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Just listening to the Tom Mcgurk and someone made a point about the deportation of the Roma Gypsies. If McDowell had been the person who had made the decision which most politicians would have made. People would be crucifying McDowell in the media. Yet Brian Lenihan does it and the media agrees with it.
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I don’t think that’s true and it just feeds into the growing myth of McDowell being a misunderstood politician who couldn’t do wrong (but was always accused of it).
Both men have different styles and that became apparent in this.
Lenihan did his media appearances but stayed out of the general squabble - most importantly he waited until he could legally deport them. This meant he would avoid any credible legal challenges to his deportation orders, he gave at least the impression of considering what to do and not rushing into things and he avoided talk about re-working the existing legislation (even though doing this would deflect criticism away from him and to… wait for it… McDowell).
You know as well as I do that McDowell wouldn’t have done this - he would have been far more prominent in the debate and would have allowed himself to become far more polarising on the issue. He probably would have waited just as long to deport them, but the difference is he would have spoken about his plans to do so straight away - this means that the media would be asking the same question for every day that followed until they were deported - “Why do we have to wait 3 months if they’re not entitled to jobs or welfare?”. Answering that would just put McDowell in a corner.
McDowell lived by the sword and died by it. Either he was totally incompetent, or he attempted to make himself the story time after time. McDowell Versus Drugs. McDowell Versus The Far Left. McDowell attacked by Green Party Supporters. McDowell Versus the IRA. McDowell versus Refugees.
You’re probably right that there would have been a different reaction to the move, at least in certain quarters, if McDowell had been the minister, but that would have because of the approach he took to his job.
Niall, McDowell was brilliant at tackling asylum abuse in this country. He did more for the Irish people in this regard than any other minister for justice. Michael McDowell sent the bogus asylum cheats back to where they should have been deported when they came to this country hoping they’ll get a soft touch.
The Irish left (composed mainly of cranks!) hated him so much because of this and they did anything they could to try to pull him down in the media. The majority of Irish people were actually on his side when he brought the Citizenship Referendum to end the abuse of the system by refugee spongers. Also, he didn’t loose out on the ground that you cited. He lost out because there was a resurgence of support for the main political parties like FF and FG at the expense of all of the smaller parties. Even the independents as well as your friend Higgins lost their seats because of this.