Yes, Taoiseach

Dunlop, Frank (2004) Yes, Taoiseach: Irish politics from behind closed doors, Penguin Ireland: Dublin. ISBN I-844-88035-4. 335 pages

Frank Dunlop's account of his time as a behind the scenes operator, initially as a spin doctor for Fianna Fail (FF) and thereafter as a press secretary in Irish government from 1978 to 1986, offers a rather self-serving insight into the characters and personalities that dominated Irish politics throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and who continue to cast a shadow over contemporary politics, given their roles in the ongoing tribunal inquiries into sleaze and planning corruption.

The trajectory of Dunlop's own career is rather typical of those who pass through the revolving door between the media and politics. Dunlop began working for the Irish state broadcaster, RTE, in 1973. He was a researcher during its first rolling general election transmission in 1973 and was then made a reporter in RTE's Belfast office. In April 1974 Fianna Fail approached Dunlop to become its first press officer. It was well known that Dunlop's political sympathies lay with FF after his fairly moderate / conservative political activities as a history and politics undergraduate at UCD. Against the advice of all his colleagues at RTE Dunlop accepted the offer to modernise FF's media relations.

Dunlop's sketch of the communications chaos he found inside FF in the early days is convincing. Former ministers, front benchers and elected representatives were in open warfare with sections of the Irish media. Indeed, the mutual suspicion and hostility between the party and sections of the liberal media intelligentsia (who John Waters labelled the 'Dublin 4' set) is a strong current that runs throughout the narrative and partially explains FF's embrace of modern political communication techniques and practices, though there was clearly some resistance from senior party figures.

Dunlop, as a press officer, was centrally involved in FF's election campaign in 1977. He sheds a little light on a neglected aspect of Irish politics at that time, namely the financing of political parties and links between the political and business classes. Dunlop briefly mentions the long forgotten 'Taca ' (the Gaelic word for support) initiative which solicited financial contributions 'from a new, moneyed class that had no real sympathy with the party's founding ideals and would eventually lead to its demise' (p 19). That Dunlop would later, upon leaving the civil service for a career in public relations and lobbying, be a bag man for these same moneyed interests is an irony that escapes the author in these memoires.

Taca offered monthly dinners with senior politicians in exchanged for political donations. While the scheme itself was discontinued because of the criticism it attracted, the financial links between FF and Irish businessmen survived, and were discreetly handled by Des Hanafin, who cultivated a secret list of party donors throughout he 70s and 80s. Dunlop describes the familiar purchase of political influence that pervades western democracies:

'Occasional exclusive dinner parties were held, in great secrecy, at which these unidentified [by Dunlop at least] benefactors met with the leader, and in some instances senior members of the party's front bench. These genteel and well-mannered events afforded the benefactors an opportunity to outline, without the possibility of interruption or contradiction, their "concerns" about public policy as it effected them personally or in their business…That a substantial donation to the party's coffers is forthcoming, immediately or at the next election, is regarded as merely coincidental'

Dunlop's memories of the 1977 election which saw FF re-elected to government on an overtly populist agenda contains little new for the public record. However, he displayed astute political judgement to ensure that he was appointed to the civil service as head of the Irish Government Information Service at the senior grade of assistant secretary. This insulated Dunlop from the vicissitudes of political and electoral fortune and gave him some authority.

The portrait of life inside government painted by Dunlop is pretty cynical. Ministers are often cast as the gullible pawns of their experienced civil servants, much in the vein of Yes Minister (where did Dunlop get the title for this book one wonders?). His descriptions of various political figures are often one-dimensional. Dunlop rated Brian Lenihan as a real political talent, but doesn't expand on this. He has surprisingly little to say about Dessie O'Malley, Albert Reynolds and Ray MacSharry. In fact the central characters in this story are Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey, and a key ambition of this book is to revise the popular image in Irish politics of Lynch as nice guy and Charlie Haughey as villain.

Disputes over whether Jack Lynch enjoyed a whiskey or six are hardly important. The private generosity of CJH is also of little relevance, yet these form part of the 'substance' of this book. Since its publication several other insiders have challenged Dunlop's version of events. Essentially Dunlop offers the reader a gossipy, partial account of an important period in Irish politics. He concentrates on personalities, and has virtually nothing of interest or insight to say about policy, political ideology, or the reshaping of modern Ireland in the past three decades. His forte is anecdote rather than analysis.

Another curious omission throughout this book is Dunlop's failure to assess the health of Irish political journalism. He remarks that the FF government's suspicion of the political correspondents under Haughey was counterproductive in that it bred a new generation of investigative journalists unwilling to be spoon-fed government spin. Nevertheless, there is little else that helps to explain the development of the Irish media and their role in shaping public opinion in the Irish republic.

Perhaps Dunlop is saving something for another book which might reflect on his central whistle-blowing role in the Flood tribunal (which is examining payments to politicians relating to planning issues around Dublin), his career on the other side of politics as a PR and lobbyist since the late 1980s, and his relations with the Irish business and political media. This I think could be far more revealing about the distribution of power and the shaping of policy and opinion in the Celtic Tiger than anything on offer in Yes, Taoiseach.

Added: January 13th 2005
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Language: english