Fionnán Sheahan

Picking up a party that was almost wiped out in 2011 and bringing them back to where they are now is still in its own right a considerable achievement.

Yeah, to use a motoring analogy, he got the car out of the ditch, put it back on the road and managed to motor again.

He had many revivals.

He's shown himself to be very adept at quenching and quelling any internal dissent.

I think it has to be recalled that he's dealing with a politically...

changed and fundamentally changed Ireland.

You could argue that Bertie Ahern, when he came in in 1994 as leader of the party, he really only slowed the decline of the two major parties because there is a parallel story with Fianna Ghael.

So he's brought them into coalition with the old enemy.

But that does raise a question as to whether we should be persisting or whether the system will continue to support two major parties, much depleted major parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

John Downing, thank you.

I'm Fionnain Sheehan and today's episode of the Indo Daily was produced by Dave Hanratty, researched by Philip Coman, recorded by John Smith, with sound design by Lachlan Hart.

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Tessa, this is the first episode of Seachtain.

There are new episodes every day with stories and stories for you to listen to.

It was very interesting for me when I first heard that the Irish language was written by the Irish people.

It was written by the Irish people.

It was written by the Irish people, not by the Irish people.