Profile Fiona O'Malley and Ciaran Cannon:The contest for the leadership of the much-reduced PDs is between the eccentric, liberal, urban O'Malley and the low-profile, conservative, rural Cannon - and the party's rank-and-file will be crucial in deciding the outcome, writes Harry McGee
When you mention the race for the Progressive Democrat leadership you attract some colourful metaphors. Sadly, none are flattering. There are the obvious ones, such as flogging a dead horse or sipping from a poisoned chalice. As you move towards the less sympathetic end of the spectrum you get stuff like Dead Votes Society (ouch).
The flogging has been surprisingly lively so far but that still doesn't make the horse any less dead. The party got thoroughly scuttled at the last election, losing its leader, Michael McDowell, its president Tom Parlon, and deputy leader Liz O'Donnell in one fell swoop. Mary Harney reluctantly retook the leadership role, but she made it very clear that this was strictly temporary.
And negatives pile up more quickly than the M50 at rush-hour. Rumours persisted for a long while that the party's other remaining TD, Noel Grealish, from Galway West, was about to defect to Fianna Fáil. Then the obvious successor, Tom Parlon, bowed out in favour of a job in private industry. Another possible leader, Colm O'Gorman, was surprisingly overlooked as a senator. And then the PDs seemed to go into aftershock for a couple of months. You sensed desperation creeping in when the rules of the party were changed to allow a non-member of the Oireachtas to become leader. You sensed drift towards terminal decline. Even on good days, few commentators see the party surviving until the general election.
"Let me spell out the future of the PDs in two words," says a Fianna Fáil TD. "De facto defuncto."
And in the wake of all that, two pretenders have been thrown up who would have been unimaginable as leaders in the run-up to last year's election. Senator Fiona O'Malley is a highly likeable, passionate, honest and somewhat eccentric politician who can be slightly muddled in expression. She has the famous name but is seen by some as having been more at home in her previous occupation as an arts administrator. She would rebut this, seeing herself as steeped in politics and the values of the PDs.
Still, she is very much on the "wet" and liberal side of the party.
"I can imagine her fitting in seamlessly in most of the other parties," says a colleague in the Seanad. "She could be a Green or in Labour or even in Fianna Fáil." Another Senator described her as "unconventional, verging on the eccentric" (she is a huge fan, for example, of men's ties). But he goes on to add that that isn't necessarily a bad thing. "She shoots from the hip, is disarmingly honest. That makes her an unusual politician, but also a more effective one than people give her credit for."
Senator Ciarán Cannon, on the other hand, is a total blank canvas to anybody living outside Galway. When it is put to him that his national profile is . . . he finishes off the sentence by saying "zero".
SO THE CHOICE seems to be between an accidental leader and an anonymous one. One senior PD person isn't too concerned about the flaws, deficiencies and inexperience of the candidates. "Profile isn't everything. Michael McDowell had lots of it and it got us nowhere," he says. "It's good, too, that we have a contest. Michael's coronation glossed over some fundamental flaws in the party and also concentrated a lot of power in the leadership.
"You never know. This contest might defy all our critics by reviving the party. Both are of a younger generation and will bring back energy and purpose. And whoever gets it can grow into the leadership. The same happened with Dick Spring with Labour and to a lesser extent with Enda Kenny in Fine Gael."
Despite the predictions of doom and gloom, it is shaping up into an absorbing contest between two candidates, close in age, but markedly different in personality, background and political outlook. In fact, as well as being the smallest and most vulnerable party in the Oireachtas, the PDs - and this is probably the last thing they need - are also the most divided.
O'Malley and Cannon in some ways personify that divide, between insider and outsider, between urban and rural, between liberal and more conservative, between idealistic and realistic.
At one stage, O'Malley said that her ideal would be to be midway between Obama and Hillary. The ideal for the PDs might be midway between O'Malley and Cannon. Her idealism and honesty is tempered by her scattiness ("I am not the most organised person in the world") and her weakness in several policy areas, finance for example. His well-honed organisational skills and his professional nous can't compensate for his lack of profile.
How low that is can be instanced from the comments of fellow Seanad members. All have an opinion on O'Malley - Eoghan Harris's perceptive observation that she is "too plain spoken and direct to be an emollient chairman" is broadly typical - but none can really proffer an opinion on Cannon, who has not made much impact in his first six months.
But the strange thing is that quite a few people within the PDs put Cannon slightly ahead of O'Malley in the race. That's because of the quirky electoral college system the party has, plus the fact that Cannon has high profile where it matters - within the PD membership.
"Why should it be a requisite that you have to be a household name in order to be leader?" he asks rhetorically.
So who is Ciarán Cannon? The 42-year-old Senator is from Kiltullagh, near Athenry in Co Galway. He worked for Dublin County Council for four years and for Galway County Council for 10 years before becoming chief executive of the Irish Pilgrimage Trust in 2000.
His first involvement with the trust was in 1986 when he and friends cycled from Galway to Lourdes to raise money for the charity, which brings 500-600 children to the shrine each year accompanied by as many helpers.
He is also an accomplished pianist and singer, and has played in local and wedding bands in Galway over the years. His remaining musical commitment is to the choir in his local church - religion plays a big part in his life.
Cannon had no family background in politics. And in somewhat typical fashion, when he decided to enter politics in 2003 he researched all the party sites on the internet before plumping for the PDs. His first contact was with Grealish - then a new TD - who remains one of his closest political allies.
East Galway wasn't exactly PD heartland and Cannon surprised everybody by taking a council seat in the Loughrea electoral area in 2004. And during last year's meltdown by his party, his garnering of 3,300 votes in Galway East was an accomplishment (although it's still only a third of a quota).
What Cannon was good at was organisation, putting a team together and motivating it, and taking a professional approach to his campaigns. As a councillor he had a lowish profile, but was seen as diligent and with good instincts for choosing an issue on which to take a stand.
"He is very dedicated and is quiet but steely enough. Any time he spoke at the council, people would sit up and listen. He would always be well prepared and have something of substance to say," says fellow Galway PD councillor Jim Cuddy.
Recently turned 40, O'Malley cuts a contrasting figure. Daughter of the party's founder, she had a career in arts administration before entering politics, in Dún Laoghaire rather than in her native Limerick. She has always maintained that her own career path was inevitably leading towards politics.
"I was reared in politics," she has said. "All my life has been in politics. When I stood for election for the first time I had an inkling that I would lead the party one day. I did not expect it to come so soon. But you have to take the opportunities as they fall. I have experience as a TD, as a councillor and, now, as a Senator."
O'Malley is in the classic European liberal mode. In a recent speech she talked about the core values of the party. They were for a pluralist and inclusive society, an enterprise culture, employment that delivers social justice, for low taxes, and for legal recognition for non-married couples and families.
Some rural supporters of the party would probably not subscribe to all those views and would gravitate towards the more conservative Cannon.
INTERESTINGLY, BOTH EXPRESS very similar sentiments about inclusivity. Neither wants to be seen as establishment, or as being "inside the beltway". The party should be for everybody, not just the parliamentary party, both say. That seems to be a pretty direct cut at McDowell, who ran an equal opportunities leadership only in terms of repelling the voters.
Otherwise they differ. O'Malley offers continuity, building on the legacy of past leaders, with a fresh injection of energy and direction. She believes a lot of the party's problems stem from communication and image problems. Cannon, you sense, wants to go further, even as far as exploring a name change down the line.
What makes this contest intriguing is the way the votes will be cast. Under the system agreed for the last leadership contest, votes were weighted, split between the parliamentary party (40 per cent), the 46 or so county councillors and national executive members (30 per cent) and the party membership (30 per cent).
But the parliamentary party now comprises a grand total of four, and with O'Malley and Cannon voting for themselves, the votes of Harney and Grealish are expected to split each way, with both sides thus neutralising each other.
The urban-rural divide is starkly evident in the two other voting groups. Both candidates are running very close among councillors and members of the executive, who will split relatively evenly along geographical lines.
So the role of the 3,900 ordinary members will become crucial. And, if you look at their geographical breakdown, its rural bias might just favour Cannon. Laois-Offaly has a huge block of registered members, and it's thought that Parlon supporters are rowing in behind Cannon. He'll also sweep all the Galway votes, from both councillors and members. O'Malley will be ahead in Limerick and in Munster and will need to be very strong in Dublin to ward off the challenge from Cannon. And that's not guaranteed, according to senior insiders.
With two months to go, and with seven regional meetings organised, none of the two is yet in a position to put clear blue water between them and the other. While both will evoke the furies between now and April, you wonder whether the party can ever really recover from the train wreck of last year. And, as they flog away, you also wonder what we are really looking at in this horse race - a dead cert or a death certificate?
TheO'MalleyCannonFile
Who are they?PD Senators
Why are they in the news?They are the two declared candidates for the position of PD leader.
Most appealing characteristics:Their enthusiasm, energy and unbridled optimism
Least appealing characteristics:For her, poor organisation.
For him, zero profile.
Most likely to say:"I'm going to follow the example of Des O'Malley and Mary Harney."
Least likely to say:"I'm going to follow the example of Michael McDowell."