Not surprisingly, Fine Gael's Limerick East by-election candidate, Senator Mary Jackman, was MC at the FG ladies' lunch in the Berkeley Court in Dublin last Friday. Finola Bruton, to the relief of many, did not deliver her usual address on the psychological state of the nation but, with an eye on the new Budget, said they would have to move to Croke Park next year as so many hundreds had turned up for the lunch.
Mary Banotti was received as if she had won the presidential election and she delivered a rousing defence of politics and the liberal agenda with reference to the recent rape victim case. She was a professional politician and proud of it and she had never heard so much total nonsense during the presidential campaign to the effect that all five candidates were involved in a way-out experience that had nothing to do with politics. Those who bitched most had no idea of the reality, of the time and effort and courage, of having to stand up again and again and argue a case, and take the abuse and come back for more. Because she was a professional she had not been cast down, but if we continued to condemn politicians, others would come in and take their place.
"I make no apology for ambition. It has always been regarded as an admired and positive characteristic among men but not among women." Has Banotti her eye on the Dail? By the next Euro election in June 1999, she will have served three terms, enough for a good pension and a move forward, perhaps.