{"id":952,"date":"2016-07-31T17:28:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T17:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/?p=952"},"modified":"2016-07-31T17:28:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T17:28:35","slug":"book-review-gilmore-inside-the-room-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/?p=952","title":{"rendered":"Book review – Gilmore, Inside the Room (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jack<\/a>Jack Power<\/strong> is a UCD History Joint Major student. The best book reviews written as part of the course requirements for POL30080 Irish Politics and Policy are posted here to let UCD students contribute to critical reflection on key issues in Irish political and social life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gilmore, \u00c9amon (2015) Inside the Room: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Crisis Government,<\/em> Dublin, Merrion Press.<\/p>\n

Eamon Gilmore\u2019s memoir Inside the Room,<\/em> despite its several shortcomings, provides an interesting read for any politico. The book was penned by Gilmore presumably in an attempt to justify the Labour Party\u2019s efforts in government with the public. It offers a look behind both the doors of the coalition government and into the Labour Party backroom, and if one can cut through the haze of Gilmore\u2019s own political spin, the book can go a long way to explaining the Labour Party\u2019s fall from grace.<\/p>\n

The book comes out of the Fine Gael-Labour 2011 coalition government and gives an accurate insight into the political context of the time. But written perhaps prematurely, it bears much of the situational residue from the political landscape within the government trenches and thus lacks in reflection. The purpose was no doubt to set the record straight on Labour\u2019s time in government, but it reads as an exercise in self-defence and political spin. The repetitive message of \u2018jobs jobs jobs\u2019 fits Gilmore\u2019s own concocted narrative that the first port of call of a socialist is to ensure job creation and national economic conditions that will provide good wages. This angling from Gilmore to try and square the austerity policies of the coalition with the ideology of the left runs throughout the book, and while it wears thin on the reader at times, it provides an interesting insight into the perhaps where it all went wrong for the Labour party in office. Most crucially for Labour, it seems they lost the PR battle with the public.<\/p>\n

\u2018Often in politics, it is not what it said that matters, but what is heard\u2019 \u2013 this is Gilmore\u2019s most prophetic line on the election promise of \u2018Labour\u2019s way or Frankfurt\u2019s way\u2019. The former party leader outlines how his punchy election slogan was meant to be a strong call for a growth-centred approach to the Irish financial crisis, but was interpreted by voters as a promise to burn the bondholders. The failure of clarity of communication meant that even when the Troika did move to a more growth-based solution, and relaxed the pressure on the Irish government to pursue \u2018internal devaluation\u2019, it was seen as a loss for Labour rather than a victory.<\/p>\n

Gilmore\u2019s analysis of the Programme for Government negotiated between Labour and Fine Gael in 2011 highlights areas in which Labour should have received credit from the electorate but did not. They moderated Fine Gael\u2019s plans to reduce the national budget deficit primarily by cutting public services rather than raising taxes: pressure from Labour reduced that ratio from 3:1 to closer to 2:1. Yet Labour bore the brunt of the vitriol over the cuts to public spending that did take place, and received no plaudits for the cuts or reductions they prevented. The junior coalition partner in Irish politics often falls victim to this fate. Working with limited resources and absorbed with the time-consuming responsibilities of governing, the parliamentary Labour Party did not look up from their desks until it was too late and the tide of public opinion had turned irretrievably against them.<\/p>\n

The within-coalition political jostling between Labour and Fine Gael also provides the most interesting and candid sections of the book in Chapters 6, 7 and 8. In contrast to Labour, Fine Gael put tremendous effort during their time in government into selling their message of job growth. Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were relentless over the five years in trumpeting jobs announcements and unveiling new business endeavours. Gilmore attempts to emphasise his own overlooked role as Minister for Foreign Affairs in lobbying and reaching out to Ireland\u2019s business-world diaspora to help the country get back on its feet. Much of this work was done in private meetings, at state dinners, and in embassies across the world \u2013 all far removed from the public eye. The disconnect between what Labour were doing and what the increasingly disenfranchised voters were seeing meant that Fine Gael owned the narrative of job creation and recovery as their own, and this tended to sideline Labour\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s woes in coalition stem from experiences such as this: they failed to associate any of the \u2018wins\u2019 of the government with their own party. Much of the social and progressive reform of the government were driven behind the scenes by passionate Labour representatives, but this didn\u2019t translate into success stories for the party in the eyes of the public. The Marriage Equality referendum, the Protection of Life Bill, and the Constitutional Convention were all Labour policies for which that the party received little gratitude from the electorate. The problem, which Gilmore\u2019s book reveals whether it intends to or not, was that Fine Gael were able to co-opt the good news stories and elbow Labour out of the frame. Labour seemingly got no credit either for the hard-line Fine Gael policy preferences it prevented, or for the Labour party reforms it did achieve.<\/p>\n

Inside the Room<\/em> is therefore itself an example of the Labour Party\u2019s failings. Gilmore\u2019s tone at times reveals a frustration or arrogance when addressing \u2018the people\u2019. The idea that the electorate simply didn\u2019t understand the good Labour has done for them fed into a contempt for their own voters within the party, and this only put further distance between Labour and its support base, especially among the working class. The PR and communications ball was ultimately and fatally dropped by Labour in the chaos of what was at times a crisis cabinet during 2011 and 2012: amid continuing cuts and austerity, the party was all too easily vilified by its supporters. Gilmore\u2019s efforts at outlining Labour\u2019s positive impact in office and its real success stories \u2013 while valid \u2013 simply come off as more political spin, self-serving in nature. This only presses home the point that when the tide of public opinion turns against you politically, it is often all but impossible to turn it back. Inside the Room<\/em> then, while serving as Gilmore\u2019s own political obituary, should be a reminder and a warning to any future junior coalition partner. The act of governing while maintaining your support among voters is more an art of public relations than of politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Power is a UCD History Joint Major student. The best book reviews written as part of the course requirements for POL30080 Irish Politics and Policy are posted here to let UCD students contribute to critical reflection on key issues … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ucd-spire-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":973,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}