Party activists were in a celebratory and upbeat mood when they joined Enda Kenny for his anniversary bash, reports Michael O'Regan in Castlebar
Celebrations were long and late, and the sense of longevity was sweet, when over 600 people gathered in the Travellers Friend Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, last night to mark the 30th anniversary of the election of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny to the Dáil.
The mood was upbeat and celebratory. Mr Kenny is not only the local TD but the alternative taoiseach, and Mayo Fine Gael sampled what for them was every golden moment.
"This is a great night for all of us," said Mr Kenny. "Let us cap it by winning three seats for Fine Gael in Mayo at the next election."
The tensions within the local organisation, now it seems the lot of Fianna Fáil in Mayo, seemed like a footnote to history, as fellow Mayo TD, Michael Ring, spoke about those who stood by the party in bad times as well as good. "None of us in Mayo walked away when the going got tough," he declared.
Mr Kenny was presented with a bound copy of a history of politics in Mayo going back to the byelection victory. It was optimistically entitled "First 30 Years".
Mr Kenny's byelection victory, in November 1975, followed the death of his father, Henry Kenny, a parliamentary secretary (minister of state) in the then Liam Cosgrave led FG-Labour coalition.
"It was the last of the old-style byelections" recalled Mr Kenny. "I remember Liam Cosgrave leading a parade from the racecourse in Ballinrobe into the town, with people carrying lighting sods of turf."
It was unusual, too, in that the Labour Party campaigned for Mr Kenny. "I remember Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien advising people to vote for 'young Kenny' and also saying that they must put down the IRA," the Fine Gael leader recalled.
The academic and journalist John Horgan, a former Labour TD, recalled in his book on the history of the Labour Party, the same Dr O'Brien, then minister for post and telegraphs, being observed in a Mayo pub, "wearing a white linen suit and looking for all the world, as one observer put it, like a tea planter with amnesia".
The attendance at last night's function included long-serving, local Fine Gael activists who had worked with Henry Kenny from the 1950s onwards and later with his son.
Johnny Gavin, from Westport, joined the party in 1954. "I was there on the day Henry Kenny was nominated to contest a general election. And I have decided now that I won't die until Enda is taoiseach. In the next election, we will reverse the tide whereby the east coast has the taoiseach."
Michael McGing was working in Manchester at the time of the byelection. "It got a lot of coverage in the British media for some reason. When I returned to Ireland, I joined Enda Kenny's organisation. Having a local TD as party leader is a huge boost to the organisation."
Jimmy Lunn, from Breaffy, recalled meeting the late Fianna Fáil minister and TD, Brian Lenihan, in a pub during the byelection. "I knew that Enda would be elected because of Henry Kenny's popularity, and I bet my week's wages from the bacon factory that he would win. He won, and I collected my winnings from Brian."
Among the Fine Gael TDs who attended were Phil Hogan, Paul Kehoe, Paul Connaughton, Fergus O'Dowd, Bernard Allen and Denis Naughten.