyebrows were raised in political circles last August when the respected international magazine Newsweek named Cowen as one of the top 10 leaders in the world. It came as a major bolt from the blue, especially as he was called "The Fiscal Taskmaster" in the piece that placed him in the same bracket as leaders such as China's Wen Jiabao and France's Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Laying It On Thick Award - Jack O'Connor

A proposal in May to remove the dole from people who refuse job offers or training courses was sharply criticised by opposition politicians and union leaders. But Siptu's Jack O'Connor laid his criticism on a bit too thick when he described the award as similar to "the 19th century Poor Law".

The Political Correctness Gone Mad Award - Mattie McGrath

Mattie McGrath is the unlikely winner of this award for a TV interview during the heated debate over dog-breeding legislation in July. Speaking about female dogs he famously referred to them as "the, God forgive me, breeding bitches".