Opinion: Labour pains failing to deliver for disenfranchised members

Politics is a funny old game - a dirty old game even, where more happens off the ball than on it.

Tipperary TD Alan Kelly knows more about it than most and at a time when all eyes had been averted from Covid-19 to the Ukraine/Russian conflict, he received the kind of red card from his 'friends' in Labour which would leave you under no illusions as to why the party has become practically irrelevant in Irish politics.

They are now bidding for their fifth leader in a decade which has seen an unprecedented trend of decline as they lost ground to others in the left. But, in Alan Kelly's case, his leadership was hardly given a chance. After all, the global pandemic meant that he was unable to get around the country to mobilise what few supporters remain.

His record in elections is very good - seven contested, seven won. At the helm on the day his supposed successor Ivana Bacik won that by-election in Dublin, Kelly seemed to have scored a significant goal and the signs were positive - perhaps the Portroe man, and the party, were beginning to deliver a few knockout blows.

But then, the 'Et tu Brute' moment as Julius Caesar might reference it. We have been led to believe that the parliamentary party didn't like the way things were going and they flexed their muscles. Kelly was gone, fell on his sword and was left to explain it all away on the plinth outside Leinster House -it was as uncomfortable a press conference as you are likely to see with the body language saying way more than the soundbites .

We've had a Julius Caesar refence- now here's a Hamlet one - there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. In other words, there's more to this story than meets the eye. There has to be, despite the protestations from all sides that this is not the case.

If there is nothing more to it, Labour have shot themselves in the foot. Alan Kelly may be regarded as being brash, arrogant and bullish - media terms placed on him, not mine. But, he is very effective and for a party with so few deputies, he commanded a hell of a lot of speaking time in Dáil Éireann. He is the shining light in Labour and they have just placed him under a bushel.

Will he stay there? Hard to say. He is Labour Party through and through - has been from a very young age - and it is very hard to see him standing as an independent for instance. He has stated his intent to stand in the next General Election, but that could easily change too - Alan Kelly is a young man with a lot going for him; he has achieved a lot as an MEP, a Senator, a member of Dail Éireann, a junior and senior minister in government, and Party Leader. What else is there to achieve in politics one wonders? And why would you try to do more with a bunch who stabbed you in the back?

One thing is certain, Alan Kelly will continue to fight for Portroe, for Nenagh, for Tipperary. Right now he has a term of office to see out as Tipp’s Labour Party TD and he will have a long agenda which he will want to tend to before fully deciding on his next move. He is taking time right now to recharge the batteries after a very stressful and emotional week, but you can be sure that Kelly will come out fighting again before March is out - he was there in Nenagh on Friday last heading the protest against the Russian war on Ukraine.

Alan Kelly might not be everybody's cup of tea - who is? But, he is a very strong advocate for Labour and for Tipp. A pity then that the former turned the gun on him.