FF councillor in Clara refers to Micheál Martin as a 'dictator'
By Rebekah O'Reilly
Voicing deep unhappiness with the leadership of his party, Clara Fianna Fáil councillor Frank Moran this week referred to Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin as a 'dictator'.
In a Facebook post, Cllr Moran wrote: "The onlookers, hurlers, high stoolers get up of your arse, put your name forward and do better [to] represent the people. I’d support your efforts.
"I’m a Fianna Fáil councillor, however [I'm] not one bit happy with the way our leader (dictator) led the presidential campaign."
The Offaly councillor continued by stating that there were some unelected members of the Fianna Fáil party which "need to go and respect the grassroots".
When he was contacted by the Offaly Independent earlier this week, Fianna Fáil TD Tony McCormack said members of the party wanted a greater say in presidential nominations in the future.
Deputy McCormack added that party members were hurt over Jim Gavin's 'disastrous' presidential campaign, and that there was now a review taking place of Fianna Fail's whole election process.
He stressed that there was frustration among members and councillors at being excluded from selecting the presidential candidate, noting there has been a call for greater internal democracy in future candidate selections.
"A lot of our members out there are very, very hurt over the whole situation. They feel as members, they should have a say in who runs in the presidential election," Deputy McCormack said.
“Our councillors do an awful lot of hard work for us on the ground, and they feel that they should have a say in it too. I would hope that the review comes back with recommendations that the membership and councillors get an opportunity to have their voices heard."
The Jim Gavin nomination has led to increased pressure on Taoiseach and party leader Micheál Martin. When asked about his views on Mr Martin, McCormack said it was a time for calm reflection rather than a change in leadership.
"We need to have steady heads, and to sit down and be rational," he said. "It wouldn’t be sensible to be looking for somebody’s head at this stage."
Deputy McCormack added that, instead of looking for a change of leadership, the party needed to focus on the job they were elected by the people to do.
"People at the end of the day put us into government to do a job. We need to look after the programme for government that we have put in place.
“The big ticket items we need to deal with now are infrastructure, roads, water, power. We need to make sure that we get building houses.”
Attempts were made to contact Midlands-North West Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen for this article, but a spokesperson for the local MEP said he didn't wish to comment.