Irish government

Below is a profile of some of the more famous and infamous Irish coaliton governments...

Ireland and coalitions

With a view to understanding why these coalitions have come about and perhaps give us an indication of where coalitions will take us in the future.

Since 1948, the year of the first coalition government in Ireland, all the main parties have been involved in some form of coalition government at some stage, governments which have suffered mixed fortunes to say the least.

1948: Fine Gael, Labour, Clann na Poblachta, Clann na Talmhan, National Labour and Independents

The first proper coalition government in Ireland took power in May 1948 (Fianna Fail had coalesced with Labour for 3 months in 1932). Despite the wide ideological spectrum of the involved parties (Fine Gael favoured business, Clann na Talmhan were the Farmers Party, Labour were the urban party and Clann na Poblachta were republican socialists), a mutual desire to oust Eamon deValera from power prompted them to come together. They achieved much in their 3 year term. However the fall of the government was prompted by the church's poor reaction to The Mother and Child Scheme, which would have given free medical care to mothers and their children. In the 1951 election Fianna Fail regained power.

1973: Fine Gael/Labour

After 16 years of Fianna Fail government, Liam Cosgrove took over as Taoiseach in 1973 as part of a "National Coalition" comprised of Fine Gael and Labour. It was generally seen as an effective government, but it too was beset with foreign problems, like that of the oil crisis and economic slump of the 70s and domestic problems such as "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. They also lost popularity when the Defence Minister called President Cearbhaill O' Dalaigh "a thundering disgrace", which caused him to resign. As a result of all these factors the National Coalition suffered a bad defeat at the hands of Fianna Fáil at the 1977 election.

1989: Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats

This coalition was highly controversial as one of the "core principles" of Fianna Fáil party policy was that they would never coalesce. However in 1989 they did just that with the Progressive Democrats, a party that broke off from Fianna Fáil. In many ways the coalition was the end of Haughey's career. Albert Reynolds challenged his leadership and Haughey resigned. Soon after Reynolds took over, the PD's withdrew from government and soon after there was a general election.

1992: Fianna Fáil/Labour

In that election of 1992, Labour did incredibly well, but shocked many when they "jumped into bed" with Fianna Fáil after the election. Their main achievement was the IRA ceasefire in 1994, but this coalition was not to last. Reynolds and Labour leader Dick Spring fell out and Reynolds resigned. Spring then decided to cease the coalition with Fianna Fáil and jump ship to form a coalition with Fine Gael and Democratic Left.

1994: Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left

With Dick Spring's shock decision to coalesce with Fine Gael, John Bruton found himself as Taoiseach of the new "Rainbow Coalition". This coalition is remembered mainly for its ratification of the divorce referendum, their work on the IRA ceasefire and the northern peace process, as well as the emergence of the Celtic Tiger. With an election looming in 1997, voters reacted poorly to Dick Spring's fickleness in changing parties and John Bruton's lack of personal popularity and voted them out of government, with Fianna Fail picking up 79 of the 166 seats.

Since then it has been a Fianna Fáil/PD government, but what does the future hold?

Well, in a recent poll, 30% of voters want to continue with the FF/PD alliance, but 25% wish to have varying combinations of a coalition between Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party.

By 2007, Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte's new "Rainbow coalition" may pick up enough seats to form government, but they'd do well to remember the mistakes of previous coalitions and hope they don't become another casualty of politics most fickle aspect. As for Fianna Fáil, it seems unlikely that they will wish to continue with the PD's, given recent overtures towards Sinn Féin and constant squabbling with their government partners. If Sinn Féin move away completely from violence as they are being encouraged to, we could well see a brand new coalition in the not too distant future...

By: Patrick Duffy

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