Jim O'Callaghan

Fianna Fáil brought us into the European Economic Community in 1973.

And the Good Friday Agreement, we spoke about Bertie Ahern earlier on.

Good Friday Agreement ended violence on this island.

So Fianna Fáil was involved in all of them.

And I'm extremely proud of the record that Fianna Fáil has in terms of that.

Obviously, Fianna Fáil is not as strong now as it was, say, in...

2007, 2006, the global financial crisis had a significant impact on political parties around the world, particularly those that were in power at the time.

But remember the narrative in 2011 when Neil Martin took over.

Fianna Fáil's finished.

You're never getting back.

He's never going to be Taoiseach.

We're now the largest party in the Oireachtas, we're the largest party in local government, and we have, I think, the equivalent number of largest in the European Parliament.

Sometimes, with the greatest of respect to journalists, sometimes politicians are entitled to stand up for themselves.

Like Fianna Fáil has been a remarkably successful political party.

And take into account the global financial crisis and the fact that we are now the largest party in the Oireachtas.

So we're an extremely resilient party.

We've done a huge amount in this country in terms of making this country the successful post-colonial independent country that it is.

I'm reading Sean LaMasse's book at present, written by Rona McGreevy.

People forget what this country was like in, say, the 30s or the 40s, or when we got our independence.

I think there's a real benefit in Fianna Fáil because we're a centre ground national party.