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Des O'Malley Progressive Democrats founder has died.

  • 21-07-2021 9:59am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 4,741 ✭✭✭


    He tried to change the two party Irish political landscape and create a liberal version of Fine Gael/ Fianna Fail for those who didn't dig the civil war politics vibe from those parties.

    Didn't work obviously as there were too many career politicians in the PD's.

    And he personally held Haughey to account on numerous issues which was a good thing.

    RIP Dessie.



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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 7,667 ✭✭✭whippet


    deleted double post



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭paw patrol


    RIP he did a lot of good for politics in ireland overall a positive influence . kinda a shame the PDs didn't continue.

    although Harney made a bollox of health -



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭crossman47


    Not in every respect. She backed Prof. keane on the cancer strategy and that has been one of our great successes.



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,890 ✭✭✭Furze99


    He didn't succeed though as you say - even in last election when I look at our local ballot paper the choice is dominated by FF or FG or Ind FF or Ind FG and variations on same. The PDs were birds of a feather. Any real choice was and is largely illusory.

    Standing up to Haughey the Crook and his bullies will be what he is remembered for best.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭paw patrol



    [Quote 1] I can accept that she didn't get everything wrong. I just meant overall

    [Quote 2] He didn't succeed in the end but for a while he did. Rather try and fail than never try. I believe he was honest and on a brief recollection i don't recall too much of the FF and FG sleaze affecting the PDs (as many of them were ex FF) - but open to correction.


    apologies haven't figured out the multi quote thing yet



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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,414 ✭✭✭touts


    RIP. He filled a niche we desperately needed and still need. We needed a centre right voice proposing alternative policies on things like the economy and Dessie and the PDs provided that for a while. But the media hounded them out making them seem like facists. Now we really know what real extremists look like on both the right and the left I think history will see Dessie as a visionary.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    It shouldn't be that having deep integrity should mark someone out as an influential politician, but there we are. That's what stands out for me about Dessie, as well as his eloquence and passion in advocating the causes he believed in. "I stand by the republic," remains such a powerful piece all these decades on. RIP.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,575 ✭✭✭Economics101


    Des O'Malley was lucky: in his political heyday he did not have to put up with Twitter mobs and other sources of online abuse which are such a plague in politics to-day. Goodness knows how many decent people are deterred from entering politics in the current toxic climate.

    Having said that he did have to put up with the very real menace of CJH and his followers, and he was one of the few who were brave enough to say and do the right thing. His passing is a reminder that we need fundamentally decent people to enter politics more than ever. RIP.



  • Registered Users Posts: 84,319 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1




  • Registered Users Posts: 9,286 ✭✭✭seligehgit


    A politician of the highest integrity.


    A shining light for all those considering a political career.


    RIP.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,676 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    One of the most influential Irish men of the last 100 years.

    Took CJ to account, called SF/PIRA for what they were (murderers) and his economic policies enabled Ireland to achieve its economic potential.



  • Registered Users Posts: 93 ✭✭limerickabroad


    RIP Des . . . a beacon of integrity in Irish politics . . .

    Think this comment about the media treating the PDs 'seem like fascists' is completely wrong, tbh. - the PDs were very much known for being socially liberal and economically conservative, and were somewhat media darlings, if anything . . . didn't he split from FF on contraception, in the end?

    On another point, has there been much comment from Sinn Fein today? One thing Dessie was very much known for was his loathing of the Provisional IRA . . .



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Yes, true about him finally splitting over a vote on contraception which marked the occasion for his famous standing by the republic speech. I don't recall if that speech was carried live on tv, but i clearly remember the reaction it generated and being awestruck, probably the only Irish political speech i can remember giving me goosebumps. The Irish Times printed it in full the following day, almost a full page of the newspaper. Shortly afterwards, i attended a meeting of the PDs in my town and soon decided they weren't quite for me, but I never lost my admiration for Dessie from that day on.

    Post edited by Joe_ Public on


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,414 ✭✭✭touts


    That's the point I'm making. I always thought the treatment of the PDs was very unfair. They were centre right economically and on some social issues but on others they were very liberal. But RTE etc revelled in destroying them and portraying them unfairly as hard right.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    A true Republican who stood up to the thugs and criminals who sullied that word.



  • Registered Users Posts: 194 ✭✭XLR 8


    RIP Dessie Ó Malley. A genuinely decent politician and a really nice man. Our country is better for having had you and it's a sad place today at your loss.



  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,467 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    Des O'Malley was a politician of courage and conviction and although I was not a PDs supporter - the party was a breath of badly needed fresh air in a stagnant and very corrupt political climate in the 1980s when things in all respects looked very bleak for Ireland.

    He was a man that stood up to former Taoiseach and corrupt bully Charles Haughey in the troubled 1980s, took a hard line on the Provisional IRA as a very young Minister for Justice in the early 1970s and founded the PDs in the mid 1980s as a political alternative to the FF/FG stranglehold on Irish politics.

    RIP Des



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    RIP Des

    He was one of the good ones and Ireland is better for having him take part in our politics



  • Registered Users Posts: 58 ✭✭HoliyMoliy


    RIP



  • Posts: 6,192 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Wasnt she minister of health whom oversaw the outsourcing of cervical health smear testing with diastorus results?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 66,281 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    RIP Des.

    Didn't agree with his politics, thought he was hypocritical for political advancement at times but he did some service.



  • Registered Users Posts: 545 ✭✭✭batman75


    To become justice minister at just 31 was remarkable. Showed great courage to stand up to a political titan like Haughey. Even earlier when he ran for TD against his aunt by marriage when his uncle died. For a time the PDs look like being a formidable alternative to FF and FG before their popularity waned. Always struck me as an inherently decent man and a man of principle. We simply don't have men of his ilk anymore in Irish politics.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,094 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    He had a bad personal relationship with Haughey and others but when needed he backed him as Taoiseach, backed Albert, stool tall for Bertie Ahern, Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor knew his worth.

    He was loyal when and where it counted.


    The mark of the man.



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,381 ✭✭✭Yurt2


    The PDs were an interesting phenomenon. Credit to Des O'Malley for bringing some class of thought to stodgy civil war politics dominated by sleeven political brutes like Haughey and pinstripe molehair suit chancers like Pee Flynn.

    That said, they were a party of de-rigour economic liberalism of the late 20th century that served Ireland well until they didn't. Boston before Berlin etc etc and Harney's two tier Frankenstein health service that we're still trying to unpick.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,513 ✭✭✭Xander10


    Came across as an honest politician. Which is something rare.

    RIP



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,191 ✭✭✭RandomViewer


    Thought Noonan was in a nursing home but he showed up on the news to stick his oar in,



  • Registered Users Posts: 14,093 ✭✭✭✭Ha Long Bay



    Why did you think that and what did he say that upset you so much? RIP to DOM



  • Registered Users Posts: 91 ✭✭RamonD3


    Rare indeed to see a universally admired politician of principles. When you see the going over that James Geoghegan got for being associated with Renua, it is hard to imagine the PDs existing in this climate.



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,381 ✭✭✭Yurt2


    The PDs reached the end of the road because both FF and FG had copied their homework and all three had hitched their wagon to Blairite style economic liberalism - privatization of everything bar the cat, deregulate your granny etc. Michael McDowell took the reigns and promptly tried to carve out a strange attack dog politics going toe to toe with the Greens and anyone to the left of him economically was a Bolshevik in disguise. They ceased to have a point really and they died a natural death.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 13,676 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    In fairness, lots of Media still do this even today.

    FG is seen by RTE and others are purely right-wing, when they are clearly not, given any definition.



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