The comeback kids
Michael Noonan's return to the Fine Gael front bench as finance spokesman marks one of the great political comebacks of recent times. Conor McMorrow on other Lazarus-like revivals of fortune
Michael Noonan, who has returned to the front bench of Fine Gael;
Winston Churchill
Richard Mulcahy
Harry Truman
Lazaruses Richard Nixon
Jack Lynch
Charles Haughey
George Wallace
John Major
Bill Clinton
Michael McDowell
Bertie Ahern
Peter Mandelson
Joe Higgins
MICHAEL Noonan's resurrection from the Fine Gael back benches to the front bench finance role marks one of the most notable political comebacks of recent times.
Eight years ago, he led the party to one of its worst ever election results when Fine Gael's seat tally plummeted from 54 to 31 Dáil seats. During the 2002 election campaign Noonan was vilified by the media, labelled 'Baldy Noonan' and made a figure of fun beside the then 'Teflon taoiseach' Bertie Ahern.
Eight years later he's back. Noonan has excelled in the Dáil in the past two years. Going about his work with quiet efficiency, his contributions to key Dáil debates on issues such as the bank guarantee scheme and Nama have been rightly lauded.
Noonan's ability to show a clear grasp of economic issues played no small part in persuading Enda Kenny to promote him a fortnight ago. Kenny and Noonan were once bitter rivals but they patched up their differences some time ago, paving the way for Kenny to resurrect the Limerick TD from the back benches.
Last week, he set out his stall saying he prefers spending cuts over tax increases. He also called for any of the directors who served on banking boards ahead of their collapse to be removed within six months and be replaced by fresh blood.
He demonstrated his reputation as a straight talker in an interview on RTÉ radio's News at One programme last Monday. When asked what the alternative is to cutting €150,000 in the allocation for respite services in Limerick, he quickly replied, "€150,000 – I'd find it in five minutes in the health budget and I can't understand the ineptitude that has allowed this to occur."
Noonan is back and his straight-up approach is welcome. But his comeback is by no means a first in politics. In fact, Fine Gael's new comeback kid is just the latest in a long line of politicians, at home and abroad, to come back from the political dead and enjoy a revival in their political fortunes. In light of Noonan's return, the Sunday Tribune looks at other great political comebacks from Winston Churchill to Michael McDowell and from Joe Higgins to the 'comeback kid' himself, Bill Clinton.
Winston Churchill (1939)
After he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer in 1924, Winston Churchill oversaw Britain's disastrous return to the Gold Standard which resulted in deflation, unemployment and the miners' strike that led to the General Strike of 1926. That decision and other budgetary decisions made Churchill hugely unpopular. After the Conservative government was defeated in the 1929 general election, Churchill became estranged from the party leadership and it looked as if his political career was over. Afterwards, Churchill portrayed himself as a lone voice advocating the need for Britain to re-arm against Germany in the 1930s. He was also a fierce critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler and he emerged as one of the great war-time leaders when he became prime minister, completing an amazing political comeback.
Richard Mulcahy (1944)
Having fought in the 1916 Rising, Richard Mulcahy would later become the commander-in-chief of the Free State army and defence minister in a government responsible for the ruthless execution of 77 anti-treaty figures. In January 1924, Mulcahy was appointed minister for defence in the new Free State government but he resigned after three months in the role. He quit in protest, before he was pushed, over the sacking of the army council in the wake of army mutiny. His political fortunes fluctuated after he resigned to the backbenches and he won and lost his seat in a series of elections. After he lost his Dáil seat in 1943, he was in the Seanad for a second term. But after the resignation of WT Cosgrave in 1944, Mulcahy became the leader of Fine Gael, even though he was a senator. To become a party leader, after losing his Dáil seat twice in previous years, marked a major political comeback. He went on to rescue the party from oblivion and showed himself to be selfless and honourable by stepping aside to allow John Costello become Taoiseach in 1948 when it became clear Clann na Poblachta could not stomach being led in government by the commander of the Free State forces during the Civil War.
Harry Truman (1948)
On 3 November 1948, the Chicago Tribune carried the famously inaccurate headline 'Dewey Defeats Truman'. Unfortunately for the newspaper, the incumbent US president Harry Truman beat Republican challenger Thomas Dewey in the previous night's presidential election. An early press deadline on election night meant that the newspaper had to go to press before the election results had come in from the east-coast states. The paper's veteran Washington correspondent Arthur Sears Henning had to call the result so he went for Dewey and the erroneous headline went to press. Opinion polls and almost all commentators had predicted that the New York governor, Dewey, would unseat Truman but it was not to be. After 150,000 copies of the paper were printed, Truman and the Democrats held the presidency and regained control of both the House and the Senate.
Richard Nixon (1968)
Republican candidate Richard Nixon was defeated by the Democratic candidate John F Kennedy in the 1960 US presidential election. It looked as if his political career was over two years later after the 1962 election to become governor of California. Nixon stood against incumbent governor Pat Brown after being encouraged by key figures in the Republican party but lost after a disastrous campaign by nearly 300,000 votes. The morning after the election, he famously blamed the media for his loss and said, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because gentlemen, this is my last press conference." It looked as though Nixon had left politics for good until 1967, when he started to reconsider. In early February 1968, he declared his intention to stand for the US presidential election that year and he was elected the 37th US president the following November.
Jack Lynch (1977)
Heading into the 1977 general election, the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government looked set to defy Irish political history by securing an unprecedented second term in office. The 'Tullymander' or redrawing of Dáil constituencies by the minister for local government James Tully appeared to favour the coalition parties. RTÉ political commentator Seán Duignan famously said that if Jack Lynch was to win the election it would be "the greatest comeback since Lazarus". Facing defeat, Fianna Fáil came up with a populist manifesto that included the abolition of car tax. As the media greatly underestimated how unpopular the Fine Gael/Labour coalition was, the Fianna Fáil party slogan 'Bring Jack Back' became reality. Jack Lynch secured a 20-seat majority.
Charles Haughey (1979)
After his sacking from the cabinet by Taoiseach Jack Lynch in 1970 over the Arms Crisis, it looked as if Charlie Haughey's best days in politics were behind him. Many in Fianna Fáil had discounted his chances of ever making a return to the front benches, but he worked hard to rebuild his base within the party. In 1979, he became leader of Fianna Fáil and taoiseach after defeating George Colley in a leadership battle, completing a remarkable comeback.
George Wallace (1983)
George Wallace was seen as a symbol of racism in America's southern states when he was Governor of Alabama in the early 1960s. He was best known for his pro-segregation views during America's period of desegregation. In May 1972, Wallace was shot four times during an assassination attempt that left him paralysed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In the late 1970s, Wallace made a remarkable political comeback. He became a born-again Christian and apologised to black civil rights leadersfor his earlier segregationist views. He said that while he once sought power and glory, he realised that he needed to seek love and forgiveness. During his final terms as Governor of Alabama from 1983 to 1987, Wallace saw a record number of black appointments to government positions.
John Major (1992)
After taking over from Margaret Thatcher as British prime minister in 1990, John Major staved off calls from Neil Kinnock's Labour for a general election until April 1992. When the election was called, opinion polls were showing Labour ahead of the Tories and it looked like there was going to be a hung parliament or a Labour victory. While the odds were stacked against Major, he took to the streets delivering passionate speeches from an upturned soapbox. The 'soapbox election' strategy struck a note with the British electorate compared to the hard-hitting negative campaign tactics that Labour used. Major won enough seats to form a small minority government and the Tory victory led to Kinnock's resignation.
Bill Clinton (1992)
During the 1992 US presidential election, the signs were not good for Bill Clinton. His campaign was tottering amid questions about his Vietnam war draft history and accusations of infidelity when he arrived in New Hampshire for the primary.
With a head cold and laryngitis, Clinton talked his way to the point of exhaustion from one end of the state to the other and scored a strong second-place finish that set him on his way to the presidency. He never looked back after that and it even led him to say: "I'm the comeback kid."
Michael McDowell (2002)
After losing his Dublin South East Dáil seat in the 1997 general election, Michael McDowell turned his back on politics. When he was appointed attorney general in 1999, this appeared to cement McDowell's decision to bow out of public life. But McDowell stood for the PDs in 2002 and he fulfilled his long-time ambition of becoming Minister for Justice, later becoming Tánaiste.
Bertie Ahern (2007)
Amid a barrage of criticism over Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's personal finances, Fianna Fáil got off to the worst possible start during the 2007 general election campaign.
After a decade in power, opinion polls suggested Fianna Fáil was on course for an election defeat. After a few tumultuous weeks, then minister for finance, Brian Cowen, helped re-redirect Fianna Fáil's fortunes through a number of robust exchanges with opponents such as Fine Gael's Richard Bruton.
In the last week of the campaign, after the leaders' debate on TV, an Irish Times/MRBI poll showed a recovery for Fianna Fáil to 41%, which was replicated on polling day.
Peter Mandelson (2008)
One of the key figures behind Tony Blair's New Labour in the UK in the 1990s, Peter Mandelson held a number of cabinet positions but it looked like his political career was over when he was forced to resign from cabinet for a second time in 2001. This looked to be confirmed in 2004, when he became Britain's European Commissioner.
But in October 2008, Gordon Brown announced a cabinet reshuffle and controversially announced a political comeback.
Peter Mandelson returned to government in the new post of Business Secretary after Brown made him a life peer, which entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords. Mandy's return was among the great political comebacks.
Joe Higgins (2009)
In the year before the 2007 general election, Socialist party TD Joe Higgins' quick-witted Dáil attacks on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern gave him a national profile. But Higgins lost his Dáil seat in the hotly contested three-seat Dublin West constituency in May 2007 and it looked as if his best political days were behind him. On 5 June 2009, Higgins contested the Euro elections and completed an incredible electoral feat when he took an MEP's seat in an election that saw sitting MEPs Eoin Ryan and Mary Lou McDonald ousted.
July 11, 2010
Advertise here
Click to create
Website by Maithú™
Searching
Print
E-mail
del.icio.us
digg
Facebook
Google
