The late Mary O’Rourke, former Fianna Fáil minister, once refused to be minister for women’s affairs as she didn’t want to be pigeon-holed in a box-ticking mechanism.
O’Rourke lived through an era when female politicians got it tough. But she could more than hold her own in the old boys’ club.
She had great humour but a withering schoolmarmish stare and was often quick with a pithy put-down.
The former TD was a tour de force, a quick intellect, with fine-tuned instincts and a grá for people. Her favourite motto was carpe diem.
Today Irish political parties are very different – Sinn Féin, Alliance, Irish Labour, Social Democrats and now the SDLP are all led by women. Seizing the day is much easier once the glass ceilings have been shattered.
This isn’t to say female leaders necessarily result in better government, more compassionate policies or dynamic leadership. Margaret Thatcher, Liz Truss and Baroness Foster are testament to that.
Currently, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald is failing to inspire the Irish electorate – who politically seem to want more of the same type of governance from the current coalition.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill in Northern Ireland is much more buffeted against the fickle dynamics of a normal political environment.
That said, Sinn Féin would be foolish to take the northern nationalist electorate for granted.
Ministers have been acting imperiously rather than ministerially when dealing with media questions. They need to remember the Executive is part of a democratic process and not a junta.
Whilst Sinn Féin skilfully manages and even quells internal discussions and divisions, it cannot impose similar restrictions on a free press when their ministers are supposed to be accountable, responsible and transparent to the public – not a politburo.
The debacle over former press officer Michael McMonagle, the references provided for him by two Sinn Féin colleagues and the timeline of party explanations and actions/inactions stretch incredulity. This won’t be easily swept under the carpet.
Over at the SDLP, there’s a new leader, the formidable Claire Hanna.
So it’s out with the old and in with the new – though in fairness, the former leader, Colum Eastwood, is marginally younger than his successor.
The task facing Hanna is nothing short of Herculean.
But the MP for South Belfast & Mid Down has SDLP in her DNA. Her father, Eamon, and mother, Carmel, are former civil rights activists and SDLP stalwarts. Her soul mate/husband is an SDLP councillor. She’s as solid as marble hewn from Connemara.
Hanna brings an energy to the SDLP which is hopefully contagious to the more moribund sections of the party. There’s no doubting her appetite for the job and her speech nailed the fundamental issue for the SDLP.
She said “we are stuck between our past and our future” and that “we have listened more often to each other than we have listened to the voters”. She continued that the SDLP’s purpose is not to lionise its heroes but to “make the electorate feel the way Hume and Mallon made them feel”.
The pitch the new leader outlines is firmly rooted in the broad church of social democracy – a party connected to the ‘here and now’ but also with a gaze firmly fixed on the future, Irish unity and how to achieve it in an inclusive way. There’s no fence-sitting on Irish unity.
Hanna avoided the perennial SDLP sniping about other parties – in fact, she hardly mentioned them at all. The stall being set out was done so in confidence.
The SDLP, if it did not exist, would have to be invented, was her clarion call.
Though affable and good natured, Hanna knows how to rumble as well as any politician.
Leaving the leader’s podium, she must now reach out beyond the SDLP to the people. As Mary O’Rourke might say, “It’s your party Claire – seize the day “.
Hanna brings an energy to the SDLP which is hopefully contagious to the more moribund sections of the party