parties abroad. Kevin Rudd, who had led the Australian Labor Party back to government after eleven years, but who had since been toppled by his Deputy Leader, Julia Gillard, rang to wish me well and to offer support. I mentioned to him that the journalist Will Hutton had once said that I reminded him of Kevin Rudd, to which Rudd now replied, self-deprecatingly: ‘Oh you poor man. I sincerely hope not.’ Rudd’s policy advisor, John O’Mahony, came over from Australia and worked with a unit in our election headquarters, compiling and updating the message book throughout the campaign. He also helped prepare me for the debates.
Ed Miliband, too, offered the support of the British Labour Party and among those who came over from Britain to help was David Muir, who had worked with Gordon Brown. David, with whom I remained in contact afterwards, organised rehearsals for me before each of the early TV debates.
On the night, I was quite nervous driving into the TV3 studios in Ballymount. No matter how much preparation I had done, I knew this would come down to being able to cope with an hour of intense scrutiny in front of the cameras. The preliminaries, including the press scrum on the way in: ‘How do you feel, Eamon? Are you going to win?’ ‘What do you have to say about Enda Kenny’s refusal to take part?’ etc. was unnerving. Inside the studio building tension mixed with excitement. The debate was very important for both Micheál Martin and me, but it was arguably even more significant, certainly historic, for TV3, being their first leaders’ debate. Everybody was on edge. Make-up, the pre-debate photographs and the on-set promo seemed to go on forever. I just wanted it to start.
To my surprise, Vincent Browne attacked neither of us. He was on his best behaviour and moderated the debate very fairly, concentrating on the questions, which he had prepared well. It was a robust debate. Micheál Martin is an experienced politician and a polished media performer. He tore into me in a kind of rear guard action. Even though Fianna Fáil had been in government for fourteen years, it was as if Labour were already in power and Martin in opposition. I was put on the defensive. Coming off the set at the end, I felt I had not won and would have settled for a draw. The immediate reactions from Mark Garrett and Tony Heffernan seemed to confirm that, but some of the ‘après-match’ commentators gave it to Martin. We moved on.
The second debate included the five party leaders, with Enda Kenny, Micheál Martin, John Gormley and Gerry Adams on RTÉ, moderated by Pat Kenny, and with a studio audience. There were too many of us, and there was no clear winner.
The third debate was another historic first, this time for TG4. There had never before been a leaders’ debate as Gaeilge, and the first was to be an hour-long one between Micheál Martin, Enda Kenny and myself. It was expertly moderated by Eimear Ní Chonaola. It had 600,000 viewers and was considered by many to have been the best of all the debates. The preparation for this debate was very simple. I had dinner the previous evening, in the Radisson Hotel, Galway, with Kathleen Lough and Fidelma Mullane, both members of the Labour Party and both fluent Irish speakers. We talked, as Gaeilge, of course, about the issues likely to come up. We fashioned some phrases I could use and talked through the answers I would give. I reinforced all that the following morning when Fidelma accompanied me to the TG4 studio in Baile na hAmhann. In the end, I was proud to have taken part; and throughout the country, Irish speakers and those who love the language were encouraged by it. The mood was best captured by the message I received from the President of Conradh na Gaeilge, Pádraig Mac Fheargusa: ‘Tá talamh nua briste agaibh. Ócáid stairiúil a bhí ann, agus mar a luaigh an tOllamh Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh sa chur is cúiteamh tar éis, b’iad pobal na Gaeilge na buateoirí móra. Pobal na hÉireann a déarfainn féin; b’ábhar misnigh agus comhaontais dúinn ar fad é.’ (We have broken new ground. This was a historic occasion and as Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh remarked in the commentary afterwards, the Irish speaking community were the big winners. I would say the people of Ireland were the winners, it was a source of courage and unity for us all.)
The final debate, between Kenny, Martin and Gilmore that I had been seeking, was moderated on RTÉ by Miriam O’Callaghan on 22 February. I did no formal preparation for this one. My brother John had come home from the United States to help with the campaign and gave me some good advice. He had worked for over a quarter of a century with CNN, and, for the past decade, as the senior producer on Larry King Live. He had covered several American elections, and knew a thing or two about televised debates. He had been quietly observing my preparations so far and had come to the conclusion that I was being over-coached. He advised me to dispense with rehearsals for this one, to rest on the afternoon of the debate, to go for a walk and clear my head beforehand, and to ‘just be yourself ’ in the studio. It worked. I was more relaxed, and although I’m probably the worst possible judge, I think it was my best television performance.
The new TV debates were not the only pioneering feature of the 2011 election. It was clear from the start that Fianna Fáil were finally going to be ousted from power, but what was not immediately apparent was who would lead the new government – the traditional struggle between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was now one between Fine Gael and Labour. With a new target in its sights, Fine Gael decided to launch a broadside against the Labour Party. Michael Noonan led the attack, claiming that Labour was a ‘high tax party’. We had proposed a 48 per cent tax band on single incomes over €100,000 and on couples earning over €200,000. Yet we found it difficult to shake off Noonan’s attacks among some voters. It seemed, too, that Fine Gael’s ‘Five Point Plan’ (though its details were quite forgettable) was having more of an impact than Labour’s ‘Jobs, Reform, Fairness’.
We began our formal campaign in the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse with our intention to renegotiate the terms of the Troika bailout. We repeated the ‘renegotiate’ message over several days, at press conferences, interviews and speeches, but it was having no impact. It seemed as if nobody (the press, especially) believed that the terms of the bailout could be renegotiated. Fianna Fáil accused us of misleading the public about the possibility of renegotiating, with Micheál Martin stating that ‘Labour was attempting to deliberately mislead voters about what changes to the IMF-EU bailout deal can be achieved.’
I met with my team on the morning of 3 February to run through things shortly before a scheduled press conference. Mark Garrett made it clear that our message on renegotiating the deal was not cutting through. Our finer points of reducing the interest rate, limiting privatisation and creating a space for jobs and growth were not being heard in the noisy electoral market place. It was clear we needed to simplify our message if it was to make an impact.
I summed up the situation for myself: the European Central Bank (ECB) was insisting that the bailout deal could not be renegotiated. But Labour would insist on renegotiation. A phrase came to me: Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way. I used it for the first time at that press conference and repeated it a number of times for effect. It cut through alright. Just not quite in the way I had intended.
Often in politics, it is not what is said that matters, but what is heard. For instance, in 1969 Jack Lynch did not say, ‘We will not stand idly by’, but that’s what people thought they heard, meaning that he intended to send Irish troops over the border to protect nationalists in Belfast and Derry. So too with ‘Frankfurt’s Way or Labour’s Way’. It was heard not as the pledge to renegotiate that it was, but as an outright, Syriza-style rejection of the bailout, which it never was. Though in government, we succeeded in getting much of Labour’s way and renegotiating the interest rate, and limiting privatisation, and restoring the minimum wage, and extending the time frame for reducing the deficit, and stopping paying the Anglo promissory note, and much more besides, some were determined to cast it as falling short of this promise.
The high point of Labour’s poll ratings came in the summer of 2010 (33 per cent in September 2010 IPSOS/MRBI). I was on holiday in early August when I heard of one particularly good outcome for us and all I could think was, ‘How long will it last?’ I knew that when the electoral contest was at its peak, we would find it hard to compete with the financial resources of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, and that unlike Fianna
