Don’t bank on Catherine and Labour reconciling

Happier times: Catherine Connolly, TD, (second right) on a walkabout in Shop Street in 2005 with Deputy Michael D.Higgins, then Labour Party Chairman, Leader Pat Rabbitte, and candidates Colette Connolly, Derek Nolan, Hughie Baxter, Cllr Tom Costello, and Trevor O Clochartaigh.

placeholder image — Happier times: Catherine Connolly, TD, (second right) on a walkabout in Shop Street in 2005 with Deputy Michael D.Higgins, then Labour Party Chairman, Leader Pat Rabbitte, and candidates Colette Connolly, Derek Nolan, Hughie Baxter, Cllr Tom Costello, and Trevor O Clochartaigh.

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Catherine Connolly, the Independent TD for Galway West, has had a tumultuous relationship with the Labour Party.

Catherine was originally a Labour member and elected representative but relations haven’t healed since they parted ways acrimoniously.

In 2014, for example, she knifed her former colleagues, when she said Labour had “sold its soul”. Two years later, she said Labour had “lost its soul”.

Regardless of where it’s gone – did they sell it or lose it? – Catherine is adamant Labour is soulless.

That doesn’t stop her co-operating with them in Dáil Éireann, though. Every now and again.

There was a chink of light recently, suggesting the big freeze had thawed between the two, when Catherine thanked Labour for bringing forward a debate about banking. Alas, it didn’t last.

Though she praised her former comrades, it was a backhanded compliment, and it wasn’t long before she tarred Labour with the Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil pro-banker brush.

“I thank the Labour Party for giving us the opportunity to speak on this issue. Fine Gael is saying we must comply with fiscal rules and sell off a share of AIB to pay down the debt. Fianna Fáil wants to go even further and reduce the ratio even more.

“The Labour Party says we should not sell AIB until we change the fiscal rules that the same party actively supported. Fianna Fáil says we should obey the fiscal rules save for an exception on this occasion . . . I can finally understand why the people have utterly lost faith in politics,” she sighed.

No chance of reconciliation, so.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.