With his nose out of joint John Foley, he of the famed mullet hair-style, ran as an independent instead. The prominent business man who had contested the previous 2007 election for FF and had also been a generous benefactor to the party was furious that he wasn’t allowed on the ticket. Brian Cowen with brother Barry Cowen Fianna Fail at the Laois/Offaly General Election Count at the Count Centre, Ballincollig Retail Park, Tullamore. This didn’t go down too well in north Offaly and in particular with John Foley from Edenderry. When Brian Cowen stepped aside at the Fianna Fáil selection convention in the Tullamore Court Hotel his place on the ticket went to his brother Barry. Locally in Laois-Offaly, not surprisingly perhaps, Brian Cowen stepped aside and retired from politics.īut more drama was yet to play-out in the 5-seat constituency. Sinn Féin under Gerry Adams also got their share of the spoils and increased their Dáil seats by 9 up to 14. FG won 76, up from 51 and under what became known as the ‘Gilmore Gale’ Labour romped home with 37 seats up from their previous 20. Outgoing Junior Minister John Moloney (Fianna Fail) with Barry Cowen as he is eliminated on the 11th count on day 3 of the General Election 2011 Laois/Offaly Count at the count centre in Tullamore.Įnda Kenny led Fine Gael to form a Coalition Government with Labour with a massive majority of seats. They returned in 2011 with 20 seats and 17% of the vote. Statistics don’t normally tell the full story but in this case they go a long way.įianna Fáil had won 77 seats in the previous 2007 election and a massive 41% of the national vote. In the aftermath an angry electorate was baying for blood and Fianna Fáil paid the political price in the February 2011 election. The political ramifications and fallout are ongoing. He may be one of the few principle players who came out of the whole sorry debacle with his reputation intact.Įither way we will be paying for the blanket bank bailout for generations to come. The Cowen Fianna Fáil-Green Government disintegrated in a catastrophic and chaotic shambles, as John Gormley and the Greens could take no more and walked away.įinance Minister, Brian Lenihan, although grievously ill, held his composure, calm head and dignity and did his best under inordinate pressure and chaotic conditions. Some lost their lives in the stress of the recession. The only thing going up was unemployment. The causes, responsibility and blame continue to be hotly debated but one way or another the economic crash and banking bailout cost tens of billions to the taxpayer, brought the infamous Troika the European Commission, EU Central Bank and the IMF down on us like a tonne of bricks.īanks went to the wall, tens of thousands lost their jobs – particularly in construction – others lost their businesses and homes, savings and pension pots as share prices crashed. Within three years it all came crashing down, Cowen’s career and the country around him. However, that’s where our prosperity was too, on paper and in theory.
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